Adobe FLASH CS3 PRO User Manual page 476

Using video in an application
Before you import video into Flash, consider what video quality you need, what video format to use with the FLA
file, and how to download it. When you import video into a FLA file (called embedded video), it increases the size of
the SWF file that you publish. This video starts progressively downloading to the user's computer whether or not
they view the video.
You can also progressively download or stream the video at runtime from an external Flash Video (FLV) file on your
server. When it starts downloading depends on how you structure your application.
Note: Video progressively downloads from the server like SWF files, which is not actually streaming. Dynamically
loading content has distinct advantages over keeping all your content in a single SWF file. For example, you will have
smaller files and quicker loading, and the user only downloads what they want to see or use in your application.
You can display external FLV video using a component or a video object. A component makes developing applica-
tions with FLV video easy, because the video controls are prebuilt, and you only need to specify an FLV file path to
play the content. To keep your SWF file as small as possible, display video in a video object and create your own assets
and code to control the video. Also consider using the FLVPlayback component in Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional,
which has a smaller file size than Media components (Flash MX Professional 2004 and later).
It is a good idea to give users some control (such as the ability to stop, pause, play, and resume the video, and control
volume) over the video in a SWF file.
To gain certain kinds of flexibility over your video, such as manipulating the video with animation, or syncing
various parts of it with the timeline, embed the video in the SWF file rather than loading it using ActionScript or one
of the Media components.
For more control over a video instance than the Video class allows, place video inside a movie clip instance. The
video's timeline plays independently from a Flash timeline, and you can place the content inside a movie clip to
control timelines. You do not have to extend your main Timeline by many frames to accommodate for the video,
which can make working with your FLA file difficult.
See also
"Working with video" on page 300
Exporting, compressing, and hosting FLV files
You can export FLV files from Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional authoring environments. After you import video into
your document, it appears as a video symbol in the library. To export the video as FLV, select the video and then select
Library > Properties. To make export settings, click Export in the Embedded Video Properties dialog box.
The FLV QuickTime Exporter compresses video from third-party video editing software. You can also use Flash 8
Video Encoder, which is a stand-alone application that you can use to create FLV files. Because you have a lot of
control over the export settings, the quality of the FLV file that is created using either of these tools is better than
video exported directly from Flash.
When you compress video, remember the following recommendations:
• Do not recompress video.
Recompressing video leads to quality degradation, such as artifacts. Use raw footage or the least compressed footage
that is available to you.
• Make your video as short as possible.
FLASH CS3 470
User Guide