Flash 8 Video, chance for the one Video Format for Webmasters?
 

Hi,

I just wanted to collect some thoughts. Many Webmasters who run paysites convert their Videos to WMV, Quicktime, Real as they don't know which player their user has or prefers. Add different platforms(Windows, MAC, Unix(es), different versions of Player Software, Codecs and you always have users complaining and problems.

I now saw that Sorenson added an IP6 Codec for Flash Encoding to Sorenson Squeeze (my current Vidoe Encoding Software) and discoverd the site of on2.com for Flash Encoding. I tested it and the quality was about on par with WMV 9 the leading Codec at the moment.

As about 98% of all people have Macromedia Flash Installed and a update to the version 8 player runs automatically and is only 700k (instead of the 20-50 MB other players have) might not be Flash 8 SWF Files the Video Format for the Adult industry of the future (in combination with the VP6/7/8 Codec).

I'm thinking of converting all my video stuff to this format after Macromedia releases a Unix Flash 8 Player.

What do you think? To proprietary, will not last longer then 1-2 years, Flash will die, Good idea???

Thanks
Eisbaer

that is somenthing to think about...

I am building a mainstream website right now using only flash video. Throw in a little of this and you're golden.

definately worth thinking about

Its been tried before, not sure how stable flash is now a days, but about a year ago me and my business partner tried to do it, with cam site and DRM for movie encoding and there was a lot of bugs in the server side code from Macromedia.. Flash comm server at that time was really shitty and cost a ton of cash..

I've thought about it..

I've been playing around with video in Flash, and haven't ran into any problems yet. No idea about comm server though.

I don't see Flash dying anytime soon. Having a format where you can display the video in any style branding in a near "player-less" environment isn't really offered by the other formats, as of yet. Our tests show Flash video (vp6) looking even better than H.264 (Quicktime). Only downside, is that your customers will complain about not being able to download it. If you must offer it as a download, you will need to bundle the .flv download with some sort of custom (swf) player which represents your brand....or have them download one of the desktop Flash video players from the web.
Don't be fooled though by the new version of FMS, as it DOES NOT support real-time encoding with the new On2 vp6 codec. Definitely a fuckup on Macromedia's part......although there is word thatthis will come out soon as a stand-alone desktop encoding station (like Sorenson provides).
Hope this helps.

need a couple years to update browsers up flash 8. so, it's only time.
but one format for video it's a good idea.

http://vodhub.com/FlashStreamDemo/index.html its a demo we did to show what Flash Video can do.

Jay
[email protected]

I own the patent on Flash videos, and you will all have to pay me $1,000 if you want to use it on your sites.

I take Paypal.

That is very cool, the DVD like menu is great if you have scenes chopped up into pieces. I need to look more into this. How is file size in flash versus let's say WMV ?

Yes, we got the software to go from DVD to Flash and to make the scenes etc in a automated way. Ideal if you are going to support 1000's of movies. The Flash file is smaller then WMV.

Jay

Finally, it's here - LIVE encoding for Flash 8 (see the on2 site). We're looking into rolling out a few products which use this SDK. I'll post the about the video quality vs. bitrate size later.

peace

We do everything with Flash (frontend based). In my opinion this will fully change the online adult landscape in the upcoming years.

As a Macromedia/Adobe Alliance partner we where the first company worldwide trying to launch a live video chat environment using Flash Communication Server.

It was sometimes a disaster because structured and OO programming was not really possible and the license prices where absurd.

Now we're almost ready to deploy our new release which will be fully based upon Actionscript 2.0 and Flash Media Server 2.0

I'm happy FMS offers so much more for engineers who want to create high quality sites for their target groups. In fact usability and awareness are now a days very important in commercial Internet sites.

COnsidering that flash is now a "two click" deal as a result of that lawsuit microsoft lost, flash is NOT the best option.

Alex

every video should be put into flash.......mmmm period :)

Madawgz, what is the longest flash video you would consider displaying on your site before breaking it up into sections?

it would have to be about 25mb before i would split it up

before that i would try to cut out parts so it insnt that large

(talking about my comedy site)

what software do you use to convert videos to Flash format?

thanks

Ok thanks, I don't work with Flash so I don't know how long 25 mb would be.

About how many minutes would 25 mb translate to?

You can put a complete DVD on the web if you stream it using Flash Media Server. By making some intelligence, you can also make cue points and add meta tags (for search capabilities) based upon XML technology.

For an example please check out www.fabchannel.com (they use the same structure). They registrate concerts and are doing it the same way.

I use Sorenson Squeeze (www.sorenson.com)

I totally agree, here some Flash video examples (from our webcam girls). These are FLV files who are being streamed using a FLV player (opensource version).

http://www.247-porn.com/247mgp/index.php

Does a site like eatmyshorts.com use Flash Media Server?

It can be done by FMS, but from a cost perspective I think they use FLV (client sided) streaming without the usage of expensive FMS licenses.

Flash video is absolutely the future, especially for streaming video. Look at all these funny-movie type of sites, they are all switching to flash video. Also alot of news and other mainstream sites that have video streams are switching.
The quality is the same as WMV and so is the file-size.
It only has advantages, you can implement your own DRM system, over 98% of the surfers have flash installed, it works with every version of windows, mac and even linux (only flash 7, but 8 will be soon available).
You don't need a Flash Media Server for streaming flash videos. It works on every server. The only advantage with FMS is that the users can fast forward, just like if you had WMV with a Microsoft streaming server.

It seems that Adult is actually behind the times where Flash video is concerned. It's usually adult is leading the way.

I see tons of mainstream sites that use flash video to great effect, yet adult sites still seem to be using WMV for often than not.

http://abc.go.com Check out the full episodes of Alias, Lost, Commander In Chief (great series BTW) and Desparate Housewives they offer using the FMS. Beautiful. That's all I can say about it. Just beautiful.