Loading ...Adobe Media Player
Today while downloading the latest version of Adobe’s Acrobat Reader for a computer at work that didn’t have it for some reason, I noticed that Adobe have started to bundle their new Adobe Media Player with it.
“With a broad catalog of videos and shows from the leading media companies and networks, you have endless choices. Pick the episodes you love to watch, and Adobe® Media Player software will track new episodes and download them so you can watch whenever you want.”
It’s the first time I’ve come across it and it sounds like it is intended to be a similar idea to Apple TV/iTunes Store, except that it is taking a slightly different approach by providing it as a software package installable on any computer, rather than using the specific Apple TV hardware component.
There are definitely other differences though. Aside from YouTube, podcasts, .Mac accounts and Flickr, Adobe Media Player allows you to publish your own content through one of their partners. These includes content partners, advertising partners and delivery partners.
This may be out of the price range of the general user, but for businesses, this may be an ideal solution, depending on their needs of course. For the general user, there are other options.
For general viewers, it includes a catalog of online TV shows and video podcasts from “leading media companies.” As well as the ability to “Stream, download, manage, and play your personal collection of rich media videos right from your desktop.”
You can choose favourites, which will be automatically downloaded when a new episode is released and thus allowing you to view it whenever you are ready.
With the evergrowing propogation of HTPC’s/Media PC’s due to the inclusion of Windows Media Centre in certain versions of Vista, and the inclusion of Front Row on the Mac Mini, a solution such as Adobe’s seems more appropriate than the Apple TV. Afterall, if you have already spent the money on a HTPC, why spend more on an extra gadget? Especially when Adobe Media Player is free.
Apple TV does have some advantages over Adobe Media Player though, at this stage anyway. As far as I can see, you can not currently pay to download movies through Adobe Media Player, nor paid TV shows. Given the distribution that Adobe’s Media Player will get though by bundling it with Acrobat, Flash and so on, there is a good possibility that these things will soon become an option.
As far as HD support, both Apple TV and Adobe Media Player have it, as does the iTunes store.
Adobe lists the following as being the system requirements:
Windows
- Intel® Pentium® 4 2.33GHz or faster processor
- Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista® Home, Business, or Ultimate
- 1GB of RAM and 64MB of VRAM
Mac OS (PowerPC)
- PowerPC® G5 1.8GHz or faster processor
- Mac OS X v10.4.9–10.4.11 or 10.5.1–10.5.2
- 1GB of RAM and 64MB of VRAM
Mac OS (Intel)
- Intel Core™ Duo 1.33GHz or faster processor
- Mac OS X v10.4.9–10.4.11 or 10.5.1–10.5.2
- 1GB of RAM and 64MB of VRAM
For requirements for playback of different quality video’s, have a look at the Adobe website.
So most modern computers will run it with no problems. Of course if you don’t have a computer that meets these specs, maybe an Apple TV unit would work out cheaper, if you don’t want to upgrade. Since it’s free though, you can always give it a go and see how it runs on your computer, I imagine that there would be a reasonable amount of leeway on those specs.
The reason it lists VRAM in the specificatios is because it actually supports hardware graphics acceleration, which can be particularly useful, especially if your CPU is a bit below the suggested specifications.
There are a lot of networks currently broadcasting through Adobe’s Media Player, including Universal Music, MyToons, MTV, Hubblecast and Gimp TV. They are also advertising Nickelodeon and Comedy Central as coming soon. For a full list of what is available at the moment, have a look at the participating networks page on the Adobe website. As you can see, there is a fair amount currently available, and considering that some of these are currently only available on pay TV in Australia, this is no doubt going bring some interesting developments.
I will be trying it out on OS X, Windows Vista and Windows XP a bit later on and will let you know my experiences as I go.
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Tags: Adobe, Adobe Media Player, Apple, Apple TV, iTunes, mac, Microsoft, OS X, podcasts, Vista, Youtube