[Ed Dooley]

No it’s not clear Daniel. Twice in the last few weeks I’ve had corporate clients say they can’t view the H.264 Flash we delivered, and weren’t willing to buck their IT people to update. They requested Flash 8 compatible video, which we dutifully provided. The real world (at least the one I inhabit, which includes big corporations seemingly still in the Stone Age) still has a place for ON2VP6, whether we like it or not. And why shouldn’t ON2 provide a better version? They’re in business, they have a product, they improved it, good for them. Not everyone shares your cynicism about ON2 and their claims, Jan Ozer did a review for Millimeter a while back (last year I think) and had the old VP6 and a beta of the new one, and compared it to H.264 and VC-1. It did much better than VC-1/WM9 and looked as good or better for some things than H.264. I agree it will be great when everyone can use H.264 for everything, but we ain’t there yet.
Ed

[Daniel Low] “I think one could summarise by saying that it is clear (more so than at any time recently) that you should be delivering your content encoded with H.264. It is clearly going to be the future delivery format of choice (if not already); viewable using Flash, sliverlight or the iPhone (and many other mobile devices). On2 has, and always will be fighting a loosing battle. The sad thing for them is that they keep making stupid claims about the superiority of their codec over H.264 that are so easily debunked in most, but not all cases. – See Doom9 forums and here:

https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/webvideo/story/encoding_web_video_in...”

[Ed Dooley]

Adobe released the beta version of the update (Update 3) last August, and followed up with the official release sometime after that (a couple of months later I think), so hard to pin down how many installs of Flash 9 can play H.264.
You’re correct, the new ON2VP6 is included in their free update, so you can get it right away and start using it, and yes, any Flash 8 or higher player can read and play the newer version.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

Got it right from the horses mouth, Adobe:
https://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html They rank them through March 2009, so it’s a little higher, I’m sure, but not much.
I don’t understand the VP6 comment. It’s part of all ON2’s products, so it’s a matter of updating whatever ON2 product you own, it’s free.
Ed

[Craig Seeman] “I’ve read that H.264 Flash compatible player was at about 90% a couple of months ago. I wish I could remember the source but it was reputable.

Updated On2VP6 codec only helps if it’s widely distributed to compression apps.

Given that the higher quality Hulu and YouTube HD videos are H.264 I’m guessing H.264 Flash penetration is very high.”

[Ed Dooley]

Adobe says Flash 10 has a 74.5% market penetration. They say Flash 9 is something like 98%, but what they don’t say is what the penetration of the updated Flash 9 that plays H.264 is. For now I’m going with the 75%+- number, which means that I’m not ready to use H.264 in Flash for a general audience. I’m giving it a few months, at least. ON2 has a new version of VP6 that they claim can get the same image quality with up to a 40% decrease in bandwidth, and it plays in Flash 8. I’ve seen a couple of tests that look pretty good.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

What I did was select the Dolby preset in one of the Apple DVD presets, click on the Duplicate Selected Setting at the top left of the Settings window (3rd button from the left), and changed the Normalization there. That Audio Preset can be named whatever you like, and can be used with any of the DVD video presets, or your own custom preset.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

In general I’d say no, most shooters don’t have more than one zoom lens, but… film-type video folks do sometimes use primes along with their stock zoom lens, and some folks will have a 2nd wider angle zoom or 2x extender/telephoto.
Some Fuji stock lenses aren’t that great, like the stock 16x on my HD-110, some are much better (and more expensive). I haven’t ever had a lens problem with any of the many Fujis I’ve owned over the years, so i can’t comment on their customer support.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

I’d really have to see how bad the rolling shutter is before saying that I would prefer the worse low-light performance and less DOF control of 1/3″ chips over the 1/2″ chips of the SONY. I know some very happy EX-3 owners who don’t see the rolling shutter as a problem for them at all, but I also know a number of shooters who went from 2/3″ SD cameras to 1/3″ HDV and really don’t like the low-light gathering ability of their newer cameras.
Ed (who owns a 1/3″ chip JVC HD-110 and hates its low light capabilities!)

[Shane Ross] ”
I don’t consider that an advantage at all. CMOS and rolling shutter are just plain unacceptable to me. Gimme 1/3″ CCDs any day. Besides, the most important thing is the LENS…not the sensor.

I saw this camera at NAB and really liked it. GREAT lens on it.”

[Rafael Amador] “The only advantage of the SONY’s may be that those use 1/2′ CMOS, while the JVC use a 1/3 CCD.”

[Shane Ross] “[Rafael Amador] “The only advantage of the SONY’s may be that those use 1/2′ CMOS, while the JVC use a 1/3 CCD.”

I don’t consider that an advantage at all. CMOS and rolling shutter are just plain unacceptable to me. Gimme 1/3″ CCDs any day. Besides, the most important thing is the LENS…not the sensor.

I saw this camera at NAB and really liked it. GREAT lens on it.”

[Ed Dooley]

Thanks!
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

Here in Vermont, close to the Canadian border, “border guidelines” means something totally different, I think. 🙂
I assume he means the title and action-safe guides, but hey, ya never know!
Ed

[Bret Williams] “Border guidelines? What is that?”

[Ed Dooley]

Yes that version did, there are lots of applause loops.
Ed