Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 20, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
At NAB, Adobe introduced a version of Flash that allows consumers to watch video streamed over the internet directly on a television without routing it through a PC or media player.
Adobe has secured support for its Flash Platform for the Digital Home from industry partners and content producers including Intel, Comcast, Broadcom, Netflix, Disney Interactive Media Group, Atlantic Records, and The New York Times. Adobe is making the platform available to television manufacturers. The company said the first devices and processors were expected in the second half of the year.
Adobe’s approach to delivering internet video to televisions differs from other industry plans. Microsoft promotes a PC optimized for the digital home as the playback device, which in turn requires a monitor or television as its display. Adobe is taking a direct route: the new Flash platform is intended to let content providers stream material directly to viewers’ screens. Output through set-top boxes and Blu-ray players is also planned.
Consumer-electronics vendors including Philips and Panasonic have already announced devices with limited internet functionality. Direct retrieval of video and audio from the internet would extend these devices and reduce dependence on physical media and complex networks of additional equipment. The English trade magazine Digital Arts quoted industry observer Tim Bajarin as saying that cable and satellite providers were slow-moving and that it was time to offer new experiences and enable sharing of content not dictated by service providers.
Adobe is demonstrating the technology at stand SL3320 in the South Hall during the Las Vegas show.
