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Video with Flash MX : A Users Guide : Session 1 of 3.

Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Video in Flash MX.
Danny Mavromatis and Mike Davidson, ESPN.com

Danny and Mike work for ESPN.com which is a very popular site. they do have some power to force users to change browsers.

Video in Flash

Image Sequences
Most primitive version of video in flash is a sequence of images. They are showing some Seinfeld clips that use the technique. Basically, take a video clip, export it as a sequence of images, and then import them into flash (flash will recornize that it is a sequence of images).
problems, no sound, although you can manually add it. it is essentially an image of jpgs. no temporal compression.

QuickTime
Flash Player is embedded in player. Pretty much flash 4 compatible, but can be a little buggy. more for adding effects on top of quicktime movies.

Video on Top of Flash
Interface in Flash, and then layer video ontop of flash using DHTML and iframes. Works pretty well. problems with browser support (due to DHTML).

The Importance of Flash MX Video

on mac, import an 1/8 of a second blank audio on first frame. set it to stream. this will make the video drop frames if it can’t keep up, which leads to better video flow.
Showing new ESPN video player. Flash Interface, with a layer of video (real or windows media) over flash. sometimes it will not come up, can take a while to load due to checking players, browser, etc…

Showing Xgames video full screen flash application / projector, with video. Pretty sweet - mc.
It is more difficult to steal video from Flash. That doesn’t mean it is impossible, but for regular users, it is enough of a hassle, that most will give up or not try.

Because everything is contained within Flash, you can leverage the power of flash with video to completely customize your application (i.e. create a custom / advanced preloader for the video).
more advantages to video in flash

Limitations of Video in Flash

they are showing media metrix numbers for flash penetration. numbers are from march. they are very consistent in growth rates. every 14 months, pentration is up to 86% (based on his research. note, we project flash 6 rates will go up faster than in the past. -mc)

end of session.

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