April 25th 2004 | Jens C Brynildsen

Official Flash video Player?

Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni just got the heads up from Macromedia to reveal what he's been working on lately, a Flash video player.

Peldi started working for Macromedia some time ago, and now he's allowed to tell what he's been working on. This is more than the streaming media components that Macromedia currently offers. It appears to be in both a standalone and configurable SWF versions. It's skinnable, looks good, easy to configure and it plays back both local and streaming content. What makes us really curious is the inclusion of a FullScreen button. Can the Flash player actually do that, or will this be available only in the standalone?

Flash is already starting to dominate the web when it comes to video. An official and freely available standalone player could really kick things off. There are some available already. Check out Martijn de Visser's neat FLV player, made with Screenweaver. Looks like the next funny attachment you receive may be a FLV (FLash Video)?

Microsoft and Apple: look out! There's a new kid on the block and he's coming your way :)

Update: the player is now posted at Peldi's blog. Turns out the fullcreen-feature is JavaScript based and it is not a standalone executable after all. It's more like a set of files that make it easier to embed SWF's in plain HTML pages.
Read more here