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