October 12th, 2007
Commoditizing high quality video
Is the new version of the Flash Player, which supports HD quality video and the H.264 codec, making high quality video on the web a commodity? Erick Schonfeld seems to think so. He’s partly correct when he says that Joost’s high quality advantage is being eroded as the Flash Player pushes further into high quality territory. Between Silverlight and Flash, most of the video assets that exist on the web can now be shown in a high quality, easy to consume format. Joost’s peer-to-peer technology is also being challenged with things like BitTorrent DNA (as TechCrunch notes) but also by advancements in the Flash Player like Pacifica (P2P data is not currently available, but is on the roadmap).
I still think Joost has a place because of its role on the desktop. People like Andy Plesser have been exploring and reporting on a lot of new ways to monetize video content. We haven’t quite figured it out on the desktop yet (in my opinion) but we will. Once you get the users to install something, you know you have them hooked and conversion rates as well as brand awareness should be better. Not to mention the added functionality of being able to take DRMed shows offline. Adobe sees the value in this and has released the Adobe Media Player on labs. A company called Skinkers has also released a TV client for the desktop, LiveStation, that is meant to let you consume live TV and uses the Silverlight player (past coverage).
High quality web video with Flash Player 9 is really awesome and I’m glad we’ve put it into the player. I can’t wait until we get enough reach that more people start moving to it. But don’t count the desktop out. You get more flexibility and the quality demands increase. iTunes has shown that buying TV shows in a desktop client works and I think there are a lot of other options for competition there with all of the RIA technologies we have.
Ryan Stewart, a Rich Internet Application developer and industry analyst, recently joined Adobe's Platform Team as a Rich Internet Application Evangelist. full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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