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Hi all,
I'm helping out my brother, who has three short videos he would like to show on his website. Currently they are only available as downloads (wmv).
I would like to offer them as downloads still, but also offer the opportunity to play them in most browsers. It seems that flash is the best choice for platform independence.
So, do you agree that flash is the best choice for a solution that will work in most browsers? One important constraint is that I have Linux only, no Windows. I have tried SWFTools, but unfortunately the video contains too many artifacts (even using the highest quality settings).
Does anybody know of a tool (preferably free/open source) that can convert an AVI (for example) to a flash file? Or, if I have the wrong idea, what approach to this problem would you recommend?
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styrmis,
You might try converting the movie to a common format like MPEG that can be played or streamed on most platforms without even needing the Marcromedia Flash plug-in installed.
Check out VLC. It is a great open-source video player and convertor that can help quite a bit.
-Craig
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Agreed... I block flash in my browsers because it's a cpu hog. particularly on my powerbook when i'm unplugged. I'd stick with MPEG of some sort.
Last edited by UnLogikal (2006-02-18 16:39:51)
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Thanks for the tips. I also block flash by default (mainly because of adverts).
I've used mencoder to convert the videos to MPEG2 just to see whether that would help avi2swf's conversion performance (it didn't).
So, I'll make the videos available in most of the codecs I have available, such as MPEG and xvid. I wasn't aware that MPEG could be embedded/streamed without a streaming server of some kind. I'll go read up on this.
Thanks!
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Streaming requires a streaming server, but various video formats allow for buffering, so that the video will start playing before it's completely downloaded.
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I've always had trouble setting up any kind of in-browser video player in Linux, but I've had no problem actually playing the files once I download them (with something like mplayer or xine). Please keep this in mind when creating your webpage, and be sure to provide regular old links directly to the video files alongside your embedded versions.
As for creating the streaming file, I've had good luck using Quicktime Pro on a mac. Export your video to quicktime format, and be sure to check the part that says "Prepare for Internet Streaming" and enable "Hinted Streaming", and activate keyframes. That'll allow the movie to start playing in the browser while the rest of it is downloaded.
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@odinsdream: not entirely correct. Simply "Prepare for internet streaming" > "Fast start" should do what you say (and is likely to be sufficient for this application). "Hinted Streaming" adds a significant amount to the file size, and that added streaming track doesn't help anything unless you're serving it via a streaming server. (Such as what cough DreamHost provides. shrug)
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Thanks for the clarification, atl. I'm by no means an expert. I just experimented and stopped when something worked.
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odinsdream wrote:
As for creating the streaming file, I've had good luck using Quicktime Pro on a mac. Export your video to quicktime format, and be sure to check the part that says "Prepare for Internet Streaming" and enable "Hinted Streaming", and activate keyframes. That'll allow the movie to start playing in the browser while the rest of it is downloaded.
In the Quicktime format, I guess ?
I've stopped using it years ago, on Windows it bloat the machine beyond sanity. It's not cross platform at all.
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I'm going to go with the flash video in the site, with the option to download in mpeg2 and xvid.
Afaik this is the most platform independent way to distribute a short movie. The fact that I cannot play quicktime/wmv movies in my own browser is quite a negative point against them.
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It depends on how widely you want to go in platform support. I would settle for the latest-and-greatest Quicktime H.264, the image kicks ass and it's very bandiwdth-friendly. But then again, I don't think you would be able to play it on free Unix systems (they have no QT).
If you want to be more cross-platform, then go for the conventional MPEG-2 with MP3 or AC3 sound, should be OK as well (but you will need an MPEG encoder).
I usually avoid Flash video like a plague. They adapted one of the worst video codecs (On2 VP6) for Flash Video, and it's only feature is that youc an play it with a different framerate than your Flash timeline (and you get an ugly controller component). Besides I'm not sure if Flash 7/8 is available on Linux. Video as SWF sucks tremendously.
Last edited by julik (2006-03-19 12:56:08)
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Everyone is very quick to disparage the use of Flash, perhaps because it is such an awful site design tool.
However, I still think that it is the most cross-platform solution for viewing video in a browser. Look at Google Video and YouTube.
Viewing on a PC is a different question with a very simple answer, so that is not in question here.
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styrmis, it's the most cross-platfoirm (though I doubt if it works properly on Linux - so you have it actually on 3 platforms, Mac, Win and Linux x86). If you let Linux go you can make dramatically better image with much less bandwidth use, avoiding flash altogether.
I made a typo in my post above. But nevertheless, you decide.I still look at the use of Flash for video as if it was a perversion (because that's what I think it is).
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I've exported and uploaded regular, hinted, non-hinted, "Fast Start" and "Prepare for Streaming" variations of the same Quicktime MOV to Textdrive. It's a JPEG slide show, which has no option for keyframes.
My goal is not streaming video, but progressive video that starts playing as soon as enough is downloaded. Right now users give up thinking it's not working but in fact it's just a slow download of the 8 Mb file.
However, all versions of my video open in exactly the same way -- that is, nothing plays until they're fully downloaded.
What am I doing wrong or are there specific server - side settings I need to have support adjust for my account?
Does the codec matter?
atl wrote:
@odinsdream: not entirely correct. Simply "Prepare for internet streaming" > "Fast start" should do what you say (and is likely to be sufficient for this application). "Hinted Streaming" adds a significant amount to the file size, and that added streaming track doesn't help anything unless you're serving it via a streaming server. (Such as what cough DreamHost provides. shrug)
Last edited by Tsuma (2006-04-21 15:01:53)
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Tsuma, I believe you need to use some software which wraps the video in a player application (which might be invisible, i.e. no controls visible). My brother sent me a flash video he had created using some Windows shareware and it consisted of an .flv file (the video) and a .swf which loaded the content (presumably doing its best to emulate streaming).
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Tsuma; I encoded this video in the method I described earlier, and it begins playback when enough is downloaded, at least in the browsers I've tried, and with normal quicktime player.
http://simplykiwi.com/snl-lazy_sunday.movLast edited by odinsdream (2006-04-21 18:35:22)
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why not upload it to Google Video or YouTube, both of these services are free and provide an embeddable player that you can stick on a homepage, plus it may improve the circulation of your video (if that is the intention).
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styrmis wrote:
Tsuma, I believe you need to use some software which wraps the video in a player application (which might be invisible, i.e. no controls visible). My brother sent me a flash video he had created using some Windows shareware and it consisted of an .flv file (the video) and a .swf which loaded the content (presumably doing its best to emulate streaming).
Actually I do want the controls to be visible -- it's a JPEG encoded slide show easily created with my media management app, iView Media Pro, that makes it easier for my customers to select prints they want to order.
Here's an example (again, be patient because it's not a progressive download).
http://roskar.textdriven.com/PershingLAX/2006-04-22_Varsity_vs_HAKLAX.mov
The catch is -- any export to any other file format loses my Chapter index (lower right).
Oh well.
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Tsuma
You need to read
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html
and
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/QuickTime/RM/Streaming/StreamingClient/B-Chapter/chapter_1000_section_1.html
To learn when to use which sort of "streaming" and which (rtp/http) gives you what.
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odinsdream, your video is really funny
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+1 for the vid' o'sdream!
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styrmis wrote:
Does anybody know of a tool (preferably free/open source) that can convert an AVI (for example) to a flash file?
you wrote you have linux only, it's a problem :) i know a great amount of such programs for windows! but there's a free online converting service vidflash.com where you can upload and convert video (and other formats) to flash (and to other formats too). you will not need to install any codecs and software.
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