Encoding Flash Video
Before you can add on-demand (prerecorded) video to your web page, you must acquire the video and encode it, which involves converting it to the Macromedia Flash video (FLV) format. Here again, you have several options for how you want to encode your video, including using the following:
- Flash Video Import Wizard
- Flash Professional 8 video encoder
- FLV QuickTime export plug-in
- Third-party FLV encoder
The Flash Video Import Wizard enables you to encode video clips into the Flash video (FLV) format when you import them. However, the wizard has limitations in that you can encode only one video clip at a time, and the process of encoding can be both time- and computing-intensive.
On the other hand, the Flash Professional 8 video encoder enables you to batch process video clips, which allows encoding of several clips at a time. This stand-alone application also lets you embed cue points into the encoded video and edit the video using crop-and-trim controls.
If you have both Flash Professional 8 and QuickTime 6.1.1 or later, you can use the FLV QuickTime Export plug-in to export FLV files from supported video-editing applications, including Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Apple QuickTime Pro.
There are some excellent third-party Flash video encoders available, some of which are more powerful and/or easier to use than the Flash Import Wizard or Flash Video Encoder. I will be reviewing several of these encoders in a later article.