Adobe's 'MovieStar'

Adobe today announced the latest version of its near ubiquitous Web
video software, Adobe Flash Player 9. It's codenamed Moviestar,
because it includes H.264 standard video support – the same standard
deployed in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players. In other
words, the quality of video has been substantially improved from the
previous version of Flash Player 9. Also added to the mix is High
Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support and "hardware accelerated,
multi-core enhanced full screen video playback".

Adobe claims that these advancements will extend their leadership
position in web video "by enabling the delivery of HD television
quality and premium audio content".

The new Flash Player will be available later today as a beta at Adobe
Labs - and the final release is slated to be available in the fall
(September - November). The last big update to Flash Player was the
launch of Flash 9 in June 2006.
Adobe: This is Tipping Point for H.264

I spoke to Mark Randall, Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media at Adobe,
about the news. He told me there were three main points to the
Moviestar release:

1) The H.264 support means superior video quality; it is also an open standard.

2) High Efficiency Advanced Audio is, says Mark Randall, a "successor
to MP3". He said it is a higher quality audio, but at a lower bit
rate.

3) It means "hardware acceleration" for Web video.

Randall also said that this represents a tipping point for the H.264
standard, because now Flash Player is supporting it as well Blu-Ray -
two big industry players.
Richer Platform for Online Video Producers

As well as the consumer benefits, this also gives online video
companies a platform to deliver richer Flash experiences on the
desktop, Web and H.264 ready consumer devices. As well as the new
Flash Player, H.264 playback will be supported by the Adobe Integrated
Runtime (AIR - a platform to create rich Internet applications to the
desktop) and applications developed with Adobe AIR software, including
Adobe Media Player in late April.

Higher quality online video is great news for consumers and producers
alike - especially in a near ubiquitous media player like Flash
Player, which is used on YouTube, MySpace and other major platforms.