The first release candidate (RC) of Microsoft’s Silverlight 1.0 has hit the web and this weekend I decided to take a closer look. I fiddled with it a few months ago but got too busy to pick it up again until now. Tim Sneath has the low-down on Silverlight 1.0 RC1. From a heads up by Somasegar, I installed the latest Expression bits (Expression Media Encoder and Expression Blend 2.0) and started playing with my first Silverlight project that works.

I took the teaser video for The Dark Knight I posted about yesterday and decided I wanted to “present” the teaser to readers using Microsoft Silverlight.

Check out The Dark Knight Teaser Trailer presented with Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 RC1.

I used a combination of Microsoft Expression tools to do some basic stuff. I used the Expression Media Encoder to encode and create the Silverlight project and webpage, I used Expression Web to edit the HTML webpage by adding my own text and title, and I used Expression Blend 2.0 to add text to the actual player itself. You can use Expression Blend to do far more advanced things like creating your own player with  Expression Design. I then uploaded the bits to the site and there we go! Was pretty easy.

My next move is to experiment with my own recorded video content with my HD camcorder and possibly creating my own player.

I was incredibly surprised on how easy it was to create and upload video presented using Silverlight. I could never figure out Flash and how to use Flash and with Silverlight I was able to figure it all out in a matter of minutes.

When viewing the video, you will be prompted to download and install Silverlight 1.0 RC1 which allows you to view the video in Internet Explorer and Firefox. If you are on a Mac and using Safari, you should also be prompted to download and install Silverlight 1.0 RC1 as well.