Streaming video in a flash site...
 

Can anyone tell me how I can get streaming video and player (QuickTime, Windows Media Player) to work in a flash site? I know nothing about this. Please help.




Thanks,
Nick

Hi Nicholas. First, the flash site doesn't need to have anything special to have video in it --except the video itself of course-- you just need the links to point to the right files.

The video files have to be in a format that can be easily streamed over HTTP and seen by a wide range of clients. That means using the right tool to encode the video. If you want to make the safest bet, this means using MPEG1, which most clients will be able to see with their default configuration. If you want better than MPEG1 bandwidth/quality ratio, you can use QuickTime, preferrably the latest version with the MPEG4 codec, or Windows Media, preferrably version 9. MPEG4 is supposed to be a widely adopted industry standard someday.

You also have to make sure the server where the videos will live has its MIME types set to correctly identify the files to the client. The server's administrator will help you out with that if needed, but modern servers are preconfigured for the most common media file formats.

Thank you very much, Ignacio.

I've imported the compressed QuickTime movie file into my Flash library, and dropped it onto my project. Do you know what code I need to put in the link button to make the movie load and play?


Thanks,
Nick

Sorry I am not a Flash user at all. However, the command or syntax for linking to the video should be the same as linking to anything else. Where you would place a link to another site such as "http://www.canal.cl/" y place a link to the video like this: "http://urloftheserver/directoryofvideos/videofile.mov". If what you want is to embed the video withing the context of a flash file, then you will need to invoke the plug-in. I don't know how that is done in flash but in standard HTML it is quite simple, there is a command for that which is available in most modern web site authoring programs or can be typed by hand directly into the HTML file.

also look at converting the mov to the flash format FLV... you can get a plugin to export directly from your editing program (Flash Video Exporter, supplied with the Flash MX Pro 2004 Install CD, probably downloadable from the macromedia site)

then, with a video object on the stage, you can use the NetConnection and NetStream actionscript to load the movies. If you scoot thru the help section and look up NetConnection the script is given there for you to copy/paste.
this is a bit fiddly tho if you're unfamiliar with actionscript

you should also check out the MediaPlayback components and progressive FLV download. I think for streaming video you will need to use a Flash Remoting Server but I've never actually set this up so only remembering what I've read in passing :)
The progressive FLV download thing works cool and you don't need a specific server

...not exactly what you set out to do but hope it helps!

> I think for streaming video you will need to
> use a Flash Remoting Server

Perhaps. The nice thing about QuickTime, Windows Media and MPEGs is they can be http-streamed from any webserver, no need for special server software.

Hi Nicholas


Streaming Movie with Flash.

There are two ways of doing it.
First you embed the file into flash directly The problem is that the in order to watch the movie you have to download the hole thing. This will take a lot of time and after a minute sound and video get out of sync.
The best way is to link the movie to a flash event.
You upload the file directly to you web server. No messing with the flash file itself. I use .mov format on the net.
If the user uses the Microsoft player, It will start to play the movie on the spot , buffering the rest.
I use this all the time and it works great. The Best thing is the fact Video and sound is never out of sync.

Hope this is some help

Stephan