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It's no secret that the iPhone doesn't support the Flash Player and many speculate that it will never happen. This limits the availability of online video content mainly to YouTube which encodes their videos in the advanced H.264 format. But Blip.tv has created a "magic" workaround that embeds the .m4v QuickTime movie within code that makes their videos viewable on the device.
This video by Blip.tv CTO and co-founder Justin Day below that demonstrates how to create a "magic iPhone embed."
As Blip CEO Mike Hudack told Wired.com, "We think it's very important that iPhone users be able to enjoy a full Web experience, including video playback. Just as important, show creators should be able to distribute video everywhere that people watch video. This is a meaningful step forward."
Ryan Lawler of Contentinople notes that, "With the new iPhone embed, Blip.tv producers will still be able to cash in on advertising that runs against their content. In addition to their videos, all ads that are sold to run up against Blip.tv video content will also be iPhone-friendly."
Adobe Media Player is finally here and it sets a new standard for the delivery of video content in a rich media experience for both online and offline viewing. I just read posts by Dan Rayburn, Andy Plesser and Duncan Reily who have all reported that it's official and now available for public download. So without hesitation I raced over to Adobe and downloaded it myself to get the party started. I've already set up a few subscriptions including Beet.TV, The GigaOm Show and The Digg Reel just to name a few but there's plenty more to choose from including the Twilight Zone channel or Yo' MTV Raps.
Silicon Alley Insider reported a few days ago thatAdobe Media Player (AMP) would be released to the public this week and it would offer many new features. In the report Michael Learmonth explained that Adobe Media Player is different from other players by offering playback of high quality MPEG-4 content and unlike other players like Joost or Blinkx, also Adobe will not have to deal with big bandwidth costs since the content is downloaded and played back locally but will see only a small cut in advertising revenue since most of that will go to content owners, and the new player will most likely be widely adopted with since people are accustomed to Flash Player downloads and will see AMP as an upgrade option.
A pre-release version of AMP had already available at Adobe Labs and had been used to test user experience and for content owners to test the RSS feeds. The new player is based on Adode Air which enables content to be viewed on-line and off-line. With AMP you'll be able to add your own RSS feeds to get automatic content downloads. You'll also be able to play .flv files outside of the browser, something you haven't been able to do before with out the aid of another player.
Andy Plesser notes, "Unlike iTunes, which provides little opportunities for video producers to monetize through advertising, the AMP platform is highly customizable. AMP supports banner advertising and all sorts of in-stream media. (Implementation is not that simple and requires some coding skills.)"
Dan Rayburn explains, "One of the biggest things that Adobe is promoting about the new player is the ability for you to be able search within the player for free content you can to subscribe to and the new features for monetization and branding options. Content owners now have the ability to take downloadable Flash content and include offline advertising, customize the look of the player and collect measurement data of offline content consumption."
Two video interviews with Ashley Still, Adobe Sr. Product manager that are featured below. One is from Webware.com by Rafe Needlemanwho says, "I see AMP as a competitor to Hulu (related stories), although Adobe's Ashley Manning Still, who demonstrated the product for me, considers Hulu--an online-only Flash-based player--as complementary or perhaps a partner. But since both AMP and Hulu are competing for the same advertising revenues, I'd say that puts them at odds."
Ashley Still contended that Hulu is big partner with Adobe while Joost is a competitor and that Adobe is an enabling technology provider and will be adding more content partners in the future.
Robert Scoble also interviewed Ashley Still in this Qik video who says for content owners it's a compelling way to redistribute content and Adobe is looking at this as a big distribution platform. It will have free subscriptions to shows and along with different pricing structures to purchase content. There is a SDK that will be available but no APIs as of yet but you'll be able to brand your player. Different resolutions will be supported from SD to HD video all the way up to 1080p. It will work on Mac and Windows and Linux soon.
Adobe also debuts Adobe TV which Duncan Reily notes, "Adobe TV is available at tv.adobe.com or as a network in Adobe Media Player and offers “expert instruction and original series programming” about Adobe products. Adobe TV offers four channels targeted at Photographers, Designers, Video Professionals, and Developers. Content comes from “Adobe evangelists, leading trainers, subject matter experts, and luminaries.” Over 200 videos are available for the launch."
Online video quality is on the rise this year now that Flash Player supports playback of H.264. Adobe announced this last December with it's release of Flash Player 9 and a growing number of video distribution platforms now offer high quality and high definition H.264 encoded video.
Plesser described the video workflow as only a few step process (1) shoot the video (2) edit video with Apple's Final Cut Pro 6 (3) export H.264 encoded .mov file. For producers and editors this really streamlines the process since you don't have to render a file that would then need to be imported into a stand alone compression program. He included this video of a conversation he had with Kevin Towes Adobe's Technical Product manager for Flash Media Server (FMS) who as Plesser says, "gives an overview of the evolution of the Adobe Flash Player and the various codecs that have been used over the years. He explains the significance of the introduction of H.264."
It's a big day for online video because H.264 playback within the Flash player has finally arrived. Today, Adobe released the much anticipated update to it's streaming media line of products with the new Flash Player 9 Update 3, which now supports the H.264 and VP6-S codecs, both capable of efficiently streaming high definition content via the new Flash Media Server 3 (FMS). They also dramatically slashed the price of the FMS 3 to $995 for unlimited connections paving the way for High Definition H.264 streaming.
Why is this important? In short, one word - convergence.
H.264, or AVC (Advanced Video Coding), is the scalable video compression component of MPEG 4 (Part 10) and the core of HD media like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. This is the first public version of Flash Player 9 to include support for H.264 HD video playback, which means we could be seeing HD video at 1080P on YouTube and everywhere else in the near future. Along with the H.264 video support, Flash Player 9 also supports High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio encoding, the same audio encoding format used by iTunes.
It's no secret that the iPhone doesn't support the Flash Player and many speculate that it will never happen. This limits the availability of online video content mainly to YouTube which encodes their videos in the advanced H.264 format. But Blip.tv has created a "magic" workaround that embeds the .m4v QuickTime movie within code that makes their videos viewable on the device.
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