Comments on: BBC doesn’t get web video

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:13:34 +0000

Looks like they listened to you mate!

http://www.pixelbox.net/2007/06/08/bbc-trial-flash-for-video-content/

By: Pixelbox » BBC trial Flash for video content!

Pixelbox » BBC trial Flash for video content! — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:12:37 +0000

[...] A while ago Aral posted on how the BBC didn’t get video on the web and at the time I agreed but understood that BBC isn’t a normal website, and changing over may not be that simple. [...]

By: Delboy

Delboy — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:30:33 +0000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6625279.stm

By: aral

aral — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:05:29 +0000

Hi R,

Nope, didn’t know it — thanks for the heads up. Really worried that now the BBC is considering making their video Windows-only. I replied to their consultation questionnaire and hope that they reconsider.

By: R Freeman

R Freeman — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:45:20 +0000

Aral, did you know that Real went so far as to produce a special ‘BBC’ version of Realplayer, it’s stripped of all the adware. It’s the only version of Real that I run. Search for it on bbc.co.uk/webwise.

By: JD on EP

JD on EP — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:36:51 +0000

BBC DRM…

BBC DRM: The taxpayer-funded British Broadcasting Corporation decides on a plan to offer general web access while still providing value to those who were forced to subscribe. Their goals include both time-constrained access to all subscribers, as well …

By: dave crossland

dave crossland — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:38:17 +0000

@steve: Regarding how Gnash allows the user to control network connections, Rob Savoye, the lead developer of Gnash, wrote in a mailing list post:

“Many of the Flash movies one downloads off the net have tracking in
them that records hits on a web site when that movie is played. I only
realized this when I first added working network support to Gnash. This
is trivially easy to do in a Flash movie in a way that you’d only notice
if you are running a packet sniffer. Many Flash movies also load part of
their content from other sites, so while this isn’t spyware directly in
this case, you are still making network accesses the user is 100%
unaware of.

“This is why I added support for whitelists and blacklists to Gnash, so
the users can control what goes on under the hood. If you dig around on
the net, you’ll see that many sites, like YouTube, set the Flash
“localdomain” to “*”, that basically says load anything you want from
anywhere… I prefer a finer level of control for Gnash users.”

By: aral

aral — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:53:36 +0000

[sarcasm]Wow, that rocks![/sarcasm] How large is the Java plug-in again? :)

Here’s a thought: If Java was “as simple as Flash for the user”, Java would be where Flash is today.

Also, Flash video now supports full-screen playback.

And, finally, can you please qualify “bad quality of the flash video”?

By: Julian Deauville

Julian Deauville — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:49:43 +0000

Don’t forget the existence of Java Cortado Applet ( http://www.flumotion.net/cortado/ ) that could to be a fierce competitor for Flash.
Its advantages are :
1. 100% Free (Java, codec video Theora, codec audio Vorbis).
2. As simple as Flash for the user.
3. You can watch your video in full screen if the webmaster choose to put the link to the ogg video and watch it in the movie player of your choice.
4. The video have the quality of a ogg video traditional, not the bad quality of the flash video.

Some demo :
– http://stream.fluendo.com/demos.php
– http://www.ouvrirlesmedias.info/cortado/demo.html (in french but show the perfect integration of Cortado with Javascript).

By: Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:32:07 +0000

Martin, how is Flash in any way spyware? What are these “blasts of personal information” that your friend logged? Could they possibly have been domain-specific data being sent from the client to the server. If so, I do conceed that such blatant spyware like activity is being undertaken as we speak on nearly every web-site on the Internet today and perhaps we should take action against this crazy out-of-control spyware Internet. Just now, I believe that my blog transmitted my login information over the Internet to my server. I hear that some Ajax apps do this silently! Unbelievable!

I say we start with the spyware Ajax stuff and then lock down those browsers so they can’t transmit information over the Internet. That should make things secure for a while! :)

Seriously though, you shouldn’t be making baseless acusations (”spyware”) without proof. If you have some proof, please present it and I’ll be the first to support an open discussion about it.