Pros and cons, right? Adobe content is free, but you're limited to the choices as presented. Pay through the stores found on Windows or RealNetworks and you get a far wider range of materials. Much will depend on Adobe's ability to get its hands on content people want.
When users do get hold of that content, they are able to adjust a range of preferences quickly and easily through the Options tab.
For example, it is possible to pre-set the number of new episodes you want to see on the home page. Set the number of allowable active downloads, tweak privacy settings and choose viewing preferences.
Still, none of this stops the Adobe interface from being, well, kind of ugly.
It's a terrifically functional interface, as we've already mentioned, but it has all the sparkle and pizzazz of a wet dishrag. The entire background of a page is a delightful mélange of black and grey. Inactive menu slugs are white. The menu title in play is pumpkin orange. The genre tabs are three shades of yellow-and-green.
We came here for media content, peppy cartoons, and shows about gourmet beer. We're looking at a front page that seems almost funereal.
Will a drab design ring a death knell for Adobe Media Player? Not necessarily. In the final analysis users will be more apt to judge on substance than on style. When it comes to substance, comparisons will inevitably be made between the offering from Adobe — a big and formidable name — and Windows and RealNetworks, both weighty players in their own right.
As the later entrant to the field, Adobe will be challenged to prove itself against Windows and RealNetworks. But really there is no contest here in the apples-to-oranges sense — Adobe's product diverges so starkly from the others that to call them all media players does a universal disservice.
In terms of function, a media player that will not play music cannot reasonably be said to be in competition with two of the most substantial desktop music players available.
In terms of content, free television versus multiple services delivering a range of paid video hardly makes for a fair comparison.
So its comes down to functionality and ease of use.
Adobe's interface is sparse and simple, true, but maybe that is the product not just of design but of the relative dearth of functionality. It can be hard at first to navigate all of Windows' tools and views and play options, but perhaps that's the price we pay for having such options available in the first place.
The same holds true for RealPlayer, which in fact looks and feels a lot like the Windows offering. The chief aspect setting RealPlayer apart from the pack is that it is famously buggy, crashing and freezing and generally wreaking havoc on your system. Score one here for Adobe.
Side by side — there is no side by side. Adobe does not have to prove itself against Windows or RealPlayer. Adobe needs to strut itself and show that it has more to offer than what we are seeing today.
Pros: Super-simple navigation; clean, easy-to-use (if somewhat uninspiring) interface; solid if not overwhelming supply of free TV episode and other video content to choose from
Cons: No support for music, somewhat meager depth of content relative to RealPlayer and Windows Media Player, interface has all the sparkle and pizzazz of a wet dishrag
