BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Adobe Systems Inc. unveiled on Sunday video-player software that is due to become available to consumers over the next several months, Adobe officials said.

The video player lets consumers play back video online or offline, a move that could help reshape an acrimonious debate over video-sharing.

Adobe Video Player builds on the leading design software maker's Flash player, already the dominant technology used to stream video online by sites ranging from YouTube to MySpace to MSN to Yahoo Video.

Analysts hailed the new Adobe Video player as a technology breakthrough by allowing consumers to download and carry video from the Web to computers to mobile phones, while ensuring programmers can deliver advertising and track video usage.

"Adobe has created the first way for media companies to release video content, secure in the knowledge that advertising goes with it," Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said.

"Control is something that media companies absolutely get high on," he said.

Adobe Media Player offers higher-quality Flash video, full-screen playback and the ability to be disconnected from the Web -- on airplanes, for example. Viewers also can search for shows or share their ratings of shows with other viewers and automatically download new episodes of shows.

Mark Randall, chief strategist for dynamic media, said Adobe is working with a wide range of media companies, and plans to announce partnership deals next month.

The Adobe Video Player offers a way for established media companies to securely offer ad-supported video but also independent video producers, pod casters and home movie makers.