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FLASH CS3
318
User Guide
Because video looks much better at native frame rates, leave the frame rate high if your delivery channels and
playback platforms allow. For web delivery, get this detail from your hosting service. For mobile devices, use the
device-specific encoding presets, and the device emulator available through Adobe Media Encoder in Adobe
Premiere Pro. If you need to reduce the frame rate, the best results come from dividing the frame rate by whole
numbers.
Note: When you embed video clips in the SWF file, the frame rate of the video clip must be the same as the frame rate
of the SWF file. To encode video using the frame rate of the FLA file, use the Advanced Video Encoding settings in the
Flash Video Import wizard.
Select a frame size that fits your data rate and frame aspect ratio
At a given data rate (connection speed), increasing the frame size decreases video quality. When you select the frame
size for your encoding settings, consider frame rate, source material, and personal preferences. To prevent pillar-
boxing, it's important to choose a frame size of the same aspect ratio as that of your source footage. For example, you
get pillarboxing if you encode NTSC footage to a PAL frame size.
Adobe Premiere Pro makes several Adobe Flash Video presets available through Adobe Media Encoder. These
include preset frame sizes and frame rates for the different television standards at different data rates. Use the
following list of common frame sizes (in pixels) as a guide, or experiment with the various Adobe Media Encoder
presets to find the best setting for your project.
162 x 120
Modem NTSC 4 x 3
160 x 120
Modem PAL 4 x 3
648 x 480
T1/DSL/cable NTSC 4 x 3
768 x 576
T1/DSL/cable PAL 4 x 3
Stream for best performance
To eliminate download time, provide deep interactivity and navigation capabilities, or monitor quality of service,
stream Adobe Flash Video files with the Flash Media Server or use the hosted service from one of Adobe's Flash
Video Streaming Service partners available through the Adobe website. For more details on the difference between
Progressive Download and Streaming with Flash Media Server, see "Delivering Flash Video: Understanding the
Difference Between Progressive Download and Streaming Video" on the Flash Developer Center website.
Know progressive download times
Know how long it will take to download enough of your video so that it can play to the end without pausing to finish
downloading. While the first part of your video clip downloads, you may want to display other content that disguises
the download. For short clips, use the following formula: Pause = download time – play time + 10% of play time. For
example, if your clip is 30 seconds long and it takes one minute to download, give your clip a 33-second buffer (60
seconds – 30 seconds + 3 seconds = 33 seconds).
Remove noise and interlacing
For the best encoding, you might need to remove noise and interlacing.
The higher the quality of the original, the better the final result. Although frame rates and sizes of Internet video are
usually smaller than those of television, computer monitors have much better color fidelity, saturation, sharpness,
and resolution than conventional televisions. Even with a small window, image quality can be more important for
digital video than for standard analog television. Artifacts and noise that are barely noticeable on TV can be obvious
on a computer screen.
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