YouTube for Apple TV uses H.264, not Flash [Updated]
Earlier this week, Apple announced that YouTube.com videos would become available on the Apple TV after a software update that will be made available in June.
iLounge spoke with Apple's Vice President of Worldwide Mac Hardware Marketing, David Moody, who provided more details about this upgrade.
According to Moody, not all of the Youtube catalog will be available on day one. Instead, "thousands of videos designed for Apple TV" will be available at launch, but that the remainder will become available by the fall. The reason for the delay is that Youtube will be encoding all of their videos into a "H.264 streaming-efficient compression format" specifically for the Apple TV. All of Youtube's videos are currently encoded in Flash Video (FLV) format.
While no official reason is given for the mass transcoding of Youtube's entire catalog, Macformat.co.uk believes it has to do with the iPhone.
As far as I know even now, Flash content per se might not play on the iPhone from day one. But Apple clearly doesn't indeed, shouldn't care, as YouTube is for many people the most critical site that uses Flash.
Indeed, both the iPod and iPhone can play H.264 encoded video, and so it seems the entire Youtube catalog may also become available to those devices later this year.
Updated: In an early iPhone FAQ, Jobs described this exact scenario:
Markoff: Flash?
Jobs: Well, you might see that.
Markoff: What about YouTube
Jobs: Yeah, YouTubeof course. But you dont need to have Flash to show YouTube. All you need to do is deal with YouTube. And plus, we could get em to up their video resolution at the same time, by using h.264 instead of the old codec.
Popular Stories
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...
