As part of the Streaming Media East conference in New York, Adobe has unveiled "Strobe," the "open framework" for its Flash video player that the company first announced last month. It's expected to be available in the third quarter of this year.
Since you were probably wondering: No, Adobe is not tweaking the pronunciation of "Strobe" so that it rhymes. Thank goodness.
But here's what it is: Strobe is a product and architecture for accompanying plug-ins based on Adobe's Flash technology that lets a company build a custom video player more easily, should it want to host online videos in-house rather than relying on YouTube or its ilk.
While Adobe's ActionScript language is "very flexible," explained Jennifer Taylor, director of product management for Flash distribution, "everybody's sort of had to recreate that from scratch, and as a result it's taken people longer than they've wanted to to to get their video players up to get their video online."
The meat of Tuesday's announcement at Streaming Media East is that a host of big new partners are on board, from content delivery networks to analytics firms. The full list of supporters is Adap.tv, Akamai, Blip.tv, Brightcove, CDNetworks, Digital Smiths, Eyewonder, GlanceGuide, Grab Media, Incited Media, iStreamplanet, KickApps, Level3, Limelight Networks, Multicast, Nielsen, Omniture, Panache, PointRoll, ScanScout, Thumbplay, Visible Measures, and YuMe.
Strobe is "taking the mystery out of creating video players, and also streamlining and simplifying that process, so people can do it much faster than they could before," Taylor said. She added that ComScore statistics have said that Flash is used to serve up 80 percent of all online videos.
Adobe is calling Strobe an "open framework" and is inviting developers to contribute, but has not finalized the way that it will be licensed. There may, for example, be an open source version that developers are invited to try out, test, and build on, but the version that will be downloadable at Adobe.com may haev a different license. This, Adobe representatives said in an e-mail to CNET News, would "take all the best pieces of the open source code, bundled with plug-ins," but that it would be protected to "prevent modifications, breaking plug-ins and prevent competing branding."
Company representatives followed up later on Tuesday to clarify that "the intent is to work with a license that allows for liberal use and innovation."
But regardless of license, the Strobe framework will be free, and Adobe does not have plans to charge for it. "Our intent is to not monetize Strobe directly," Taylor said. "Obviously, we anticipate and hope that Strobe will help accelerate the adoption of Flash video, and the rising tide helps all boats: it's going to help our partners and those who provide plug-ins for the framework."
This post was updated at 1:43 p.m. PT to clarify the use of open source technology in Strobe.
Reddit has a new dedicated video site called Reddit.tv for clips that have become popular on its main page, as well as on its "sub-Reddit" categories. It consists of a simple video player that streams in clips, along with a playlist that lets you jump around. Nearly all of the ones I saw were from YouTube, but there were a few from Vimeo as well. There's also the option to send the video you're watching as a Twitter message, which links back to the Reddit.tv player. Users of Ffwd's Twitmatic will feel right at home.
The site is a little more than just a video playlist though. It's also linking to the source discussion on Reddit, as well as highlighting the top-rated user comment. It's a tad sparse considering the richness of a good Reddit comment thread (which can be several hundred comments long), but for casual users who don't know much about Reddit, it's a nice way to get them in the door.
Competitor Digg has had its own video subsection since late 2006, which simply takes all the popular videos from its various categories and puts them on one page; however it doesn't have a unified player. The closest it comes is by letting users play the videos right on the site as an overlay if the video creators have allowed for embedding off-site.
Reddit.tv showcases all the videos made popular on Reddit along with its sub-sections and highlights user discussions that surround them.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Amazon Video on Demand HD, as it appears on the Roku Digital Video Player
(Credit: Roku/Amazon)It's been a long time in coming, but Amazon Video on Demand is finally available in high-def. Owners of TiVo HD/Series 3 DVRs, the Roku Digital Video Player, the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link, and Panasonic VieraCast TVs (and, presumably, VieraCast-enabled Blu-ray players) will be the first to enjoy Amazon's content in HD (software updates to enable HD viewing on those products should be available imminently). Likewise, Windows and Mac users will also get access to HD video content via Amazon's Web site.
As with competing services, HD movie rentals will cost $3.99 to $4.99, and TV episodes will be available for purchase for $2.99 each (HD movie purchases currently won't be available). More than 500 HD movies and TV shows will be available initially, encompassing content from most major studios, including Warner, Sony Pictures, MGM, Paramount, and Universal. TiVo is pledging that the "vast majority of titles" on its boxes will offer Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtracks.
CNET was able to get a sneak preview of the Amazon HD offerings on the Roku box last week. For existing users, it's a pretty seamless upgrade: new HD-specific filters for HD movies and TV shows are available, so there's no need to go hunting and pecking for high-def content.
