why Flash video?
Flash video has quickly become the most interesting way to distribute short video footage. You find it in commercials, banners, videoblogs, and Google video uses it. Why? Because the Flash is supported by more than 90% of browsers, which is MUCH more than Windows Media player, Qucktime, Real or even Windows MediaPlayer, and it plays on Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Finally, if a person don't have Flash it's a really quick download -- only 500k compared to 10MB for either Windows Media or Quicktime.

Creating .flv

There are several solutions to create flash video .flv files. ffmpeg is open source and the least expensive. Other options include Macromedia Flash (Flash 8 includes an encoder) and Sorenson Squeeze (for superior quality).

Creating .flv in Windows

ffmpeg is an open source solution able to do thousands of things with video. Notably it can convert many videos to flv. An inexpensive Windows-based tool that is a front-end to this is the riva encoder available from download.com at http://www.download.com/Riva-FLV-Encoder/3000-2140-10320097.html. Another relatively inexpensive solution for windows is Flix Standard ($39) from http://www.on2.com/.  Then, there's the Flash encoder that now comes with flash 8.

Creating .flv in Mac OS X

If you're a mac user like me, you have plenty of options. There's the Flash Encoder that now comes with Macromedia's Flash 8, but the Educational price for the Macromedia Studio suite is around $250, available from UofL's Software Resales online store. There's also a utility called ffmpegX but it seems more interested in divx, psp and mpeg video.

Luckily for us, there's the command line.

You can get and compile ffmepg. That's kind of a pain, but it will work. If yu go this route, you should grab the latest from cvs and compile, with lame support (--enable-mp3lame), and of course you must have installed lame.

You can try this executable available from Cyril Godefroy: ffmpeg.zip. Download it, uncompress it, and copy it to either /usr/bin, or better /usr/local/bin.

You can then go to the folder where your video file is and type something like this:

ffmpeg -i DSCN2114.MOV -acodec mp3 -ab 32 -f flv -s 320x240 -ar 22050 -aspect 4:3 -pass 1 -b 256 -r 15 -y jules.flv

  • -i DSCN2114.MOV: name of your source video file
  • -s 320x240: size of final video
  • -b 256 : bitrate max of vidéo
  • -r 15 : frame rate of final video
  • -y jules.flv: name of your destination video

With ffmpeg, you can encode in two passes for better quality with a given bit rate. Here, we ask for a pass 1 by using -pass 1 .If you want a second pass, change this parameter to -pass 2.

Other Apple solutions?
Sorenson Squeese

Not using the CMS?

The CMS has all the stff built into it to play streamed .flv videos without having to fight with object/embed code or adding in your own embedded players. But, if you are not using the CMS, you might try purchasing a good inexpensive player such as flvplayer. Another player is flv-player from Martijn Devisser.