Problem
You want to deploy video for a project.
Solution
Determine If you want to serve Flash
Video from a standard web server, over
HTTP, or from a Flash Video
streaming server, over RTMP, and then upload the .flv file(s) to the server.
Discussion
Content distributed over the Internet can use a variety of protocols, ranging from common protocols such as FTP and HTTP to more obscure protocols. Most content that the Flash Player plug-in uses is distributed over HTTP. Just about every major web video format can be loaded to a web browser (or plug-in/player application) in two ways:
Progressive download (HTTP) -
The easiest and most economical approach to deploy web video is to upload your video content to a web server, just as you would any other file (e.g., HTML, GIF, JPEG) for display in a web browser. For Flash Player 7 and higher, you can load Flash Video (.flv) files directly into your Flash movie interface (.swf file). The major drawback to this approach is that the entire .flv file is downloaded and cached to the user's machine, and the user can only seek to points in the video that have already downloaded. Also, unless you're using a dedicated web server just for FLV content serving, bandwidth from your server may be taxed serving other site assets (HTML, image files, and so on) to other users visiting the site.
Streaming delivery (RTMP) -
Another method of delivering video content over the Internet is to use a real-time streaming server. Web video formats such as Real Video and Apple Quick-Time use RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) to send the data from the streaming server to the client. Flash Player 6 and higher can use an equivalent protocol, RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol), to receive streaming video from a Flash Communication Server or Flash Media Server.
Refer to Table 18-3 to help you determine which deployment method best suits the Flash Player version you want to require from your target audience. Keep in mind that streaming delivery requires your Flash Video content to be hosted on a Flash Communication Server, Flash Media Server, or Flash Video Streaming Service account. By far the most economical solution is a progressive download solution, but streaming delivery has its advantages, as shown in Table 18-4.
Table 18-3. Flash Player support for Flash VideoFactor | Flash Player 6 | Flash Player 7 | Flash Player 8 |
|---|
Progressive download | SWF | FLV, SWF | FLV, SWF | Streaming delivery | FLV | FLV | FLV | Sorenson Spark | Yes | Yes | Yes | On2 VP6 | No | No | Yes |
Table 18-4. Flash Video delivery considerationsFactor | Progressive download | Streaming delivery |
|---|
Cost-prohibitive (requires licensing or additional hosting costs) | No | Yes | Protected content | No | Yes | Faster seek times for longer video content | No | Yes | Offline use | Yes | No | Live video streams | No | Yes | Enhanced server-side control of content | No | Yes | More likely to be blocked by firewalls or proxies | No | Yes |
To deploy Flash Video files to your web server, do the following:
Determine how you will format your Flash Video content, as either embedded within a Flash movie (SWF) or as a Flash Video file (FLV). Create a Flash movie that acts as a video playback user interface for the video content. The video content is loaded separately, at runtime, into this movie. You'll learn more about using the FLVPlayback component as a video controller later in this chapter. Upload your video controller movie (SWF) and video content (SWF or FLV) to your web server, in addition to the HTML document containing the <object> and <embed> tags for the video controller movie.
To deploy Flash Video to a Flash Communication Server or Flash Media Server, do the following:
Encode your video content as Flash Video files (FLV). Create a Flash Player 6 or higher compatible movie (SWF) that acts as a video controller for the content. The FLV will stream into the Flash Player and be displayed in this Flash movie. Create an application folder with a unique name (exp 3pod.com) on your Flash Communication Server or Flash Media Server. Inside of this new application folder, make a new folder named streams. Within this streams folder, create a folder named _definst_. Upload your .flv file(s) to this last folder. Upload your video controller movie (SWF) and HTML document for the controller to your web server.
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