Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Adobe Makes Moviestar

High-definition video isn’t just for your TV screen: Adobe now hopes to bring it to the ‘net via an upcoming version of its popular Flash Player that will use the H.264 video standard to stream high definition-quality video on Websites like YouTube.

Cleverly codenamed “Moviestar”, the upgrade for Adobe Flash Player 9 will offer, in addition to higher quality video, things like more enhanced full-screen playback. It could also serve as a stepping stone toward better quality video playback on portable devices that are compatible with the H.264 video format. Audio upgrades will include added support for High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC).

I can absolutely see IT nuts connecting their PCs to large-screen flat-panel displays, then watching streaming video over the ‘net while curled up on the couch or in bed. I'm not saying such an activity would take over regular TV/movie watching, but can you imagine being able to pick and choose specific news broadcasts from a network’s Website, then watching them in high-definition on a large-screen TV; or even a widescreen PC monitor? This move is just one more in the direction toward the merging of the consumer electronics and information technology worlds.

Moviestar is currently available in the beta testing stage at http://labs.adobe.com/, and the full version is scheduled to be available by the fall.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why wait for the Beta version of Flash when you can get Quicktime at the Apple site and use it now.