High Def Web Visuals Coming Soon

In August, Adobe released a beta version of its new flash player. The player will now support Quicktime H.264 compression.

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With the fall season comes my favorite holiday: Halloween. Like last year, in which I documented party-goers, I plan to photograph the occasion and present it online using a new multimedia platform. Think of it as a full screen streaming HD flash video player. Warning, boring tech talk to follow below.

In August, Adobe released a beta version of its new flash player, code named MovieStar. The player will now support Quicktime H.264 compression, the latest and greatest way to squeeze really large video files into extremely small file sizes with really amazing quality. First off, if you haven’t done it yet, download the new Flash Player 9 from Adobe. After you have downloaded the new player, click here to watch an example HD video in full screen mode. YouTube, Google Video, and all the major networks will all likely introduce all of their programming with a full screen view option very soon. If an Average Joe like myself can post it to his blog, than so can the heavyweights.

In the future, online readers will expect full screen visuals just like they expect RSS feeds today. Are big media companies implimenting long-term strategies that embrace the emerging trend of big visuals? Companies with workflows that output low-resolution images will need to adapt to presenting big online visuals. Our readers will demand it.

On a side note, if you don’t hear from me much in the upcoming weeks, know that I haven’t kicked the bucket. After my regular 9-5, I’ll be working on a handful of magazine photo projects. If anyone is available to assist on Oct. 20, please let me know via email.

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nice summary. HD is just around the corner for the world wide web masses – its been on apple trailers for a while now. Every computer monitor is ready for it. And with flash and H.264 nearly every machine is ready.

I do think we will see a faster adoption to HD video, than we did with general online video. BUT there are still hardware limitations, both with storage and connection speeds.

I really wish there weren’t such a format war. We see it in the physical world with blu-ray and HD-DVD. and in the online world with everyone trying to launch their own online station, eg. abc’s streaming HD.

Like you hinted at, we just need a youtube HD – they certainly have the hardware for it.

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