Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta Brings Smoother Streaming Pre-Release Version of Flash Player 10.0 Now Available Troy Dreier
Adobe has made the pre-release version of its Adobe Flash Player 10 publicly available, and it promises better video streaming over fluctuating connections. Could an end to slow playback and stuttering videos be within sight?
While most of the improvements in the Adobe Flash Player 10 beta are intended for designers, the company included impressive new video capabilities that should deliver big payoffs for online streaming.
When combined with upcoming future improvements to the Adobe Flash Media Server, the Flash Player will automatically adjust video quality as available bandwidth fluctuates. End users will enjoy constant video playback without the stream pausing to buffer.
Providing smoother streaming will require a little more work from content providers, however, as they'll likely have to produce and store multiple copies of each FLV file encoded at different bitrates. It doesn't appear that the Flash Server will be able to generate multiple bitrate streams from the one stored file.
Videos will also play more smoothly and quickly with Flash Player 10 thanks to expanded use of hardware acceleration.
Other benefits with the new player include:
3D Effects: Transform and animate any display object through 3D space while retaining full interactivity.
Custom Filters and Effects: Create and share your own portable filters, blend modes, and fills using Adobe Pixel Bender.
Advanced Text Layout: A new text layout engine enables innovation in creating text controls by providing low-level access to text offering right-to-left and vertical text layout.
Enhanced Drawing API: Runtime drawing is easier with re-styleable properties, 3D APIs, and a new way of drawing sophisticated shapes.
People interested in trying the beta release can download it from Adobe Labs.
