Finally someone has taken our advice and started displaying premium content via Flash video with embedded ads. As I have said in this space before, content providers need only create Flash based video content to distribute their stuff to viewers and then they can grab the largest online viewing audience of any video app. Larger than Windows Media Player, larger than Quicktime, larger than all other video types.

ABC has created and released a new Flash based video player for four of its shows that embeds video with non-skippable ad content from AT&T. Users can choose from four differenct shows (Desperate Housewives, Lost, Commander and Chief, and Alias) and view content in each with sponsor advertisments within.

Screenshots and more after the jump.

In each segment of the show the viewer can skip to any point before the ad. This forces the user to view your sponsor's content. Plus most users don't mind having to deal with a few ads to get better access to better content in more places.

The Player also lets viewer choose between all available shows while viewing the current show. This way you can choose what you want to see without having to leave your current choice. Plus short show descriptions are included so you don't have to leap before you look. Apparently all of the current season of Alias is available for work day viewing.

Shows are in wide screen format and use the high quality view codec from On2. Since shows are broken up into pieces surrounding ads, load times should be minimal.

While watching a show the user can also click on the faded show titles surrounding the video and skip to that show's current video.

Now if the other content providers would wake up and do the same thing life would be easier (I'm yelling at you AP, MTV, Comedy Central, etc).

Friday You Tube released a new player face for its video. They are incouraging users to check out the new player and tell them what they think. I like the player more than the older one, but its not as 'pretty.' You Tube added needed features including a scroller that can be easily selected and moved to jump through the playing video, a volume control, and a time stamp. Improvements I would like to see include the release of an API so developers can embed You videos in their projects and even adjust the player to add of remove functionality. Plus I would like to skin the player with various colors and designs. They could even use an API to promote the site to content providers for targetted use on sites. Maybe E! could start embedding E! content with custom skins and active dynamic Flash content.

The video played at the link below is from Bruce Springsteen's set at Jazz Fest in New Orleans this past weekend.

No this isn't a boxing post, just a heads up to an animated short about a movie. Angry Alien Productions has been making 30 second versions of classic movies for quite a while. In July of last year they started premiering on the Starz network and then online. Their latest Brokeback parody is really hard to quick so I've decided to just pass on a link to the Rocky story as portrayed by bunnies in 30 seconds. Why watch a two hour epic when you can just jump into Flash?

via Table of Malcontents

Back in art school, one of my first Digital Media classes (they teach art using digital media as you medium, yay weird web art) required me to buy a certain Flash 5 book by a Mr. Hillman Curtis. Unfortunately the book was extremely useful as an art reference, but next to useless as a Flash reference. It did inspire me while creating a few projects this year, so when Jan Kabili emailed me about an interview by Inside Mac of Curtis that was online I found myself needing to tell you to check it out. Curtis is known for experimental and commercial Flash based design going back for a number of years and currently he is working on a new video project. Feel free to download the interview for yourself and check out the main Hillman Curtis site for some inspiration of your own. Link goes to iTunes download of interview.

The Associated Press just announced a new video streaming service this week and has totally screwed the pooch with it. They are using the now popular Microsoft video DRM format that has taken hold of other services like Vongo, Comedy Central and VH1. Unfortunately this means they are going to make it harder for their users and in turn the viewing public to see their content. Use of Micorsoft video (specifically WMP10 based video) cuts out all non-Windows, non-IE users. Why not follow the better trend in web video? Why not call up Adobe and see about hooking into one of the better ways to serve up streaming video, Flash. Sure you could choose, Real or Quicktime video, but Flash video can be edited to include custom look and feel that doesn't change based on Operating System or Web browser. But this would require opening up to a new standard and would mean conforming to your user rather than forcing the user to conform to you... Personally I see this as useless. Consider the fact that AP video is currently displayed by the Washington Post within a Flash-based player.

via Romenesko

Our big blog brother, Engadget posted a great tutorial this morning showing you exactly how to run Flash (and therefore Flash-based-games) on you very own X-Box 360. Head on over for the full tutorial. Unfortunately the Dashboard upgrade released today by Microsoft will break this hack, but if you want to wait on the update try it out. I wonder if you could use this for basic FLV files too? If so, this would be a cool way to stream Google video (via the online player, not the purchased kind) or YouTube video to your X-Box 360 for HD viewing. Enjoy.

Inspiration Time... Leo Burnett is an artsy web and graphic design firm whose web site is centered in a 3D interface based on the 'Leo Burnett' signature. Its hard to tell if the namesake is an actual person, but either way the personallity he represents is successfully used to express the business objective of the firm via interactive quotes and even the mouse. The user's pointer is optionally replaced with a large black pencil that shows "big ideas come out of big pencils." I was almost unable to stop wondering through the site checking out interesting Canadian Adwork/Artwork. Check out the Visa commercials for an indie style video portfolio. Also try to stop drawing with the huge pencil. Then take your new inspiration to start up you own portfolio.

Thanks David Chartier

Stop for a second and take a look at the image in this post. What you see is a backetball hoop and a nice, yet simple, 3D animation of a simple looking basket ball game... but it doesn't stop there. In the bottom right of the screen is a person. Slapping the ball. Literally. Yes this is the first (I think) major web Flash-based game centered on true human interaction via web cam. PlayDoCam creator Andreas Rehnberg, which we spoke of back in August, has taken his earlier idea to a new level and combined some Shockwave/Director ideas with Flash 8 to create a very cool looking new basketball game in Flash. The game tracks the users hands and works like pong to bounce a small ball into one of two hoops while avoiding absticles and trying to hit points on the way. All I can say is very cool, and can't wait for the full version to come out next month. Head over to the official PlayDoJam site to watch the preview and drool.

Thanks to tipster Karl Cifius

On Monday Adobe grabbed a DRM company that creates lock downs for PDF files via a client-server method and document encryption. This seems old hat in the textbook and business documentation world, but I wonder if Adobe will use this method to create a new SWF based DRM. For more clues I sat at work listening to the Gillmor Gang discuss DRM and video. They brought up the new Google Video store and how Google is using Flash (7 if you must know) to display its videos. One member of the gang (I forget his name) said (aroung the 18 minute mark) that Adobe and Macromedia's merger should bring DRM to Flash in the future so Flash can become a more viable content distribution model. I'm all for it... er let me clarify, I'd prefer DRM free content for ease of use etc, but if it must be there I want cross platform content, like Flash. In order words, that new VH1 video site and the new Comedy Central video service are closed to my iBook due to lack of vision on the part of their developers (and the music industry, but that's another story), but if the content was Flash based (like CNN's free in page video) then the content would be semi cross platform (sorry Linux, wait for 8.5). The only question is: Is SWF (and On2 by association) better than WMV and M4V?

image from video for Flash

What does the future hold? Well Group Manager for Adobe's Developer Relations Team, Ben Watson is blogging with his personal crystal ball (and probably an internal memo describing the product map). He says Flex and Cold Fusion are getting some LiveCycle injections and he has even seen a Flash application mixed with Acrobat (like FlashPaper on steroids, I'm sure).

TUAW has the scoop including a list of his predictions. I just wonder what cool new apps they haven't thought up yet. Why not release a Flash AfterEffects hybrid that uses Flash as the GUI to create a video effects program that simpler than iMovie yet cooler than anything on the market.