On2 Technologies, Inc. has announced that it is developing a standalone product that will allow users to use a web browser to encode Flash 8 video on their own computers. The user can store the resulting video files either on their own PC or upload them to a central server for distribution.

The product will complement the browser-based capabilities of On2 Flix Engine, On2's existing enterprise -class Flash 8 video encoding solution. The new product will be intended specifically for consumer-level "point, click, and publish" applications by supporting capture from consumer video devices such as DV cameras, a customizable user interface, and streamlined uploading of the final encoded video to a publishing service.

The new service will allow On2 customers to license the technology and do the serving and streaming from any service they designate. The beta testing period for the product will begin shortly with a release target of early to the middle of the first quarter of 2006. The product will also be shipped with the On2 Flix Engine so customers can offer the two products as part of an umbrella service. Among the features of the new product are the following:

• One click video capture/encode/upload in Flash 8 format from within any Web browser that supports browser plug-in technology such as Microsoft's ActiveX
• Capture and encode video directly from a webcam or DV camera attached to the end-user's machine
• Encode existing video files on the user's machine
• Accept 3GP video files submitted from a mobile device
• Automatically uploads files via ftp, http, or other appropriate means to a designated distribution service
• Configuration options can be embedded within the web page containing the encoder object, including destination address, video data rate, video size, and other key parameters.

www.on2.com