by Scott on February 23, 2008
Seth Schoen at the EFF has posted the group’s concerns about the forthcoming implementation of DRM for Flash video. But is it really “DRM” in the strictest sense? Some clarifications from Flashcomguru:
…I think the author has missed the point here, or does not understand the purpose of RTMPE, the new encrypted flavor of Adobe’s Real Time Messaging Protocol. FMS3 doesn’t actually apply any kind of DRM to the video content itself, it merely secures the transmission and thereby circumvents content from being intercepted in transit [...] Lastly, encrypting the delivery channel does not sound like DRM to me, it’s mere access control. Using secure transmissions and token based authentication, this has been done already. All Adobe did in regards to FMS3 is make the SSL-style encryption easier to use and lighter on system resources by using RTMPE.
From Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee:
Adobe won’t be flooding the online video market with DRM anytime soon, though. Its Flash DRM would only be available to customers of Adobe’s expensive Flash Media Server, for which many video-sharing sites decline to pay, and users of the Adobe Media Player, which hasn’t even been released yet.
RELATED: Details and benchmarks for Flash Media Server 3.
by Scott on February 17, 2008
Indie film grants and funding.
Toshiba—HD DVD Interruptus. A shame, because HD DVD authoring and production is both cheaper, and easier to author for independent producers.
Tulip is software for visualizing very-large sets of data. Download Tulip at Sourceforge.
Tag your environment with EEML-Extended Environments Markup Language.
(EEML) protocol for sharing data between remote environments, both physical and virtual. It is used in partiucular by the web application Pachube, which enables people to tag and share real time environmental data from objects, devices and spaces around the world. However, it can also be used to facilitate direct connections between any remote environments.
Tag your photos with your biometric data.
Canon is using Iris watermarking to take photographer’s copyright protection to the next level.
Veveo is working on video search.
by Scott on February 17, 2008
Web 2.0 Expo, April 22-25 2008, San Francisco.
PodCamp NYC, April 25-26, 2008.
Podcamp NYC is an “unconference” focused on educating participants on how to use, implement and share any/all new media tools including, podcasts, videocasts, blogs, Second Life, Facebook, and YouTube. The conference is FREE to attend and you’re a “participant” versus an “attendee” at our event. You also make our conference happen since you register to speak. You can talk about anything you want as long as it focuses on new media.
by Scott on February 11, 2008
A developer has released a beta plugin for Windows Media Center that allows you to edit your queue, browse titles, and watch Netflix streams. More details at the developer’s site.
It’s really a shame that Apple hasn’t opened the AppleTV (officially) to such development. WTF?
by Scott on February 8, 2008
by Scott on January 27, 2008
by Scott on January 17, 2008
by Scott on January 16, 2008
by Scott on January 12, 2008
It seems MSNBC really hit a home-run with it’s new embed-able player. Nicely designed, and the video quality might be the best of any of the networks’ offerings, rivaling CNN.
by Scott on December 27, 2007
The two most interesting aspects of iTunes offering rentals—
_The implications for Apple TV—expect at least a software update to support the new functionality. Accessing the iTunes store from the living room is certainly one good step in reviving/re-inventing a cool product suffering neglect and lackluster adoption. A little more computing muscle/storage and the addition of disc burning/playing might also help position it and increase interest. Even with poor sales, the Apple TV is still miles ahead of budding competitors like Sansa’s TakeTV in functionality and user experience.
_”iPod compatible” versions of movies included on forthcoming DVDs. Part of the supposed agreement with Fox is the studio’s inclusion of “iPod compatible” files on forthcoming DVDs (haven’t checked whether this includes HD discs as well). It seems like it wouldn’t be a big jump to the inclusion iPod-only exclusive extras/additional content/etc. How about including an Apple TV-compatible HD version?
Silicon Alley Insider has the winners and losers.
by Scott on October 17, 2007
The maligned BBC iPlayer, which requires Windows DRM, will be using Flash for cross-platform streaming.
PaidContent UK:
The Adobe deal means that iPlayer—the BBC’s catch-up TV service—finally will be available on Macintosh and Linux operating systems as well as Windows. Since its soft launch earlier this year, iPlayer has faced criticism for not being platform-neutral. But, as Highfield told PC:UK last month, this new extension of the service will cover only streamed content; Windows is still required for downloads. Also, the Flash initiative only covers future digital content; material already formatted for Windows Media, for example, will not be retranslated into Flash.
by Scott on October 1, 2007
by Scott on September 15, 2007
Apple has a page in which it’s soliciting feedback on AppleTV. Identified as a “hobby” by Steve Jobs at the last WSJ D Conference, I think there’s an excellent opportunity to do something “cool” here. Taking user’s and potential user’s input is a great place to start, and hopefully Apple really does take the feedback under consideration.
Topping my list—
1.) (officially) Opening it up to 3rd-party developers.
2.) Probably some sort of DVR functionality and additional storage—whether internally or externally via the recently-hacked USB port.
Quoting Jobs at the D Conference:
We’re in two busineses today, we’ll be very shortly in three business and a hobby. One is our Mac business, second is our music business, third business is the phone business, handsets. And the hobby is Apple TV. The reason I call it a hobby is a lot of people have tried and failed to make it a business. It’s a business that’s hundreds of thousands of units per year but it hasn’t crested to be millions of units per year, but I think if we improve things we can crack that.
(hat tip: AppleTV Source)
by Scott on August 21, 2007
Snips+notes on Adobe’s implementation of H.264 video in Flash—
* This is a pretty big step in the direction of interoperability of digital video platforms—Web Video/Settops/IPTV/Digital TV/mobile “hardware acceleration” for Web video will be a boon to the adoption of HD-ish quality video via the Innertubes.
ISPs better step it up. Cable’s Bandwidth Shortage.
* Adobe has licensed the x86, PowerPC and ARM (ARM=iPhone) versions of MainConcept’s H.264 and AAC decoders. (source)
* On2: making a move toward embedded/hardware decoding: Flash coming to a settop near you. (source)
* Beta now available: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer9.html
* Metadata: Get those Video search/discovery startups ready:support for ‘covr’ (and other) metadata from iTunes
* ability to decode Base, Mainline and High profiles
You can load and play .mp4,.m4v,.m4a,.mov and .3gp files using the same NetStream API you use to load FLV files now. We did not add any sort of new API in the Flash Player. All your existing video playback front ends will work as they are.
* Xvid, DivX not supported
* Decoder is from Mainconcept
* multichannel AAC files are downmixed
* support for sampling rates from 8Khz to 96Khz
* Fairplay-iTunes DRM- not supported
* Commerical use of H.264 and AAC requires licensing fees.
(source)
by Scott on August 21, 2007
Story at ZDNet. More at Beet TV.
We’re announcing a new update to the Flash Player today code named “Moviestar” and it includes support for the widely used industry standard H.264 codec as well as High Efficiency AAC audio support. The update will also be a part of Adobe AIR.
Undoubtedly a move in preparation for adding DRM for Flash Video, as well as supporting more manageable playback of HD content.
