MSNBC.com launches cool new video player

By Don Day 

MSNBC.com unleashed its new video player to the masses today, and it offers a raft of features. The video quality is top-notch, and it uses Flash. The player screen itself is nice and roomy, measuring about 600 pixels wide. While a clip is playing, related links display along the bottom of the player, and the video clip pauses if you decide to take a look.

When you select a clip, a playlist comes along with it, putting several related clips in the queue. Also, three pre-programmed playlists are available in the upper left-hand side of the player window — including Top Videos, Most Viewed, and Weird News. Other navigation mirros MSNBC.com’s text-side navigation, with US News, Politics, Business etc. Embeddable video clips and search will be available “soon.”

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When a pre-roll plays, a medium rectangle replaces the left navigation. It appears the new player is following the same approach as MSN Video, which is one pre-roll for every three minutes of use.

In full-screen mode, you can mouse-over the left screen to surface the nav.

Here’s the Alpha Channel blog entry on the player with the title, “Don’t kill your television (we’re still in beta).”

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