Offline Flash Videos from Real Networks

Posted on by

There’s been some news today about Real Network’s announcement that they are going to release a player that takes videos in the major web formats (including Flash) offline so you can view it later. Andy Plesser has a video up with an interview with Ben Rotholtz which has some good information.

I think we’ve been able to do a lot of this with things like the Firefox extension Video Downloader but having a separate player is an interesting concept. I think it actually validates some of what Adobe is talking about when we talk about a desktop experience versus the web experience. Robert Scoble has some points about why watching videos on the web is not always ideal.

I think it would be cool to see something like this baked into AMP (Adobe Media Player) but I haven’t heard anything like that. I’m just giving my own thoughts here, so don’t take that as any kind of plan, I just think offline video makes for a good experience.

Update: In looking at things more closely, it looks like the player will also allow you to burn the videos to CD and DVD (for a fee). That’s a more interesting prospect if they mean burning it in native DVD format. Worth tracking…
[tags]Real Networks, Adobe, Flash Video, Rich Media[/tags]

Related posts:

  1. Flash To Get True High Definition Video Capabilities?
  2. Flash Platform Changing How To Sell Real Estate
  3. Steer the Rich Desktop Application Conversation Away from "Offline"
  4. Why I think Firefox 3′s Offline Feature is a Bad Idea
  5. Revver Finally Using Flash
  • http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd John Dowdell

    I’m not sure… hard to tell what something is like before we can see what it’s like… a code release is clearer than a press release.

    From the screenshots I’ve seen, it looks like every page is scanned for video, and then the appearance of the page changes. That type of overlay has provoked website outrage in the past (ThirdVoice, “smart tags”, more). There are other stakeholders too….

    I’ll wait to see how it actually plays out.

    (Adobe Media Player is a standalone video application, more like an RSS reader, outside of the browser experience. Real’s announcement seems to be about altering the behavior of the browser, and changing the prevailing conditions for content providers for their browser-based content. Different realms.)

    jd/adobe

  • davo

    …buffering…..