Mark this day. HD video in the browser is more ubiquitous. It will either represent the day content providers started providing more HD content to their users, or the day that it was easier to view high quality pirated video content on the web.
This truly is one of those hurdles that needed to be jumped to get HD video on the web.
The cool thing about this release will be the effect it has in driving popular video sites(youtube, google video,dailymotion) to support higher quality video.
Youtube already has plans to try not to down-convert uploaded user videos, and the h.264 codec support gives them that option.
This ends up being disruptive in the way it gives a wide range of content providers a large distribution channel.
Joost and other high quality video providers rely on dedicated software clients and bitorrent/distributed data delivery methods to push the content.
But the install base was still pretty small due to the technical adoption issues you get with mainstream computer users, and the demand may not be there yet.
In contrast, the install base for the flash player is huge, and everyone has a browser. This may act as driver to push HD content adoption on the web, and change the general consumers perception of online video quality.
Of course you need to install the latest version of the Flash Player to be able to take advantage of the new options. There is almost no content out there yet, but I am sure it will be coming soon. Hulu has a blog post up about their HD gallery that is available to private beta testers.
Official details from the Adobe Feature List:
New H.264/HE-AAC options
Flash Player 9 includes H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video — up to HD quality — that developers can leverage in their applications. Supporting a subset of MPEG-4 Part 12 (container) and Part 14 (H.264), including baseline, main and high profiles, Flash Player can play back existing MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP and 3G2 content.
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