According to the latest official blog, YouTube has now released an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player, giving users their “number one request” for new updates.
To join the beta, Google links to this page, as long as you have an HTML5-supportive browser: http://www.youtube.com/html5
The full post:
A while ago, YouTube launched a simple demo of an HTML5-based video player. Recently, we published a blog post on our pre-spring cleaning effort and your number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5. Today, we’re introducing an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player.
HTML5 is a new web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your web experience. Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback. This means that users with an HTML5 compatible browser, and support for the proper audio and video codecs can watch a video without needing to download a browser plugin.
Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are some limitations. HTML5 on YouTube doesn’t support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video (currently that means Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer). We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come.
Result for: codec
Videolan has announced the official launch of VLC media player 1.0.0, codenamed Goldeneye.
The Videolan site says the new update includes the following changes:
* Free, Open Source and cross-platform
* Independant of systems codecs to support most video types
* Live recording
* Instant pausing and Frame-by-Frame support
* Finer speed controls
* New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-Ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0, …)
* New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS, …) and major improvements in many formats…
* New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
* Video scaling in fullscreen
* RTSP Trickplay support
[More]>>
Result for: codec
One month after announcing its release in Europe, Harman Kardon has announced it will release its first Blu-ray player, dubbed the BDP-1, in North America as well.
The BDP-1 will also have “advanced audio codec support and will play back 1080/24p videos without pulldown conversion.” A USB slot allows for JPEG and DivX playback from flash drives.
Harman Kardon is known mainly for its home theater A/V products but has been expanding of late. It will support MP3, WMA, LPCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, and DTS-HD Master Audio audio formats.
A view of the player shows that it has HDMI 1.3a connectors, as well as component and RCA video outputs, an Ethernet jack, coaxial and optical audio outputs and analog audio output.
The player will hit shelves during June with a price tag of $500 USD.
