Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Video by Forest Key and Chris Hock February 2004
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Copyright © 2004 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Macromedia on the issue discussed as of the date of publication. Because Macromedia must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Macromedia, and Macromedia cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................... 1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 1 Macromedia Flash and Flash Video..................................................................1 Technical Overview of Video Standards .............................................................2 Video Standards—NTSC and PAL .
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Executive Summary This white paper provides a general overview of the video capabilities of the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 platform. Introduction Video and the Internet seem like a match made in heaven. Video is the rich media medium that most closely simulates our day-to-day visual experiences. The Internet is a boundless playground to search for and consume interesting content.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock n n n Immersive experiences. Flash Video is just another media type within the Flash movie, allowing video to be layered, scripted, and controlled just like any other object in the Flash movie. Flash Video is an integral part of the experience, as opposed to a separate pop-up window that interrupts the viewing experience! Custom branding and programmability.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Table 1 provides an overview of the differences between these standards. Table 1: Video Standards at a Glance Image Size Frame Rate Aspect Ratio Display NTSC 720 x 480 29.97 D1 Interlaced PAL 720 x 576 25 D1 Interlaced Computer Varies (much larger) -- Square Progressive Frame Size Conventional television screens are made up of horizontal lines while computer monitors consist of a series of horizontal and vertical pixels.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock When working with compressed movies in a format like Flash Video, the more frames that have to be displayed in a second the higher the file size. To manage the final file size, you have to lower either the frame rate or data rate. If you lower the data rate and leave the frame rate unchanged, the image quality is reduced to yield a smaller file size.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock displayed on a square pixel monitor, and as such should be hard-rendered to compensate for the discrepancy. Interlaced and Progressive Video Video images consist of two interlaced fields that together comprise a frame (see Figure 2).
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Modern video standards for digital television have eschewed interlacing in favor of progressive scan display techniques. Progressive scan video cameras usually have the ability to switch back from progressive scan to interlaced video, and most of these cameras have a variety of frame rates with and without interlacing. Typical frame rates are described as 60p (60 fps progressive), 30i (30 fps interlaced), 30p (30 fps progressive), and 24p (24 fps progressive).
by Forest Key and Chris Hock n Producing streaming FLV files Embedding Video within Flash Player Movies Since the introduction of Flash MX and Flash Player 6, multimedia developers have been able to embed video within Flash Player movies by importing video and placing it on the Flash Timeline. A key benefit of this approach is the ability to see the individual video frames on the Flash Timeline and create overlays and interactions with the aid of the Flash design tools.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Figure 4: Flash MX Professional 2004 Media Components support both progressive and streaming FLV files; to control display of slides you can use media behaviors. Using progressive FLV files has these advantages: n During authoring, you need to publish only the Flash movie interface for previewing or testing part or all of your Flash movie. This results in faster preview times and quicker turnaround on iterative experimentation.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock n Programmatic control of streams (server scripting) for the creation of server-side playlists, synchronization of streams, smarter delivery adjusted to client connection speed, and application creation. n Advanced monitoring and reporting on traffic and throughput.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock programmatically. File Size SWF files contain both the video and audio streams as well as the Flash interface, resulting in a single, larger file size. SWF files can load each other, enabling you to break up individual video clips into multiple files. SWF and FLV files are kept separated, resulting in a smaller SWF file size. Same as Progressive FLV.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Performance Audio and video synch is limited after approximately 120 seconds of video. Total file duration is limited to available RAM on the playback system. Improved performance over embedded SWF video, with bigger and longer video and reliable audio synchronization. Provides best image quality, which is limited only by the amount of available hard drive space on the playback system.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock FLV file format. This ability to prepare FLV files from within third-party applications improves the workflow between video applications and your Flash project. Flash Video Exporter achieves its seamless integration within third-party applications by leveraging the QuickTime export plug-in architecture. Flash Video Exporter is a plug-in to QuickTime that you can use with third-party applications that support exporting to the QuickTime file format.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Editing and Effects Applications n Adobe After Effects 5.5 and 6.0 n Apple Final Cut Express n Apple Final Cut Pro (3.x and 4. x) n Apple QuickTime Player 6.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Encoding Method The Encoding Method pop-up menu contains three items. Choosing the first two encoding methods produces a H263 format video stream, which is best suited for general -purpose video. The third encoding method consists of a separate video codec that uses a Macromedia proprietary codec optimized for screen recordings. You can choose from these three encoding methods: n n n Baseline (1 Pass) uses a consistent bit rate to encode the video stream.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock additional information on the NTSC and PAL video standards.) To keep audio and vi deo in synch when creating long FLV files (longer than a couple of minutes), you must use the accurate frame rates when downsampling the fps rate. The pop-up menu to the right of the Frames Per Second text field enables you to cycle through the commonly used frame rates, but you can enter any frame rate you want in the Frames Per Second text field.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock medium. For Internet delivery most FLV files are downloaded progressively to the client computer and then played back from the local hard disk. This technique provides a wide gamut of bit rates for delivery. For streaming FLV files, client connection speeds limit the bit rate that you can use. Table 4 shows the approximate total download times for a one- and fiveminute video clip encoded at 500 kilobits and 2,000 kilobits. Both clips assume no audio (MOS).
