Microsoft making a strategic investment in Move Networks, which helps deliver Web video for Silverlight-powered sites. Technically, the investment will be a follow-on to the $46 million C round Move announced last April. But it involves an undisclosed amount of new money
With the Olympics over (NBC’s video was all Silverlight, although not powered by Move), Microsoft is now focusing on the Democratic Convention Website, where Move will help to distribute the HD streams in Silverlight.
Yeah, I don’t need to see the party faithful in high-def either.
The video player seems to work pretty well. The video quality is great and I like that you can pull up the schedule and do other things while still playing. It has multiple views too, cause you know we can’t get enough views of politician greaseballs… haha
Obama-Biden… git some!
Wait – you need TWO plugins to use that site?
Silverlight AND the Move Networks plugin?
WTF?
If that isn’t “epic failure” for web development, I’m not sure what is.
You will only need one plugin. Move’s plugin will be integrated into Silverlight.
On the silverlight front, I was at a conference the other day here in Australia. I got to sit next to a guy from the ABC (Australian broadcast commission). I asked him about iView (Local version of BBC iPlayer) and about the future of the ABC and video on the net.
He dropped a bomb and said Silverlight.
I blogged about it here..
http://www.craf...ft-silverlight/
It has more details of the event and who dropped this information.
I personally think this is big news as we are not talking about companies connected in some way with Microsoft. We are talking about an independent and open TV broadcaster selecting Silverlight.
I have a Mac; Will it work with Mac? Will it take over
video streaming?
Doesn’t pretend to work in Linux. Isn’t loading for me on Mac OS X. Pretty delayed stream in Windows compared to CSPAN. A big yawn.
Works on Intel Macs, just not PPC ones.
Linux support for Silverlight is coming – the Mono team are working on the Moonlight project which will provide the same experience.
I can’t see CSPAN in the office, I can’t choose which clips to watch when on the TV. So it’s a great story for me.
@emily – yes, in the future, Move will be part of Silverlight – but it is insane in 2008 to ask users to DL 2 plugins to watch video online – even if it is HD. The video is spectacular – but the plugin thing is a deal-breaker.
Doesn’t seem to be a huge deal breaker plenty of people are doing it…
This is the same hurdle we all face as new technologies are developed. The workflow is a bit obtuse now but as the two companies work together one plug-in will become palatable.
It is worth noting that Flash Player 10 and others will also require yet another download and/or upgrade workflow.
They already have a pretty high penetration rate of the Move codec, thanks to being on broadcast sites such as FOX and ABC, I believe. Their product is straight up impressive, clearly best in breed, and I think people will continue to run the install to get access to their streams. Wow.
It’s a lesson for any company that develops technology backed by a plugin or rigid install progress… you have to put it in front of content that is compelling to the user so they accept the plug in.
If Move had not pursued getting such huge anchor customers early on they would never have seen the traction they have today. Same goes for flash ironically… Hulu asks you to upgrade to a new Flash player for their “HD” gallery.
http://hmmconve...nt.blogspot.com
With that information, I think we Linux users will never see the promised pluging Movenetworks said they where working on.
F… Microsoft for this.
Linux users really need to focus their energies on this… Bond together and make a public outcry so that further damage will not occur.
Write your congressman, whitehouse.gov, inform the DOJ Antitrust division, call this stuff out from the mountain tops.
Linux must not be blocked this way!
http://digg.com...by_movenetworks