ABC.com officially made their switch away from Flash Video on the Full Episode Streaming site (which I had a hand in constructing at Schematic) over to MOVE Networks. Sorta sucks [BIG TIME] for Adobe, but I think it’s about time they got a bit of a wake up call. Flash Media Server (or FMS) is too expensive, DRM (or Digital Rights Management) is not available for Flash Video, and the quality of full screen video from MOVE blows Flash 8 Video out of the park (yes, even the On2 VP6 codec). Sure it’s just one broadcast network, but once one company makes a decision, similar businesses look at the reasons why. I wouldn’t be surprised if more content moved away from Flash Video if these things don’t change fast. 

Note: The small video windows on ABC.com are still Flash Video. I’m talking about the mini site that lets you watch full episodes.

While I’ve been told that it’s possible to upload FLV files to YouTube.com, I haven’t gotten any of my recent FLV files encoded by Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 to work on my YouTube.com. I recently tried Blip.tv’s free video upload service, and I’m happy to report that my 1Mbps Flash Video worked like a charm. You can compare the results yourself:

YouTube.com video upload (using their built-in transcoding software):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoCkPLhB9E

Blip.tv video upload (using my own 1Mbps VP6 compressed FLV file from Sorenson Squeeze):

http://www.blip.tv/file/174385/

After several months of downtime, I’ve been able to resurrect my sorely outdated .Text-based blog on my hosted accounts at Dataride.com. I’ll be posting more information related to my forthcoming books–mainly, the next edition of the Flash Bible (Wiley) and my new Flash Video Studio Techniques book (Adobe Press/Peachpit). My co-author and wife, Snow Dowd, and I are also preparing for the birth of our first child in late May. In other words, I’ve got my hands full and the baby isn’t even here yet! More to come…