Microsoft has announced the first beta release of Silverlight 5 today. According to TNW, the beta download is available on the official Silverlight site.
The Silverlight 5 beta adds a number of new features and capabilities, which include, graphic improvements and performance improvements such as network latency reduction and 64-bit support.
The official site also shows off some of the main new features aimed at helping developers reach new heights in delivering rich Internet based applications. They include:
- Hardware Decode and presentation of H.264 improve performance for lower-power devices to render high-definition video using GPU support.
- TrickPlay allows video to be played at different speeds and supports fast-forward and rewind. At up to twice the speed, audio pitch correction allows users to watch videos while preserving a normal audio pitch.
- Improved power awareness prevents the screen saver from being shown while watching video and allows the computer to sleep when video is not active.
- Remote-control support allows users to control media playback.
- Digital rights management advancements allow seamless switching between DRM media sources.
While the official beta site mentions additional features such as:
- XAML Debugging with breakpoints for binding debugging
- Implicit data templates for easy UI reuse
- Double (and multi) click support
- GPU-accelerated XNA-compatible 3D and immediate-mode 2D API
- Low-latency sound effects and WAV support
- Real operating system windows and multi-display support
Now live, the Silverlight 5 beta can be downloaded directly from the MSDN Microsoft Silverlight website. Meanwhile, Silverlight team member Tim Heuer has posted a guide to the new features that the Silverlight 5 beta has to offer.