Re: FLASH: Re: Flash 5 & QT

[John Dowdell]

There was examination done of putting some way of video rendering inside

the tiny Flash Player, but here are some of the complications:


--  Different computers have different video systems... Windows Media

Player, RealPlayer, QuickTime... no one video system has a clear lead.


--  This leads to content differences... should a site designer link to one

video format? all? switch among them some way?


--  Video-detection work would be significant... although there are still

posts about detecting the Flash Player in browsers, it's much more complex

to detect various video plugins in browsers *and* the necessary

system-level video extensions


--  Assuming that all computers offered a single known video API, the next

level of difficulties would be in integration... should video be

direct-to-screen or composited? how is audio mixed together? how are

messages passed between video and host?


--  Once beyond that set of problems, then there are the killer problems of

moving this to non-desktop displays... portable interactivity will be a key

focus over the next few years.


These are some of the reasons that video-in-Flash-in-browsers was not

prioritized as highly as other things were this cycle... doesn't mean it's

not possible, or not useful in some situations, but it's more like the

ongoing costs for everyone reduce the general net value. If this is a prime

requisite for your future work, though, then I'd urge you to influence the

priority stack via wish-flash, please... this carries especial weight in

the months immediately following a major release, as future priorities are

weighted.


(Sidenote: The Shockwave Player focuses on full desktop interactivity,

rather than small player size and portability... it's possible to do

QT-in-Shockwave-in-browsers, although if you'll examine the Director

technotes with keyword "quicktime AND shockwave" you'll see some of the

practical difficulties involved.)


jd






John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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