David Emery Online

Video Wars

16 April 2007

In stark contrast to last weeks lull, this week there’s almost too much to cover, a lot of it coming out of this years NAB expo. Apple made some interesting announcements surrounding its Final Cut product range, the highlight probably being – for me at least – the interface seen in Final Cut Server, which is yet another interface style for Apple, but nonetheless a very nice one.

However, unlike some trade shows, what Apple announced is by no means the most interesting stuff. What’s most interesting is the ever-more-fierce battle to control online content, with the main players Adobe and Microsoft both announcing something new.

First up is Adobe, who showcased its new Media Player. Their media player is basically a desktop Flash video player, that uses RSS as the content delivery system, and looks to be based on their new Apollo desktop Flash app. Now, first off Adobe is easily king in this space – Flash has won the codec wars, at least for now, with almost all the high profile video sites basic their interfaces on it.

With that in mind, the most interesting step in their new desktop Media Player is the inclusion of DRM. This is the only major feature that Flash video – and audio – is laking at the moment and signifies an interesting shift in Adobe’s aim. Not only are they focusing on the desktop for Flash – in the form of Apollo – they want to do the same for Flash video, and that includes the markets where DRM is necessary.

Even though DRM looks like its time may have finally come – at least for audio, for video it’s still uncertain – I think Adobe is the only company outside Apple and Microsoft that could successfully implement DRM, due to their massive installed base.

And that installed base is exactly what Microsoft is going after with their announcement.

In typical Microsoft fashion, their announcement isn’t actually anything new – it’s just a rebranding that’s supposed to feel new – they’ve announced Microsoft Silverlight, which used to be known as WPF/E.

It’s just Flash, done by Microsoft. That’s really all you need to know.

It does all sorts of “interesting” features (playing HD video, XML-ish markup etc) but, quite frankly, it doesn’t do anything that Flash doesn’t – at least, when you compare it to a recent version. And of course, all development needs to be done in Windows.

As if you can’t tell, I’m not impressed.

Wake me up when they do something interesting.

Microsoft just don’t have a chance against Adobe in this area if they’re going to keep playing ball in the way they always have; they need to change their game and do something different.

Zig, instead of Zag.

I just don’t think they have it in them.