The Adobe Media Player debuted this week, and after learning a little more at the launch party and trying it out myself, I’ll share a few thoughts on it. You can also find a screencast I created with the visuals (no voiceover); next time I’ll resize it and embed it, but it’s my first screencast, so I appreciate your patience.

First, a few thoughts on the player:

* It’s the second announcement lately with the AMP acronym. Yahoo also previewed its own AMP, the Advertising Management Platform. The two are not related, though if Adobe became a Yahoo partner, maybe AMP could become part of AMP. Or maybe Adobe will acquire Yahoo, or Yahoo will outsource its search ad delivery to Adobe. Anything can happen these days.

* Oh, the player… it’s pretty good. Maybe it’s revolutionary. The biggest problem is its a downloadable media player, and people aren’t in a rush to download more stuff to their desktops. Then again, it may well provide people with an easier way to access their favorite content, so there is some sort of value proposition for the consumer.

* The player allows you to either stream or download your shows, and you can subscribe to them like a podcast.

* The content includes lots of premium goodies from MTV, HGTV, Food Network, and elsewhere, and then lots of random stuff from online video sources covering everything from men’s style to international cartoons. The important thing: it does have The Hills.

* Advertising can take any form – overlays, pre-rolls, potentially pop-ups… you name it. They can serve just about anything. It’s up to the content provider. If MTV likes 10 overlays per 20 minutes and HGTV likes 2 30-second spots (all hypothetical), that’s what you’ll get.

* The launch party was fantastic, held at Chop Suey on the second floor of the Renaissance Hotel overlooking Times Square from the north side.  They welcomed guests’ companies on a massive Times Square billboard and snapped people’s photos in front of it. Then they did live demos by controlling that billboard. I’ll post the shots when I have them.

Here’s how AMP (Adobe’s) compares to other media players out there:

Hulu: Hulu’s web-only. You can select favorite shows but you don’t subscribe to the content. Also, Hulu’s content deals aren’t as far-ranging as AMP’s right now, though they have more full seasons, plus movies.

iTunes: iTunes is download-only. While you can subscribe to video podcasts automatically, you have to pay for most of the premium content that you’ll find on AMP. One iTunes advantage: you can port your videos on your iPod. iTunes also works with Apple TV.

RealPlayer: I know it’s still around, but does anyone use this? I always resented that it tried making you add a million other things you didn’t want and took forever to go through its installation.

Veoh TV: The downloadable Veoh scrapes the web for content rather than forming content partnerships like AMP.

Joost: The quality’s great on Joost but the controls aren’t, and then as for content, while they have a few name-brand shows, most of it’s stuff like Extreme Jackalope Racing and Omaha Beach Party.

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Backing up and restoring licenses

Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses). However, depending upon where your protected files came from, you might be able to restore your rights over the Internet.

If you encounter an error message that indicates you are missing play, burn, or sync rights for a file and you had these rights previously, you might be able to resolve the problem by restoring your media usage rights. You have several options to do so:

If you obtained the file from an online store, contact the store to find out if it offers media usage rights (license) restoration (some stores refer to this procedure as computer activation, computer authorization, or license synchronization).

The procedure for restoring your rights varies from store to store. For example, you might be able to right-click the file in your library or click an Error button or an Information button next to the file, and then click a command. Or you might be required to delete the file from your computer and then download the file again.

The store might limit the number of times that you can restore your rights or limit the number of computers on which can use the songs or videos that you obtain from them. Some stores do not permit you to restore media usage rights at all.

For details, see the store’s customer support or Help links.

If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.

As you can see, you can no longer back up your music “rights”, ensuring a fail-safe if something goes wrong. Microsoft is basically saying it has no responsibility to protect your purchase, and that some stores won’t even bother to help you if you lose your music. In the end, the music store can choose to give you as few or as many rights as it wants. And if you want to switch stores, well, you’ll have to buy your music all over again.

See, when it comes to legally downloaded music, this is why I prefer the subscription model. If I don’t really own the music anyway, and I have to deal with licenses and such, I’d rather have a means of switching stores without taking a huge hit. If I buy my music, I might have to re-buy it for a new music store or a new device, but if I subscribe, I can switch stores easily.

I really don’t like the idea of copy protecting music ripped from CDs. It’ll never work with every ripping program, and it only convinces MP3 player owners not to buy a CD. When you listen to most of your music on an iPod (or a Zune or whatever), why would you ever buy a CD you couldn’t rip? In this day and market, the idea is preposterous.

More at Slashdot, and hysterical ranting at the Enquirer.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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Looks like the readers are focusing on hard drive space. I think that’s the wrong place to look.

At Gnomedex I was going around asking people how many megs they had stored on their iPod. Average answer was around 8GBs. So, having only 30 isn’t necessarily a deal killer.

Second, it’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft has a wifi exclusive for very long.

If Apple lets Microsoft have that for more than a month you’ll see people saying that Apple is dying again.

I’d take a 30GB player with Wifi over a 60GB player without any day of the week.

Why? Cause I hate wires. But, with Wifi I could listen to streaming audio or video again. And, Microsoft is more willing to bring me a subscription music service than Apple seems to be. I’d rather have a player that gives me a choice on that account.

As for not working with “Plays for Sure.” Well, this is cause that program had no teeth. I heard that players were released that wouldn’t play for sure and that made that program unusable.

As to “leaks” coming out? Well, Microsoft can’t control partners and non-employees, or even employees. I doubt this stuff is being leaked on purpose.

I’m sure the PM’s are furious about this stuff being disclosed.

The most disappointing thing about all these rumors? That this player won’t be released until next year.

I’m not waiting. I’m getting a new iPod with my equipment money this year.

How about you?

Update, Joshua Allen, Microsoft’s first blogger (seriously, he was) says to calm down. Good points. I got hot and in a bother about Longhorn and it still hasn’t shipped.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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Many expected not to see the XP version before Vista dropped, if at all, and the early arrival would suggest that Microsoft considers some of what is in WMP11, like the Urge music store, too important to wait much longer.

Expected changes in version 11 include “reverse sync” with portable devices (moving music from devices to computers), recoding copy-protected music and indexed search. The biggest change, of course, is the interface, which takes advantage of album art to give a fun, graphical means of browsing your music collection quickly.

(via Digg)

UPDATE: Ed Bott has a full list of what will be in Vista’s WMP11, but not XP’s version of 11:

• Playing content (including DRM) on your PC from another PC or device
• Viewing content from the Vista Media library on other PCs or digital devices, such as Tivo
• Playback of High Value video content
• Shell integration with Windows Media Player
• Content Indexer change notification to sync My Music and WMP library
• DVD Fullscreen playback enhancements
• DRM Transcode
• High quality video streaming over home networks
• Media foundation for playback

Damn. Well, it’s not like I wasn’t getting Vista anyways, but those who don’t are out of luck.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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