We’ve been using the Adobe Media Player for a little while, and wanted to jot down a couple of notes.
The install of the software went flawlessly and once loaded the look of the application is very much dark and moody.
Navigating between different levels of content is simple point-and-click, with the graphic elements reorganising themselves and wooshing to the left hand menu.
What does it looks like?
Example content is available on it, and after a brief watching of CSI:NY, we can confirm that the quality of the video is very impressive – when it’s delivered properly.
There are a few slight problems that need ironing, like when a programme is first accessed the audio of the piece starts to playback before sufficient video has been buffered, leading to the audio stuttering – an unpleasant feeling.
It’s not all upside
The dedicated Adobe Media player has a disadvantage when compared against the previously-normal Web browser-based players – only one video can be viewed at a time.
Those familiar with watching videos using a browser-based Flash video player know that to ensure smoothing watching of programmes, you have to get the bits lined up. Creating new tabs of browser windows lets you line these up.
While the AMP does have the ability to mark content for download, before playing, we suspect that many of the average joe users won’t figure out how to use this feature, having to rely on streaming of the video, which can be less than perfect.
More work needed.
Our experience of the AMP today points towards the video playing back still some attention. Video’s often stalled, showing a corrupted image, all the while the time code of the video was increasing – suggesting that the play thought it was playing correctly.
We’d be surprised if the AMP wasn’t updated pretty soon, because it appears that it isn’t quite ready to mainstream yet.
Silverlight
Adobe has been aware for a long time that Microsoft are trying to muscle in on Adobe’s Flash, with their Silverlight product.
It appears to counter this, Adobe are trying to move in on Microsoft’s media player, something that they hold very dear.
It also make sense for Adobe to make the most of the fact that much of the video on the Internet is now held in Flash format.