Swimming with the Fishes

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Swimming with the Fishes | PBS

But wait, there’s more! According to Adobe, the next version of Flash — Flash 9 — will ship with dramatically expanded codec options allowing significantly better and faster video.

There was a time not long ago when expanded Flash codec choices wouldn’t have mattered. Streaming video had already failed and the market was moving to downloaded video where data rates and total file size were less immediately relevant. Then came YouTube and its commitment to Flash video. Now video streaming is again a hot idea and Flash 8’s choices of the H.263 or VP6 codecs just aren’t enough. Most implementations of H.263 are limited to 320-by-240, and VP6, though very efficient, just isn’t a mainstream technology. In that respect it is like Essential Viewing’s codec.

But the next version of Flash video will support H.264, AAC audio, most HD frame sizes, and — here’s the most important part of all — will work with your graphics card to make it all run faster and with less CPU load.