Editing Adobe Flash (section)

===Flash Video===
{{Main|Flash Video}}
Virtually all browser plugins for video are [[Gratis versus libre|free of charge]] and cross-platform, including Adobe's offering of Flash Video, which was introduced with Flash version 6. Flash Video had been a popular choice for websites due to the large [[#Installed user base|installed user base]] and programmability of Flash. In 2010, Apple publicly criticized Adobe Flash, including its implementation of video playback for not taking advantage of hardware acceleration, one reason Flash was not to be found on Apple's mobile devices. Soon after Apple's criticism, Adobe demoed and released a beta version of Flash 10.1, which used available GPU hardware acceleration even on a Mac. Flash 10.2 beta, released December 2010, added hardware acceleration for the whole video rendering pipeline.

Flash Player supports two distinct modes of video playback, and [[video codec|hardware accelerated video decoding]] may not be used for older video content. Such content causes excessive [[CPU usage]] compared to comparable content played with other players.
; Software Rendered Video: Flash Player supports software rendered video since version 6. Such video supports vector animations displayed above the video content. This obligation may, depending on graphic [[application programming interface|APIs]] exposed by the operating system, prohibit using a [[video overlay]], like a traditional [[Media player (application software)|multimedia player]] would use, with the consequence that [[color space|color space conversion]] and scaling must happen in software.<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://blogs.adobe.com/penguinswf/2010/01/solving_different_problems.html
 |title        = Solving Different Problems
 |last         = Melanson
 |first        = Mike
 |date         = January 27, 2010
 |website      = Penguin.SWF
 |access-date  = November 15, 2014
 |archive-date = August 10, 2011
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110810151509/http://blogs.adobe.com/penguinswf/2010/01/solving_different_problems.html
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref>
; Hardware Accelerated Video: Flash Player supports hardware accelerated video playback since version 10.2, for [[H.264]], F4V, and [[FLV]] video formats. Such video is displayed above all Flash content and takes advantage of [[video codec]] chipsets installed on the user's device. Developers must specifically use the "StageVideo" technology within Flash Player in order for hardware decoding to be enabled. Flash Player internally uses technologies such as [[DirectX Video Acceleration]] and [[OpenGL]] to do so.

In tests done by [[Ars Technica]] in 2008 and 2009, Adobe Flash Player performed better on [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] than [[macOS|Mac OS X]] and [[Linux]] with the same hardware.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/software/news/2008/10/benchmarking-flash-player-10.ars|title=Flash benchmarks on different operating systems|date=October 17, 2008|access-date=June 14, 2017|archive-date=May 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508112605/http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2008/10/benchmarking-flash-player-10.ars|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Paul |first=Ryan |url=https://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/10/hands-on-hulu-desktop-for-linux-beta-a-big-resource-hog.ars |title=Hands-on: Hulu Desktop for Linux beta a big resource hog |work=Ars Technica |date=October 16, 2009 |access-date=December 4, 2010 |archive-date=July 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716091404/http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/10/hands-on-hulu-desktop-for-linux-beta-a-big-resource-hog.ars |url-status=live }}</ref>
Performance has later improved for the latter two, on Mac OS X with Flash Player 10.1,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timo-ernst.net/2010/05/flash-player-10-1-performance-explosion/|title=Flash Player 10.1: Performance improvements for Mac OS X|date=May 6, 2010|access-date=January 26, 2011|archive-date=January 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106112736/http://www.timo-ernst.net/2010/05/flash-player-10-1-performance-explosion/|url-status=live}}</ref> and on Linux with Flash Player 11.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTc4Mw|title=Flash Player 11: More stable and faster for Linux|access-date=September 14, 2016|archive-date=September 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913200511/http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTc4Mw|url-status=live}}</ref>