I'm not so sure I agree. I've had a quick play around with the ABC Playback website and it all seems to work for me.
The ABC Now website seems to require Microsoft Windows Media Player or Real Player to see video. The ABC Playback website seems to require Adobe Flash Player. And as far as I can tell, it seems that everything to do with the video streaming and the menus and navigation and all that malarkey is flash. If you want to use the ABC Playback service you need an up to date browser with flash installed. We *have* flash. Yes, I know it's proprietary software and in an ideal world the ABC would utilize a format that can be played by "out-of-the-box" linux distributions, but really, if I can get the content I am happy. Adobe has given us a *native* linux client to use, for free (as in beer). There are plenty of proprietary file formats that we linux users cannot use at all. Flash is our friend. Now let us all give thanks that the ABC did not decide to offer their video service using Silverlight. I watched the demo video and it looked pretty neat. So I applied for the Beta test (it all worked for me). Hopefully if I get in I can give them some "Only-Uses-Linux" style feedback. If for some reason being a linux user prevents me from using the service at all, I will tell them what I think. >> embedding an mpeg stream is easy enough todo in HTML. I'm guessing that the reason that so many websites use streams rather than files for video is that it makes it harder for us web users to trample on the rights of copyright owners by keeping a copy on our hard-drives. Cheers, Darren. P.S. If you watch the demo video you might spot that the browser used in the video could be Firefox, or at least a browser with tabbed browsing ability. On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 16:18 +1100, Rev Simon Rumble wrote: > "ABC website users will soon be able to watch TV shows in full-screen > format." > http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/12/2187599.htm > > The link on the front page to register for "ABC Playback" > (http://www.abc.net.au/playback/) doesn't work. > > Certainly if the experience with "ABC Now" is anything to go by, this is > going to be Windows-only with limited Mac support and no other OS > support. > > http://www.abc.net.au/now/#faq16 > > This page might be helpful: > http://www.abc.net.au/contact/complaints_process.htm > > Not sure how one requests a refund. > > -- > Rev Simon Rumble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > www.rumble.net > > The Tourist Engineer > Because geeks travel too. > http://engineer.openguides.org/ > > "Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most > of the time he will pick himself up and continue on." > - Winston Churchill -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
