Web Video Conversion - FLV Player and Flash

Some Other User — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:17:50 GMT

Universal Web Video Compression to FLV

Are you sick of having to download many players? Many sites like youtube utilize FLASH. I wanted to figure this out for my own site. I have gone the Semi-Free way, which always takes some time… Here are the steps.

You will need three pieces of software, that are open source. Start downloading them from the various sites:

7Zip compression software
1. A new high compression software to replace zip
2. Download this and install it
3. 7-Zip Compression
FFMPEG – Converts your video file to FLV
1. Flash video is the key to the player problem, as it’s installed on 99% of browsers!
2. You can read about it here: ffMpeg Converter
3. Its very geeky, but ill make it a little easier with a simple Batch file
4. Download the file here: FFmPeg download

i. Grab the one with the most recent Date

Unzip it with the 7Zip software above

A Web Player – JW FLV Player

It’s a player that’s free for personal sites and cheap for commercial
It’s very extensible
FLV Media Player Download

Update IIS to stream FLV

Add a mime time for FLV
Set it to: flv-application/octet-stream
See notes: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_19439

Conversion Steps

I moved the FFMPEG.exe to a know location, like

c:\program files\VideoCompression

I then move the video file to that directory, like input.avi.

Then I run this from the command line:

Ffmpeg.exe -i input.mov -ar 22050 -ab 32000 -aspect 4:3 -b 2000 -r 12 -f flv -s 320x240 -ac 2 output2.flv

Parameter	Example	Description
-i		Input File Path
-ar	22050	Audio Sample Rate in Hz
-ab	32000 for Talk 64000 for Music	Audio Bit Rate in Bits / Sec. Use 32000 for Speaking and 64000 if there is music. But play around with the right setting for the file, as you can go down and not lose quality. Going up makes the files bigger
-aspect	4:3	Aspect ration of the video width : height
-b	500-2000	Video Bit Rate. Use 500-2000
-r	12	Frame Rate: 12 seems to work well, for action you may want to go higher.
-f	Flv	The format switch. Many formats are built in. But for ease of your users, use flv.
-s	320x240 640x480	Size: For web use 320x240. You could always do an optional bigger version for the patient people
-ac	1 2	Audio Channels – use 1 for web stuff, use 2 if you really need it, but 1 works.
Output file name	Output.flv	At the end, type in the file name of the result: output.flv

Publishing

After you generate your file, output.flv, you can then edit your html page and include the JW FLV Player. Look at the readme.html example that comes with it, when you unzip it.

Place the support objects in a known location on the web server.
Reference the Javascript file first
There are many options and also a great configurator on the author’s website.
- Flash Video Player Configurator

<a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</div>

var s1 = new SWFObject("mediaplayer.swf","mediaplayer","300","185","8");

s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");

s1.addVariable("width","300");

s1.addVariable("height","185");

s1.addVariable("file","output.flv");

s1.write("container");

</script>

Good Luck!

More Tips

Video Compression Tutorial

Embedding Flash Tutorial

Skiing at Northstar in Big Storm

Some Other User — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:33:48 GMT

Ski Videos

Alissa, Danny, and Geoffrey skiing Flatstar (Northstar) Backside in deep and getting deeper snow.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.