Apple Opens Door to Hardware-Accelerated Decoding of H.264 Video in Flash

[MacRumors]

Michael Tsai reports (via Daring Fireball) that Apple has posted a new technical note describing how third-party developers can tap into hardware-accelerated decoding of H.264 video on compatible graphics cards.

The Video Decode Acceleration framework is a C programming interface providing low-level access to the H.264 decoding capabilities of compatible GPUs such as the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M. It is intended for use by advanced developers who specifically need hardware accelerated decode of video frames.

The move appears to provide Adobe with the means to implement hardware acceleration in its Flash Player, a feature that is utilized in Flash Player 10.1 for Windows to improve performance, but not included in the Mac OS X version due to Apple's refusal (until now) to allow third parties access to the required APIs for implementation.

Flash performance on the Mac has been widely shown to be inferior to that on Windows, a deficiency that Adobe has noted it is working to address. Apple's offer of access to the tools necessary to implement hardware acceleration for video decoding appears to offer Adobe another avenue by which it can work to bring Flash performance on the Mac up to that on Windows.

The technical note appears to have been first posted on March 29th.

Article Link: Apple Opens Door to Hardware-Accelerated Decoding of H.264 Video in Flash and Other Platforms

 

[thecartoonguy]

It has begun

 

[Eidorian]

The best news I've heard in ages. It's limited to the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M though.

 

[flopticalcube]

HA! I knew replacing my GMA950 mini with a 9400M one would pay off!

 

[ChazUK]

DIE FLASH DI....... WHAT?

 

[TennisandMusic]

I hope the fanboys take note of this. Flash sucks on OSX because of Apple. I've used it on Windows for years, and it runs perfectly. Hopefully this will go to alleviate some of the differences.

 

[macUser2007]

Let's hope it works.

I suppose Jobs decided all this talk about Flash in the media, and how it sucks on Macs, may lose some hardware sales, so he is changing his mind and offering some badly needed access to Adobe.

Of course, the walled garden on the iPhone/iPad is off limits, since Flash will allow developers and media providers to bypass the App Store/iTunes.

 

[goobot]

so this has been known since march? nice

 

[Eidorian]

The name sounds familiar. Remember that the year of HD was 2005.

 

[gceo]

Wow. Just wow.


Apple is the king of spin.They had everyone thinking that it was Adobe's fault that Flash sucked on OSX.


It's a bummer that Apple is forcing me to lose some love for them.

 

[DivineEvil]

Great news! I hope Flash becomes less power hungry by getting those APIs... I hate when the fans on my MBP 13" starts spinning like crazy by simply playing a flash game! While in Windows the same game is way less noisy and cooler...

 

[TennisandMusic]

Wow. Just wow.


Apple is the king of spin.They had everyone thinking that it was Adobe's fault that Flash sucked on OSX.


It's a bummer that Apple is forcing me to lose some love for them.

Not really. Not everyone. I mean...people who actually knew about the issue knew it's because of Apple's restricted API's and that they didn't allow access to certain things. Kind of ridiculous/bizarre isn't it?

 

[swarmster]

I hope the fanboys take note of this. Flash sucks on OSX because of Apple. I've used it on Windows for years, and it runs perfectly. Hopefully this will go to alleviate some of the differences.

Windows' Flash has only had hardware acceleration since 10.1. What caused Flash to suck on Mac OS for all the versions before that?

 

[runeasgar]

if adobe can use this to make flash less sucky on the mac, i'll be the first person to stop hating them.

i still hope html5 takes over for video, but i'd love for flash not to destroy my battery life.

 

[lPHONE]

Translation, anyone?

 

[dscuber9000]

Can we just ban the mention of Flash on this Website to cut down on the flame riots?

 

[Enuratique]

The best news I've heard in ages. It's limited to the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M though.

Hmm, yes WTF... My 2008 iMac with a nVidia GeForce 8800GS is incapable of hardware acceleration? Hope they update the drivers to support this...

 

[dagamer34]

The best news I've heard in ages. It's limited to the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M though.

"such as" != "only"

I think they were specifically mentioning mobile platforms.

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

Fenx Lord Hezuz almighty!!!!!

And about frekn time too...

 

[Eidorian]

"such as" != "only"

I think they were specifically mentioning mobile platforms.

What about the 8600M GT and 9600M GT then? VDPAU is limited to nVidia GPUs as it is. I understand that.

 

[macslayer118]

Does this mean flash on the iPhone?

 

[amac4me]

This sounds interesting ... let's see what Adobe has to say.

 

[lPHONE]

Windows' Flash has only had hardware acceleration since 10.1. What caused Flash to suck on Mac OS for all the versions before that?

I'd like to know too.

 

[Starflyer]

I hope the fanboys take note of this. Flash sucks on OSX because of Apple. I've used it on Windows for years, and it runs perfectly. Hopefully this will go to alleviate some of the differences.

Wow. Just wow.


Apple is the king of spin.They had everyone thinking that it was Adobe's fault that Flash sucked on OSX.


It's a bummer that Apple is forcing me to lose some love for them.

I'll give you that excuse for H.264 video, but what makes other the aspects of Flash run better on Windows?

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Great news!

My MacBook 2.1 almost self-destructs whenever I try playing a Flash vid