H.264 on Windows

As I noted a month or so ago, Microsoft are including H.264 video support in their Flash-competitor Silverlight 2, which means the format has made a clean sweep of transports… with one exception: Windows Media Player.

That logic hole is now set to be plugged: the Windows 7 preview Microsoft is showing at their developer conference this week includes a new version of Windows Media Player, and it handles H.264. Hallelujah.

Now we just have to wait for WMP v12 (!) to be finally released, and to trickle its way down to a sizable proportion of desktops. Then, finally, we’ll have one codec to rule them all.

Mind you, given Vista’s adoption rates, that could take another five years, even if Windows 7 ships on time in the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, Apple have publicly announced — or rather, are reported to have announced, but can I find the link right now? Can I monkeys — full support for AVCHD and Panasonic’s AVCCAM metadata extensions in a forthcoming release of Final Cut. It’s unclear, however, whether this will be a point update, or the presumed-rewrite-to-64-bit-Cocoa-and-Grand-Central Final Cut Studio 3 we’re all expecting sometime next year.

Fingers crossed for ‘both.’ I want my HMC151 support!