Quality on the Roku box was very good--the 720p video is closer to that of a really good DVD, but it's definitely superior to the standard-definition content that's available. We didn't detect any major difference between the quality of Netflix and the Amazon HD offerings on the Roku, but the Amazon interface allows you to choose rentals or purchases directly from the onscreen interface, whereas Netflix requires you to manage your viewing queue via a PC.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past three years you've watched a YouTube video off of YouTube.com. So many viewers watch videos this way (YouTube says it's 44 percent of viewership), the company has overhauled its player, making several of the site's latest features available off of YouTube's site.
The biggest change is the inclusion of annotations and closed captions, meaning if you're watching a video that has them added you'll see them as the video plays. This includes the latest translation feature too, so if you're watching a foreign video with foreign subtitles you can translate it in real-time.
Additionally, YouTube now includes a search bar on the top of the player, which appears with related videos as soon as you finish watching. The results show up within the player, so if you've got an embedded video on your blog it's not going to jettison your users somewhere else.
Still missing from the embedded player is a way to tweak between low and high quality, view and leave comments, and get the quick links to share videos on social networks--all things you can do on YouTube's site.
You can see a quick overview of the new tweaks in the video below:
MxTube is a fantastic new native application for jailbroken iPhones. If you're one of the lucky few with a jailbroken handset and the installer app, you'll find MxTube in the recent packages section as of last night. The app is fairly similar to the iPhone's native YouTube video viewer with the added benefit of being able to download entire clips and save them to your phone's memory for offline viewing.
Downloaded videos don't show up to those in your regular video library, and won't sync up into iTunes the next time you plug in your phone, but they can be deleted one at a time just like regular video files in case you start running short on space.
The app has a search tool that lets you hunt for videos, and each one has the option to download the higher or lower quality version in case you feel like trying to save space. Downloads can be stacked up, although in its current release, having more than one video in the download queue seems to crash it.
Speaking of crashes, the app is has a handful of bugs that make it a little volatile, including one that doesn't let you exit playing videos unless you hit the home button. Otherwise it's a fantastic tool for grabbing a ton of free video content without having to deal with the molasseslike speeds of EDGE or third-party ripping tools that require syncing with iTunes to transfer content.
I've embedded a demo from the creator of the app after the break.
... Read more
SplashCast is launching a handful of updates to its player this morning. The biggest is inline chat, which was essentially the next step after last month's inclusion of inline text, voice, and video commenting. Although this new feature isn't rolling out to everyone right away--the company is beginning with the branded artist channels launched a few months back. To jump into a chat, there's a simple "join chat" button on the bottom-left-hand side of the player. Clicking it takes you right in to an IRC-style simple chat.
Want to Twitter about the show you're watching? You can now do it right inside of Twitter.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Also new is a feature called FanCast which is kind of like Kyte.TV in that you can give your users an e-mail address to send photos and videos, and they'll go up in an ad-hoc playlist made available to all. If you're the channel owner, you can also moderate that content, keeping some amount of editorial control over what your viewers are adding to the conversation.
SplashCast is also adding integration to Twitter. The service gets its very own icon, which, when clicked, lets you log in to your Twitter account and post a brief note along with a link to the show as a status update. If you're already using another service like TwitThis (review), this might not be so important, but unlike sharing the whole player, you can drill down and share any piece of media therein.
I've embedded an example player after the break. To view it, click the read more button below.
... Read more
Video hosting and mashup solution SplashCast is launching an upgrade to their video player tomorrow morning. The most noticeable change is a new YouTube-ish playlist of video thumbnails in the bottom 20 percent of the viewer, which can be pulled up and dismissed at the user's discretion. Previously, users were limited to a channel-view text list (which is still available), but my bet is that users will feel at home with this newer navigation.
The real killer application, however, is the inline commenting system which gives users three ways to leave their feedback: a video clip (from a Webcam or hard drive), text, and voice. All three remain in the same section, and there's no user registration required to leave your two cents. Recording and playing video in the player is really simple, and looks pretty good.
There are a few other mentionable tweaks, including a pause button, an inline "e-mail this" tool to share show segments or entire programs with friends, and a full screen button that remains no matter what type of program you're viewing (not just videos and photos). There's also a new "follow me" button which lets you know when the program's creator publishes new shows. It's a little bit like the channel-creator subscriptions with YouTube.
SplashCast is planning to introduce a mobile upload feature to its platform within a month, so users will be able to drop photos and video clips into their channels from a mobile phone--a lot like Kyte.tv (review). There will also be more celebrity channels, and the potential for Twitter integration and live user chat, similar to Pikspot's player.
You can now check out a video playlist with thumbnails that move a little bit like the dock in Mac OS X.
(Credit: CNET Networks)- prev
- 1
- next
