Adobe updates Flash Player 9, adds HD video support

Adobe Systems on Tuesday released its Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 software, previously code named Moviestar. The latest update introduces support for H.264 video, the same standard used in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio capabilities.

The newest version of Flash Player 9 includes a slew of fixes for crashers and backwards compatibility issues. It also adds support for multi-core CPU’s and hardware acceleration to improve full-screen high definition video playback. The new version of the Flash player plug-in is currently available for Mac, Linux and Windows.

To boost support for the new format, Adobe also announced the Flash Media Server 3 family of products used to serve streaming Flash videos. The new product line includes the lower-priced “Adobe Flash Media Streaming Server 3” for single-server deployments –available at $995 – and the full-featured $4,500 “Flash Media Interactive Server 3” which includes support for customized scalable video streaming services.