Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 12:00 AM PT

 

Adobe Launches Media Player

Adobe today launches its Adobe Media Player, a product we’ve been following closely. AMP channels RSS feeds for streaming and download of online video from partners such as MTV and CBS. The Adobe Air-based software has a simple UI that feels a bit like a file organization system.








The player is meant to be customized by content owners, rather than programmed by Adobe. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re CBS or Beet.tv — you can do your own branding on your own content,” AMP product manager Ashley Still told us last week. While only Adobe partners can get into the program index, individual users can also bring in any show they wish if it has an RSS feed and Flash or MPEG-4 videos. Everything is free and/or ad-supported.

The product clearly competes with Apple’s iTunes and Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, though it’s much more narrow at this point. At the same time, it’s much more flexible than the controlled Joost environment. We asked Still about the independent Miro player and she said the difference between it and AMP is “Miro is going to have problems bringing in broadcast content.” As for other potential content deals, Still called out Hulu as “a great Flash partner” and pointed out the site recently added RSS feeds.

Still was friendly to all sorts of feature additions to her product (see our previous interview about distribution methods for AMP), so we asked her to name which changes were highest priority. She said:

  • download to own or rent will be coming this year
  • the UI will be constantly tweaked
  • more content will be added
  • white-label distribution will be pushed
  • user-generated content will be added “if not this year then pretty soon after”
  • also coming are social features like recommendations

At this point I’m doing most of my media consumption through the browser, though I can definitely see the benefit of saving up my favorites for offline consumption. But Still had some pretty good justification: before AMP there was no simple way to play back Flash video locally — you had to be in a browser. That seems reason enough for Adobe to create a desktop client.

 

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Topic: Software
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] forward, Adobe plans to add download to own or rent options later this year, reports NewTeeVee, as well user-generated content. The former would mean further invading iTunes (and SyncTV) [...]

    Adobe Media Player launches - does the world need another Internet TV app? | last100 on April 9th, 2008 at 6:45 am - Permalink

  2. [...] CBS. The Adobe Air-based software has a simple UI that feels a bit like a file organization system. Full report on NewTeeVee. Rating: None Thumbs Up Thumbs Down Share/Send Related Print [...]

    Adobe Launches Media Player - GigaOM on April 9th, 2008 at 7:49 am - Permalink

  3. Looks pretty cool.

    In their promo video they say, “leverage the built in Advertising and Branding Tools.”

    Anyone here get to play with that yet?

    Tim Street on April 9th, 2008 at 8:11 am - Permalink

  4. [...] Adobe today launches its Adobe Media Player, a product we’ve been following closely. AMP channels RSS feeds for streaming and download of online video from partners such as MTV and CBS. The Adobe Air-based software has a simple UI that feels a bit like a file organization system. Full report on NewTeeVee. [...]

    - Adobe Launches Media Player on April 9th, 2008 at 9:31 am - Permalink

  5. Does it work with all mpeg4 or just the newer h264 type? Because I seem to remember flash, and thus AIR, only supporting h264, but maybe Im out of date.

    Steve Elbows on April 9th, 2008 at 9:58 am - Permalink

  6. [...] You can get the player here. You can also tune to Adobe TV  with hundreds of videos on Adobe products, including, Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver and others. More details in TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and NewTeeVee. [...]

    tech-talk.biz » Blog Archive » Adobe positions on Internet TV on April 9th, 2008 at 10:06 am - Permalink

  7. Hmm, looks pretty limited compared to Miro where you can play many types of video files and RSS Video Feeds - not to mention Flash Video files as well.

    Brian Moura on April 9th, 2008 at 1:00 pm - Permalink

  8. “white-label distribution will be pushed”

    Will be watching closely…

    Chi-chi Ekweozor on April 9th, 2008 at 4:42 pm - Permalink

  9. I’m going to wait for the Odeo player. That’s the killer app. It will port all your audio and videoblog content to any handheld device you want - seamlessly. It will be easy to use too.

    Jeremy Kliebnor on April 9th, 2008 at 9:31 pm - Permalink

  10. What a joke to wait for Odeo’s player! its just old fireant garbage not even half recycled from the dumpster! We’ve all been waiting for Adobe’s AMP, the real goods from real developers from a real company doing really cool stuff!

    Mark Worlson on April 10th, 2008 at 10:19 am - Permalink

  11. Why would anyone in their right mind sit around waiting for something from a lifeless company such as Odeo, when a platform company such as Adobe introduces the goods?
    Miro & Joost remember this day well, because it’s the day your greatest fears came true. Odeo? Keep those great jpegs “coming soon” coming soon LOL!

    Stan Oslavsky on April 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am - Permalink

  12. Hey, ease up Stan. Joost and Miro might have to worry about Adobe’s software introduction - and the white label marketing juggernaut that will ensue… But my money is on Odeo to deliver a much better user experience. Why use an off-the-shelf app when you can build your own from scratch and tailor it precisely to user needs? I agree with Jeremy when he says the universal device support in the Odeo player will be the killer app. Can’t wait!

    Knose Phiker on April 10th, 2008 at 6:54 pm - Permalink

  13. @ Knose Phiker

    You’re obviously joking. Please, let’s stop comparing established companies with solid software like Adobe with bogus nonsense companies like Odeo.

    Nice screen name by the way.

    Flash Ophile on April 10th, 2008 at 9:09 pm - Permalink

  14. Mark, you can’t be serious. Between the format limitations imposed by being a flashed-based player and the lack of cross browser compatibility, AMP is about as market changing for Adobe as Photoshop’s new logo.

    Now consider the focus Adobe has admitted to (white label publishers) vs offerings like Miro and VLC (other human beings), and I don’t think you could be more wrong.

    Rick K. on April 12th, 2008 at 1:47 pm - Permalink

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