April 9th, 2008
Adobe Media Player Released
By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews
On Wednesday Adobe launched both Adobe Media Player 1.0 (AMP) as well as Adobe TV.
AMP is an offline Flash video player. It was originally released in beta form last September. The software, written with Adobe’s Integrate Runtime (AIR), runs on Windows and MacOS (both Intel and PowerPC).
Adobe already has a number of partners lined up. In a press release, John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe said:
“With Adobe Media Player, we’re bringing viewers and content owners closer together, with an experience that doesn’t constrain them by platform or proprietary software application. It’s a merger of TV Guide and DVR for Internet video content. Some great shows, like The Hills from MTV and CSI from CBS, is already available to view and more will be coming soon.”
AMP will allow users to subscribe to and search for content. Adobe doesn’t host any content, rather AMP pulls content from partners via RSS feeds. Users can add any video RSS feed into the player. As the press release says:
Users can also subscribe to television shows and other online video content and then automatically receive new episodes of the shows as they become available. To help viewers discover new content, a broad, searchable catalog of shows from leading media companies and networks is available and it is expected that it will continually expand to include video from additional broadcasters, studios and independent producers. Some of the initial content available on Adobe Media Player includes: CSI: New York, CSI: Miami, Big Brother, Star Trek, Melrose Place, Hawaii Five-O, The Twilight Zone and MacGyver from CBS; clips from The Hills, MTV News and Yo! MTV Raps from MTV Networks; select shows on HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network and Fine Living Network from Scripps Networks; Epicurious.com, Style.com and Wired.com from CondéNet; PBS programming and music videos from Universal Music Group. Additional content from MTV Networks’ brands including MTV, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, VH1, CMT, Logo, Spike, The N, GameTrailers and Atom Films will be made available over the next several months.
Speaking of content, Adobe also launched Adobe TV. But don’t get confused. Adobe TV isn’t really about TV. It’s a web site and AMP “channel” dedicated to tutorials and more about Adobe products. As said in a separate press release, it’s
“a free online video resource for expert instruction and inspiration about Adobe products, including the company’s Creative Suite 3 family of world-class creative tools.”
In other words, a cool way of using AMP to get out the word on other products. Smart move.
We Say: So, does the world really need yet another player, and I don’t just mean AMP, but rather another competitor in the seemingly crowded online video /TV / content / you-name-it arena? Adobe seems to think so, and it has plenty of partners lined up that seem to think so as well.
Kresh says:
My only complaint is that Adobe acts like a virus.
I did not have Adobe Air installed and when I installed AMP so Air had to be installed as well.
After playing with AMP, and not being able to get any of the CSI stuff to play, I uninstalled AMP. There was no provision to uninstall Air.
I went to the Adobe website and looked through their LiveDocs and they direct you to run the uninstaller located in my /Applications folder. As you can imagine, it is not there.
I download the Air installer hoping to install AIR again along with the uninstaller, but it says my version is up to date and quits.
Adobe does not provide a link to download the uninstaller.
So what makes Adobe different from any other virus that I might pick-up. It it is hidden on my system, I can’t uninstall it, and I don’t know what it is doing in the back ground. Thankfully I have Little Snitch and have denied Air access to the Internet.
I am through with Adobe and I hope it does not make it to my iPhone or my iPod Touch.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Kresh says:
Adobe has responded to me and told me that their LiveDocs information was wrong, and since I have posted this comment on the first fifty news items I could find on Google, I think I should follow up with the information they sent me:
“Sorry for the trouble. Please note that Adobe Media Player is an
application built on AIR, so AIR is required to install and use AMP.
The uninstaller is actually located in the /Application/Utilities
folder.”
April 9th, 2008 at 7:58 am
LZW says:
I’ve never heard of adobe air until this very moment but it reminds me of the time I decided to try Apple Safari for Windows… I quickly uninstalled it but later found some trojan/spyware like thing on my computer and traced it back to safari.
Not saying it was malwar, it just looked bad in a security audit. (client/server app left running as a background app after trying to remove apple software) Is Adobe Air like that?
It does not look like Adobe Media Player is an ad supported app from the picture with this story but screen shots I’ve seen on other sites tell another story. They show banner ads from coke. Maybe you have to subscribe to CSI or something before you get ads but I think they will be coming.
I remember in the 90’s, Adobe was a highly admired software company. There Photoshop program was practically considered ‘the standard’ with graphic professionals and their software installations were so reliable, they could be considered portable. For example, you could install Adobe Pagemill on drive D:, format C:, reinstall Windows and Pagemill would run fine… Did not even need reinstalled.
They take over programs like Dreamweaver and Flash but why? Maybe they improve those programs but their own traditional programs like Photoshop seem to suffer as a consequence.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Matt Thrasher says:
The uninstaller for Adobe Air doesn’t uninstall everything, including the media player. If ound stuff left in ~application support. I agree with Kersh, Adobe Air/Media Player is a virus
April 12th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Ali says:
I am unable to play The Hills episodes on the Adobe Media Player =( why is this so?
April 26th, 2008 at 8:28 am
CHUCK LINDBERG says:
TO UNINSTALL AIR AND AMP FROM MY INSTALL / TRYOUT A DAY AGO, I USED “REVO” UNINSTALLER, A FREE APPLICATION. AFTER RUNNING THE APP’S BUILT IN UNINSTALLER, REVO RUNS A DEEPER SCAN FOR LEFTOVERS - I SET IT FOR THE DEEPEST SETTING AND AMP HAD LEFT JUST UNDER 800 ITEMS BEHIND. I THEN RAN A REGISTRY CLEANER AND FOUND AN F4V DEFAUT IN THE ROOT DIRECTORY. FINALLY, I RAN A DIFFERENT DISK CLEANER AND FOUND AN IDENTIFIABLE DEAD LINK IN “ALL USERS”. THERE MAY STILL BE SOME EMPTY FOLDERS LEFT ABOUT BUT I THINK THAT TOOK CARE OF IT.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
ZCZC says:
窃听器
August 8th, 2008 at 1:06 am