Previously using Feedroom as its main video platform, the New York Times has just redesigned its video page to use the new Brightcove 3 player. The player will enable the Times to show off high-definition video, and perhaps earn them a little cash in the process (The New York Times is an investor in Brightcove).

The switch allows the paper to stream high-definition video to its readers as well as distribute that video to other sites. The video is a pretty decent quality, coming in at 1.5 megabits per second which is pretty close to DVD quality.

One cool thing about the Brightcove 3 player is that it adjusts the resolution of the video a viewer can see based on their own systems abilities. The video someone gets on their old PC using dial up with be a lower resolution that another viewer would get on the newest Alienware PC with a cable connection. While getting a lower quality video isn’t exactly appealing to anyone, it could be a definite plus for people with PC’s that simply can’t handle downloading large high definition video files.

I’m for one pretty excited about the Times switching over to high-definition video. I really like to see video in the highest resolution possible (who doesn’t really?) and it can be frustrating to watch video off news sites knowing that it could potentially be better. Switching to HD is a good move for the paper, who has recently started to go through some financial troubles.

The Silicon Valley insider reported last week that the New York Times has only $46 million of cash on hand, with their total debt coming in at a staggering $1.1 billion. The Insider said that the Times was reaching a point where they would have to start managing the business in such a way to keep itself from defaulting on loans.

Switching to Brightcove, while in my opinion a good decision, may have been more financially motivated rather than quality motivated.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am under Online video, Uncategorized.

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