Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Monday, June 2, 2008 at 3:50 PM PT

 

CBS HD Player Won’t Require Plug-in

As expected, CBS officially announced updates for its video player today, providing many of the features we outlined last night. The company says it will roll out true HD-quality streaming, full-screen viewing, and embedding capabilities across CBS.com and the CBS Audience Network over the coming months.

The network says its HD offerings won’t require any additional software or a browser plug-in, and will play straight from the browser. If so, this will make CBS the first broadcast network, to our knowledge, that offers such a service for its programming — ABC and FOX require the Move Networks plug-in, and Hulu’s HD Gallery is all film and NBA clips.

We asked CBS what was powering its HD capabilities, but Anthony Soohoo, CBS Interactive’s senior VP and general manager, wouldn’t offer up any details other than to say that the player was built in-house and that the network is using a CDN (which it wouldn’t name, citing confidentiality purposes).

CBS will also expand its embed functionality to allow full episodes to be embedded. Not every program will allow full episode embedding — it depends on the rights CBS has to the show — but Soohoo said the goal was to make every episode available.

Embed functionality should start rolling out this week; HD is due to appear in July.

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Comments (5)

  • the new flash is 24 megs you moron’s it will require and upgrade DER DER DER

    JackPCommonSense4:56 PM on June 2, 2008 Reply

  • To support HD (h.264), the new flash player requires A NEW PLUGIN INSTALLATION. So “no plugin” is not remotely true. Though Flash has high penetration, it is still a browser plugin. Why does the media still believe that Flash is not a plugin? Cmon guys….

    FlashIsAPlugin — 7:30 AM on June 3, 2008 Reply

  • Why can’t I get it to play in any browser??

    Blake — 8:50 PM on July 22, 2008 Reply

  • I’m really frustrated-last year it worked fine, but now I can’t watch the episodes from cbs.com in full screen. The picture just freezes but the audio keeps playing. I’ve scanned my computer, upgraded everything-I even reinstalled adobe flash player and shockwave player, etc…it just doesn’t work. The other television websites episodes work fine when I put them in full screen. What’s the matter with cbs.com?

    Ashley Nuckles — 1:23 PM on October 5, 2008 Reply

  • Ashley you are so right, and it is frustrating. I like being able to watch the episodes at my convenience, but not in MD (mini def). Has anyone figured it out?

    Scott M. — 7:04 PM on October 8, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (2)

  • [...] NewTeeVee just announced that CBS will roll out true HD-quality streaming, full-screen viewing, and embedding capabilities across CBS.com and the CBS Audience Network over the coming months. HD offerings won’t require any additional software or a browser plug-in, and will play straight from the browser. Embed functionality should start rolling out this week; HD is due to appear in July. Sphere: Related Content [...]

    CBS comming out with new HD web player :…6:51 PM on June 2, 2008

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