Adobe has announced the latest version of Flash Player 9, codenamed Moviestar, because it includes H.264 standard video support – the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players.

The quality of video has been substantially improved from the previous version of Flash Player 9. Also added to the mix is High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support and “hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback”.

Adobe claims that these advancements will extend their leadership position in web video “by enabling the delivery of HD television quality and premium audio content”.

The new Flash Player will be available later today as a beta at Adobe Labs – and the final release is slated to be available in the fall (September – November). The last big update to Flash Player was the launch of Flash 9 in June 2006. Currently Adobe Flash Player is said to have 98.7% penetration in the Web, making it the most used media player.

Tipping Point for H.264
Mark Randall, Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media at Adobe, makes three main points to the Moviestar release:

1. The H.264 support means superior video quality; it is also an open standard.
2. High Efficiency Advanced Audio is, says Mark Randall, a “successor to MP3″. He said it is a higher quality audio, but at a lower bit rate.
3. It means “hardware acceleration” for Web video.

Randall also said that this represents a tipping point for the H.264 standard, because now Flash Player is supporting it as well Blu-Ray – two big industry players.

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