by Forest Key and Chris Hock current frame rate. The Auto setting is a good starting point for all video footage. If your footage has a lot of scene changes or rapidly moving motion or animation, then the overall image quality may benefit from a lower keyframe value. In general, a higher keyframe rate produces better image quality because bits are not wasted describing the areas of an image that remain unchanged from frame to frame.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock a 4:3 aspect ratio. For example, if your source file is 720 x 480 (DV NTSC), then scaling to 320 x 240 (correct aspect ratio) will require a non proportional scale (greater change in X axis than Y). De-interlacing When encoding interlaced source footage (any NTSC or PAL footage shot with a video camera) you will most likely want to remove one of the fields, or de-interlace the footage, prior to encoding.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock FLV file format, Flash Video Exporter reads the file as 180 x 121. If you then choose 720 x 486 in the FLV output size, you will get a scaled-up, pixilated movie. So make sure to set your After Effects comp to Full resolution before exporting (see Figure 8). Figure 9: Be sure your After Effects comp is set to Full resolution before exporting your video. Apple Final Cut Pro With Final Cut Pro 4.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock various video formats. When you upgrade to QuickTime Pro you can also export video files to a different format. To export a movie to the FLV file format, open the file in QuickTime Player and choose Export from the File menu. This opens the Save Exported File As dialog box. Select Movie to Macromedia Flash Video (FLV) from the Export pop-up menu and then click the Options button to open the Flash Video Exporter dialog box (see Figure 10).
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Anystream Agility To export to the FLV file format from within Anystream Agility, create a new job profile in the Main window or open an existing one. Select Add QuickTime Encode from the Encoder menu or press Ctrl+T. Under QuickTime Format Type, select Other Formats from the QuickTime Format drop-down list. Next, select Macromedia Flash Video (FLV) from the Format drop-down list under Target Settings (see Figure 12).
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Figure 15: Accessing the Flash Video Exporter dialog box in Canopus Procoder. Discreet Cleaner (Mac OS) Discreet Cleaner enables Flash MX Professional 2004 users to encode multiple FLV files on unattended computers. Like other file formats such as QuickTime or JPEG, the Macromedia Flash Video (FLV) file format shows up in the Format list on the Output Tab of the Cleaner Settings dialog box (see Figure 15).
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Figure 16: Accessing the Flash Video Exporter dialog box in Discreet Cleaner. To access the Flash Video Exporter dialog box, choose Macromedia Flash Video (FLV) from the Format pop-up list, select the Options check box, and then click the Set button (see Figure 16). Figure 17: Accessing the Flash Video Exporter dialog box in Discreet Cleaner.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Note: When exporting to the FLV file format, be careful not to apply duplicate scaling or de-interlacing passes by using both the Cleaner and Flash Video Exporter settings—this will create unwanted results such as applying to scale transformations, resulting in a smaller size than desired.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Video FAQ What standard is Flash Video compression based on? Flash Video is based on the H.263 video compression standard. It’s based on the version of H.263 dated May 1996, sometimes referred to as H.263v1. This is distinct from the revised version of H.263, dated February 1998, sometimes referred to as H.263v2 or H.263+. The H.263 video format supported by Flash differs slightly from H.263. For the most part, it is a subset of H.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock What improvements to video performance have been made with Macromedia Flash Player version 7? Flash Player 7 increases playback performance for video significantly by allowing full speed playback of much larger and longer video files. Flash Player 7 also adds support for progressive download video, allowing FLV files to be loaded and played back at runtime.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock What is the difference between Flash MX and Flash MX Professional 2004 in terms of video features and capabilities? Flash MX Professional 2004 adds significant video capabilities: Media Components and Flash Video Exporter accelerate development and simplify production workflow; slides and special media behaviors facilitate creating advanced video presentations.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock What file formats does Flash Communication Server MX stream? Flash Communication Server MX can stream both FLV and MP3 file formats. What standard is the Audio compression based on? For playback, Flash Player supports MP3, ADPCM, and a proprietary voice codec. For capture, Flash Communication Server MX supports the proprietary voice codec. The voice codec can be licensed from a company called Nellymoser.
by Forest Key and Chris Hock Where can I find information about the pricing and different editions of Flash Communication Server? You can find pricing information and edition details about Flash Communication Server at www.macromedia.com/software/flashcom.
