Filter
Top Products
What Is It?
A Macromedia and Sorenson-created video format commonly found in Macromedia
Flash .swf files. Used by Google Video and YouTube
What Plays It?
Macromedia/Adobe Flash web browser plugin for all formats, VLC.
More Information
Flash 6 included a video codec to go along with MP3 audio to allow simple video to be
embedded in .swf files. In recent months, its use has exploded due to its inclusion in Google Video and YouTube, among
other community video sites. It's mainly geared towards web playback, due to the limited support outside web browsers.
VisualHub supports the version of Flash video used in Flash 6 and 7.
Easy Settings One-by-One
320 pixels wide
By default, VisualHub will create a Flash .swf file with the same image size as the original video. By checking this box,
VisualHub will constrain the video to 320 pixels across, scaling proportionally. 320x240 is a standard video resolution for
medium-quality Internet distribution.
Quality
If visual quality isn't as important as just getting the message across, you can set the quality slider to "Low". If the video
demands the absolute best quality possible, choose "High" or "Go Nuts". "Go Nuts" sets a data rate near the maximum
attainable quality of the codec. This setting may take over 5 times as much space as "Standard", but will look nominally
better.
The 56K setting will create a file that can stream in realtime over a 56K modem.
Raw .flv format
The default .swf format will automatically play in a web browser as it loads. A raw .flv file is not recognized as-is by the
Flash plugin. It requires a third-party .swf wrapper for playback. Webmasters may choose a raw .flv format if they already
have a flash video-based infrastructure in place.
Specialized Controls
The .swf files outputted by VisualHub automatically play and loop. In order to provide more control, such as Play/Pause
buttons, it’s necessary to output in raw .flv format and use a FLV player solution, such as this:
http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Flash_Video_Player
27