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How do I get rid of the white screen when I've accessed Netflix?

dfraser1959
dfraser1959
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I started a 30 day trial offer with Netflix, put in four potential users in my household. It asked what titles I liked from a selection of about 30. I picked a movie, Homefront, that I wanted to watch, pressed on the title, then a white screen comes up. I can hear the audio portion, but not the picture. Then a lego icon comes on at the top of the screen, says activate silverlight, even when I did that, nothing happened. What do I do to get rid of the white screen so that I can watch the movie?

I started a 30 day trial offer with Netflix, put in four potential users in my household. It asked what titles I liked from a selection of about 30. I picked a movie, Homefront, that I wanted to watch, pressed on the title, then a white screen comes up. I can hear the audio portion, but not the picture. Then a lego icon comes on at the top of the screen, says activate silverlight, even when I did that, nothing happened. What do I do to get rid of the white screen so that I can watch the movie?

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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It sounds (ha ha) like Silverlight is loading and playing, just not the video.

Could you test Netflix in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and disable hardware acceleration and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • (menu bar) Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

Not all add-ons are disabled: Flash, Silverlight, and other plugins still run

After Firefox shuts down, a small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset).

Any difference?

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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A few other thoughts:

(1) An update may be available to your version of Silverlight. You could check here: http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

(2) In past threads, some third party software seemed to interfere with Netflix. You might check through the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, for anything unrecognized. Clicking the "Installed on" column heading is helpful in spotting bundled items that snuck in with something else.

Earlier thread: Netflix Shows Only Blank Screen

(3) When I search around on the web, this seems to occur randomly to some users for some videos but not others. If yours is intermittent, you could search around for tips on how to get around it for the shows/films important to you.