Flash video player on your website

[wagsy 0]

There are many sites now days one can load up videos clips to but if you have a website that you want to load video clips to then here is a cool way to do it.

 

Go to Adobes website and grab yourself the source files for their dynamic FLASH video player. You will find information on how it all works and you need Flash CS3 as it’s written in AS3 to adjust it to fit your site.

 

Now FLASH flv video’s may not be the best vp6 codec out there but everyone has the FLASH player on their computers so you know it’s going to work. For HD render out flv - VP6 files to 960/540 @ CBR 1.5mpbs. This will give you a good file that’s balanced between quality and realtime playback. In a few years as the net catches up one will be able to increase the mbps but 1.5mbp seems to work best for now. Another cool thing is you have the ability to watch them at full screen now with FLASH 9 player. I have still to play around with the H.264 codec that now is part of the flash 9 player.

 

The videos and thumbnails are loaded into the player via XML which has all the links to the thumbnails and video’s making it really easy to add more clips as you go along. If you do this make sure you have lots of bandwidth with you web site host.

 

Anyhow if you want to have a look at it in action go to our www.hdvunderwater.com site as we have just installed it and will keep adding more clips as we make them. Look for the HD FULL SCREEN ones but the other smaller ones can be viewed full screen as well.

 

Happy web videoing……

PS...O yeah you should use royalty free music as well...need to change a few myself. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

 

 

[mexwell 0]

Hi Wagsy,

 

can you suggest a good flash encoder for HD material?

 

I would switch from DIVX to Flash but the low cost tools dont have proper HD suport and

I am not willing to pay more than 100 for such a tool

[wagsy 0]

Hello Christian

 

You can use SUPER © http://www.erightsoft.net/home.html it's a free encoder which can make flv and QT H.264 files. Have fun finding the download link on that site.

It can encode your HDV m2t files to flv or H.264.

QT H.264 files are now supported by the latest FLASH player but you have to have the latest flash player installed or the H.264 ones will not work.

 

Good luck.

[wagsy 0]

UPDATE.

For those that want a look, I have loaded up some simple H.264 clips to the FLASH interface now.

My next step is to find the best way to encode out H.264.

From what I have seen so far, H.264 files done with free open source encoders are better than the commercial ones as one can use custom scripts.

http://www.hdvunderwater.com

[wagsy 0]

Update 2

 

Well after spending quite abit of time testing out different encoders to make FLASH H.264 clips, I think I have found a good one.

If you go here you can see the results....remember you need the latest FLASH player to watch it.

 

http://www.hdvunderwater.com/flash_H.264/HD.html

 

Specs:

FLASH - 960/540 H.264 file encoded out at a single pass CBR 1.5mps.

It was put together on a PC using FLASH CS3 - AS3.

 

The file was encoded with a FREE open source encoder from a HDV 1440/1080 m2t clip. (gee I luv PC's)

The encoder specs can be fully customized and best of all it maxed out all 4 cores on my 3.2 ghz QUAD PC when encoding....yep that's 100% on all 4 cores.

 

Considering the low 1.5mbps it's encoded out at and how hard blue water is to encode, it looks not bad....watch it full screen.

My beautiful wife shot it all while snorkeling.

 

I'm still fine tuning the encoder for even better results.

[mexwell 0]

Hi Wagsy,

 

did you use SUPER for it? I gave SUPER a shot and H.264 works fine in avi or mp4 container, thanks for the hint!

But it seeems, that SUPER does not support Flash H.264 right now...

[wagsy 0]

No I did not use Super to encode that H.264 clip however you can make H.264-mov files with super@.

I have done it many times...have a look around more in Super.

 

You will have to rename the file once made though as it uses the input files name once made.

There is no special FLASH QT file it's just a normal H.264 that the latest player can use.

[jonny shaw 16]

Hey Wags,

 

Do you ever use sorenson squeeze for your flash encodes, if so how do you find it to the programs that you are currently using. I'm not sure whether it is a mac only program????

 

Jon

[TheRealDrew 0]

Update 2

 

Well after spending quite abit of time testing out different encoders to make FLASH H.264 clips, I think I have found a good one.

If you go here you can see the results....remember you need the latest FLASH player to watch it.

 

 

Looked good opened it to full screen on 17 inch laptop

[wagsy 0]

Cool...

 

Hi Jon

I messed around with sorenson squeeze once (PC version) and found FLASH 8 encoder VP6 was better on the PC here.

 

This encoder I messing around with here maxes out my QUAD CPU which makes for very fast encoding.

Using the average setting it will encode out a 960/540 H.264 file from a 1440/1080 m2t file faster than real time.

 

Don't forget to set your FLASH 9 player to Enable Hardware Acceleration for better full screen performance.

[wagsy 0]

UPDATE:

 

Have a new dynamic FLASH menu to play the flv and H.264 clips now.

You need the latest flash player to watch them.

 

H.264 CBR 1.5mbps so you may need to let them buffer abit if you have a slow connection.

http://www.hdvunderwater.com/

 

I'm building a 4T external video bay as we have just way to much stuff laying around on tapes to edit, so we should get lots of clips up there over time.

 

If you are looking for a great H.264 encoder, go over and look at the FREE MAC/PC http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

This thing will max out all 4 cores using a QUAD CPU and the speed at which it encodes out a H.264 file is pretty funny.

Leaves Mr Apple's QT encoding for dead.

It's highly configurable as well so it's not for the hand held push a button mob and make me a file folks.

 

Have fun....

[Texas diver 0]

OK, I've got a couple of amature questions.

 

Is there a difference between rendering and encoding?

 

I'm using Vegas Pro 8. I drop my *.m2t clips on the timeline to edit, and the result is a .veg file. I've been rendering from the file menu in Vegas, but I don't see an option for FLASH. Can I use an encoder like "medicoder" or "super" directly with the .veg file to obtain a FLASH format? Or do I render the .veg file in Vegas first? If I need to render in Vegas first, which format should I use to obtain the best results with one of the encoders mentioned?

 

Thanks for any advice offered.

 

Vic

[wagsy 0]

veg file, is that some type of vegetable

 

Rendering is when the timeline will not play in realtime so it has to render it so it does.

Encoding is when you encode some type of video file into another type of video file (codec) or yo encode out a file file from the timeline.

 

I would try the veg file in one of the encoders to see it it takes it.

To make a flash file you can manually set up the correct specs or import a preset from file/LoadPreset menu in mediacoder.

Super @ it's there as well, just have a play around, you will find it.

 

Here is another one I did.

Shot with the A1 in the EVO housing using a external 16.9 monitor ontop.

The batteries in the monitor whent all day.

I find the CMOS camera's WB better than the lager FX1 but the image is not a sharp.

This one was as shot, no color correction on the computer, just white balanced on what ever was down there till I was happy with the colour.

The water was green and dirty with swell but it came out OKAY.

 

http://www.hdvunderwater.com/flashHD/evo/evo.html