Lin Evans Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 On the never ending quest for web display options, I'm evaluating Flash 8 as an alternative to Riva Producer Lite. I've used Riva for some time with very good success, but the new Flash 8 brings numerous advantages as well as some disadvantages.First, as an example, I created an MPG sample file with Ken Burns Effects (something coming soon for P2E) which consists of about 6 minutes of still photos with a good smattering of Ken Burns Effects. The MPG file size was about 255 megabytes. I used On2 Technologies Flix Pro double pass compression to create a Flash 8 FLV file. Flash 8 is the newest and perhaps best Flash implementation. The resulting file using maximum quality at 640x480 display size was about 21 megabytes which is a HUGE compression from the original. On2 has a number of products ranging from $39 to about $250 U.S.D. The less expensive products don't have the double pass encoding, but for most slideshows double pass is inconsequential. It's primarily important for movie where there are very quick movements - not something inherent in video slide shows, so it's quite possible to get excellent results even from the least expensive products. I do video movie compressions as well, so I did purchase Flix Pro ($250) but it's certainly not necessary to take advantage of the new Flash 8 technology.The following link is to my demo sample using Flash 8 FLV encoding. For those with broadband who wish to see it, if you don't already have the Flash 8 player, then click on the following link and download and install it first.http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashplayer/Here's the link to my sample. The lack of smoothness in the first scroll of the jewelry piece from the body to the head of the "bear" was there in the original MPG so not an artifact of the Flash. The image quality is considerably better than from my Riva encoder and about 1/4 the size (Riva Producer created about an 80 megabyte Flash versus 21 megabytes from On2)I would appreciate any reports of how this works for forum members.http://www.lin-evans.net/rtest/rtest.htmNew link which automatically detects the presence or not of Flash 8http://www.lin-evans.net/flixtest/flixpopup.htmlBest regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Linshow was a bit jerky at start then smoothed out - second time around it plays perfect and is up to your usual standards of quality- have retieved same from temp int folder and will play it direct from hard drive laterken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted April 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Linshow was a bit jerky at start then smoothed out - second time around it plays perfect and is up to your usual standards of quality- have retieved same from temp int folder and will play it direct from hard drive laterkenHi Ken,Thanks much for testing this. I've re-encoded the identical show, but added a 10% preload. The time it takes to preload depends on the apprehended connect speed of the user. A message showing percent loaded should come up and when it reaches 10% (in your case probably only a few seconds) the player should appear and the show should play. Hopefully this will eliminate the stall and such at the begining of the show for anyone with a decent broadband connect.If you have the time would you mind clicking on the link below and let me know if it starts properly without the jerkyness associated with the first time you played the original?http://www.lin-evans.net/flixtest/flix.htmBest regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted April 2, 2006 Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Lin perfect - smooth start and show started at 10%23.8 mb file+-strawberries were tasty but i stayed away from the jalapeno's -- left them for Robert "the old bear hunter" ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted April 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Lin perfect - smooth start and show started at 10%23.8 mb file+-strawberries were tasty but i stayed away from the jalapeno's -- left them for Robert "the old bear hunter" kenKen, thanks!Yep old Jalapeno breath and bear scat with juniper berries - what a combination - LOLBest regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhwarner Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 The show starts immediately for me (cable connection) and runs very smoothly. Nicely job! I am very interested in your experiments as I need to re-do my photography site and would like to add some flash.I would also love to get my hands on that bear necklace. It's just gorgeous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted April 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 The show starts immediately for me (cable connection) and runs very smoothly. Nicely job! I am very interested in your experiments as I need to re-do my photography site and would like to add some flash.I would also love to get my hands on that bear necklace. It's just gorgeous!Thanks for checking it - see my post on "torture test" for Flash 8....Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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