Re: [LUG] BBC IPlayer - A U-Turn ?

["Ben Goodger" <goodgerster@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 16/10/2007, james kilty <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Is not the "open standard" MPEG4? If so, this agreement is still
pandering to the proprietary players. Surely the BBC could have insisted
on ISO standards and the MSs and Adobes of the world would have to
follow. Is Flash somehow better than MPEG4?

The trouble is that Flash is, though not better than MPEG4, easier to do. You can control the UI of the player, the plugin is available on over 99% of your target market [1], etc. MPEG requires titting around with other plugins, and we all know how bright and scary the world of computers is to Windows users, so it's much easier to use something they all have. I personally also despise VLC/Totem/etc's mozilla plugins; YouTube simply works much better.

[1] - Windows, Macintosh, Linux (x86/x86-64), probably others

-- 
Benjamin F. Goodger
~ design and ideas lab ~
-- 
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list
FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html