Adobe announced on Tuesday that it is adding support for the H.264 video codec to its Flash Player 9 software. Adding the codec will allow the Flash Player application to play HD quality video and audio, but for now it will be available only as a public beta.
Adobe also said that its Adobe Integrated Runtime environment, or AIR, will also support H.264, which means that applications developed using the cross platform development tool -- including Adobe Media Player -- will also support the codec.
H.264 is used by Apple, is found in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, and is also used in High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio files.
The H.264-compatible beta version of Flash Player 9 will be available some time on Tuesday at the Adobe Labs Web site.