I’m not sure if I’ll be upgrading to Adobe® Flash® Player 10 until it reaches late beta stages – or until I know that it’s not problematic for most browser-based Flash experiences. This one oughta be a good release, giving us an array of new features:

• 3D Effects
• Custom Filters and Effects
• Advanced Text Layout
• Enhanced Drawing API
• Visual Performance Improvements
• Dynamic Streaming
• Color Management
• RTMFP (Real Time Media Flow Protocol)
• Speex Audio Codec
• File Reference
• Dynamic Sound Generation
• Large Bitmap Support
• Context Menu
• GB18030 Compliance
• Ubuntu OS Support

GPU support is long overdue:

Utilizing the hardware processing power of the graphics card, GPU compositing accelerates compositing calculations of bitmaps, filters, blend modes, and video overlays faster than would be performed in software on the CPU. GPU compositing is applied when specified in the HTML parameters provided appropriate graphics hardware is available. If the hardware does not provide required capability, Flash Player will fall back to the software rendering without user interaction. Hardware compositing takes advantage of the tremendous memory bandwidth and computational horsepower of the GPU, reducing the load on the CPU, and can provide a performance boost to many graphically intense applications, resulting in more fluid, realistic and responsive user experiences. Open GL 2.0 video card with GLSL capabilities required to use this feature. When in use with the beta, a green square will appear in the upper left corner when accelerated.

And so is support of the Speex audio codec:

The new, higher fidelity Speex voice codec offers an alternative to Nellymoser for audio that delivers the lowest-latency audio experience possible. When RTMP or RTMFP is used with future releases of Flash Media Server, live and unbuffered Speex transmissions will take advantage of RTMFP’s partial-reliability feature to reduce network latency.

These two features, alone, will make live video streaming (and recording) a much better experience for producers and viewers. It’s very exciting.

Have you had a chance to try the beta yet – is it good or not-good-enough-yet?

New Flash Player Software Beta

If you’re having issues with Flash apps (like our live stream), this thread in Adobe’s forums may surface a solution for you.

According to my friend Gyula Feher at Ustream.tv: “We have a good reason to think that the problem is caused by a Leopard-specific bug of the latest r115 Mac version of Adobe Flash Player. The reason why it got triggered by the 10.5.2 update is because 10.5.2 also upgraded Flash Player. Forum posts indicate that downgrading to a recent (r47) version of Flash Player fixes the issue. Download the older version of Flash Player 9 from Adobe and install r47. Following the downgrade, you may check your Flash Version by right-clicking on any Flash widget and selecting ‘About Flash Player’ from the menu.”

Flash Player Problems in Mac OS X

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ – If you’re watching this video, then you’re probably using Flash player. David wrote in wondering how to adjust the privacy settings, and whether his personal history is viewable by Adobe.

Adobe’s Flash Player is a widely used program that allows you to watch videos on any number of websites. It can also be used to play online games, as well.

You can easily check your Flash privacy settings by going to this video, or any online video, and right clicking on it. This will open up a small settings box, and from there you should click the “Advanced” tab. This will take you to Adobe’s site, where you can adjust your privacy settings, and view your history. On that page, it will straight out tell you that all information is stored locally… on YOUR machine… and not on their actual site. They do not access it for any reason, nor do they use it in any way, shape or form.

Instead of asking “who here uses Flash?”, the question of the day is… who doesn’t?

Want to embed this video in your blog? Use this code:

<object width=”425″ height=”350″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zMXKkPbmISM”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zMXKkPbmISM” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”350″></embed></object><br /><a href=”http://chris.pirillo.com/”>Chris</a> | <a href=”http://live.pirillo.com/”>Live Tech Support</a> | <a href=”http://media.pirillo.com/”>Video Help</a> | <a href=”http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow”>Add to iTunes</a>

Formats Available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4) Flash Video (.flv) MP3 Audio (.mp3)

Adobe Flash Privacy Settings

I discovered this through preparing my TagJag presentation, prompted by Ken Rossi. If you’ve ever wanted more control of your Flash Player, you have to visit the Flash Player Settings Manager on Adobe’s site. I had no idea this even existed, and I’m baffled why this Flash control panel isn’t embedded directly within the player itself! Change Global and Site-centric Privacy, Storage, Security, and Notification settings. You can get to it from the Macromedia Flash Player Settings “Advanced” button on the Privacy tab, but it’s not nearly as intuitive as what’s found on their Manager page. Adobe, here’s a bit of freedbacking for you!

Tweak Flash Player Settings