Flash gets H.264 support

Adobe on Tuesday announced support for the H.264 video codec in its latest update to Adobe Flash Player 9 software, code-named Moviestar. The free beta update will bring support for H.264 video--which used in both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players -- as well as offers support for High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support. Adobe said the update also brings hardware-accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback (although older release notes that these features may have been previously available). The company promised that the latest update for Adobe Flash Player 9 will be available in beta for immediate download later today on Adobe Labs adn will be supported by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and applications developed with Adobe AIR software, including Adobe Media Player.

Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system application runtime for building and deploying rich Internet applications to the desktop, while Adobe Media Player, which leverages the Flash architecture, delivers video, while offering content publishers new abilities to distribute, track and build businesses around their media assets.

“Adobe is committed to providing a seamless creation-to-playback solution that allows creatives and developers to produce video and rich-media once, and then deploy that content across the widest array of distribution and playback environments,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. “Already a broadly adopted industry standard, the inclusion of the H.264 codec in Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, the Creative Suite® product line, and the upcoming Adobe Media Player will accelerate customer workflows, enabling the creation and repurpose of high-quality Web video content without extra development costs.”
Broader Reach for Video Consumers

Adobe said that Flash Player content reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops; however, a version is not yet available for Apple's iPhone mobile device.

The beta will be released on Tuesday, while a final release is expected to be available via update in the fall. Demonstrations of Adobe Flash Media Server and Adobe Flash Media Encoder supporting the new codecs will be held during the IBC 2007 at the RAI Exhibition and Congress Center in Amsterdam, September 7- 11 (Stand 7.721) and again at the Adobe MAX conference in Chicago, which begins September 30th.

by MacNN Staff