Some help requested

[Lin Evans]

Hi Guys,

If as many of you as possible could try this link and let me know the results it would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to create a reliable and decent 400 pixel width Flash 8 swf file for Panos to use on his web site. The problem is twofold. When I play my SWF locally using any of my Flash players, it plays at the proper size of 400x300 pixels, but when I try playing it over the web the image is enlarged and it greatly affects the quality.

The second issue is trying to get a file small enough to play well on most all systems yet maintain quality. This one is about 10 megabytes in size so may take a few seconds before it begins to play from the link. I can make it much smaller in file size but need to know the apparent quality so the help will be appreciated.

http://www.lin-evans.net/panosfx/snowglobe400.swf

Thanks,

Lin

[LumenLux]

Lin, I have not yet figured out why, but Irfanview and Globfx and Macrocmedia's own viewer will not show this for me. However, on the same PC, my Firefox browser runs it just dandy. Using my Firefox setup, your swf. opens to fulol screen on my 1024x768. In Firefox, I can drag the window to any size and the playing swf. reduces accordingly. At the approximately 400 pixel width it looks as you probably see it - very good. If I drag the window smaller, quality remains unchanged. As I drag window larger, quality deteriorates accordingly. It seems the same result whether I left-click your link and view immediately or if I save-as and then use my browser to open the downloaded file.

[RayC]

Hi Guys,

If as many of you as possible could try this link and let me know the results it would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to create a reliable and decent 400 pixel width Flash 8 swf file for Panos to use on his web site. The problem is twofold. When I play my SWF locally using any of my Flash players, it plays at the proper size of 400x300 pixels, but when I try playing it over the web the image is enlarged and it greatly affects the quality.

The second issue is trying to get a file small enough to play well on most all systems yet maintain quality. This one is about 10 megabytes in size so may take a few seconds before it begins to play from the link. I can make it much smaller in file size but need to know the apparent quality so the help will be appreciated.

http://www.lin-evans.net/panosfx/snowglobe400.swf

Thanks,

Lin

Looks real good to me Lin, Not more than a few sec's to download and run.

RayC NZ

[Lin Evans]

That's really interesting. Something in the browser perhaps is honking up the swf because Firefox runs it. The thing I haven't yet figured out is how to constrain the viewing to 400 pixels by 300 pixels because as you discovered the quality goes south quickly.

I'm re-loading the same file name but with much higher compression. I can't see a great deal of difference in the image quality at 400x300 but the file size is much, much smaller - actually about 1/3 the size.

Lin

Lin, I have not yet figured out why, but Irfanview and Globfx and Macrocmedia's own viewer will not show this for me. However, on the same PC, my Firefox browser runs it just dandy. Using my Firefox setup, your swf. opens to fulol screen on my 1024x768. In Firefox, I can drag the window to any size and the playing swf. reduces accordingly. At the approximately 400 pixel width it looks as you probably see it - very good. If I drag the window smaller, quality remains unchanged. As I drag window larger, quality deteriorates accordingly. It seems the same result whether I left-click your link and view immediately or if I save-as and then use my browser to open the downloaded file.

[Lin Evans]

Thanks Ray,

I got the size down to a bit over 3 meg so it should work. Thanks for the feedback...

Best regards,

Lin

Looks real good to me Lin, Not more than a few sec's to download and run.

RayC NZ

[Allogagaw]

Lin,

Looks like your vision must be improving!!!

(I see you are spending more time on the Forum)

I opened your link in Firefox, Netscape and IE6.

All three instances created the full size image "enlarged and it greatly affects the quality".

Pretty much got the same results as LumenLux

[Ken Cox]

LIn

the 3 meg file works for me

ken

[JPD]

At least I have see your globe than I could not see in exe version (black screen + reboot). Nice demo.

It run fine with IE6 and Forefox V2 but doesn't work at the first time with swiff player, it's good at the second try.

[Maureen]

It opened immediately and works well here in snowy Aldbourne

Internet Explorer 7

[sanewcomb]

It ran in all three of my browsers in a new browser instance. The size of the instance was the same as the instance it was opened from, and the swf file filled these dimensions according to width.

It ran smooth enough, although since I run a fairly high desktop (1600x1200 or greater), the upsampled versions were quite grainy. Reminded me of a YouTube quality video, which I think is near the same res.

Load time was fine as well, with this 3+ MB version. Didn't have the opportunity to try the other size.

Worked fine in Swiff as well.

Steve

Tucson, AZ USA

FireFox 1.5.0.7

Opera 8.51

IE 6.0.2800.......

Windows XP SP1, AMD XP 2000+, 1GB

Gainworld NVIDIA Ti 4200 64 MB

[bmccammon]

The demo opens quickly for me in both IE7 and Mozilla. Mozilla opened to a full screen presentation with a rather dull appearance... somewhat blurry. IE7 opened in a smaller, new window that appeared better but had the same appearance as in Mozilla when expanded to full screen. I think it is great to see a leveraging of skills and products, Lin. I hope you and Panos continue to collaborate.

Best regards,

Bruce

[jevans]

Hi Guys,

If as many of you as possible could try this link and let me know the results it would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to create a reliable and decent 400 pixel width Flash 8 swf file for Panos to use on his web site. The problem is twofold. When I play my SWF locally using any of my Flash players, it plays at the proper size of 400x300 pixels, but when I try playing it over the web the image is enlarged and it greatly affects the quality.

The second issue is trying to get a file small enough to play well on most all systems yet maintain quality. This one is about 10 megabytes in size so may take a few seconds before it begins to play from the link. I can make it much smaller in file size but need to know the apparent quality so the help will be appreciated.

http://www.lin-evans.net/panosfx/snowglobe400.swf

Thanks,

Lin

Hi Lin,

I get similar results to the others. Left clicking opens the file in Firefox. Right clicking and "saving link as" results in a .SWF file on my desktop. When I try to play it it opens Macromedia Version 7 and gives me a blank screen. I have noticed this before with .swf files that you have made. Not sure whether this is my player version being out of date.

Jeff

[alrobin]

Jeff,

I've had a similar experience trying to use Flash version 7. I had to upgrade my player, or use Irfanview, before the new "swf" files would run properly.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Guys,

Thanks much for the help with this. The Flash.SWF file was created with Flash 8 so it does take at least a Flash 8 player to make it work. I think Macromedia (Adobe) is up to Flash 9 now. The latest version of IrfanView with the latest Plugins set will play Flash 8.

Flash versions as low as Flash 3 can be created but there are so many improvements in compression and image quality in Flash 8 that I think it worth upgrading the player for (this takes on about 4 seconds).

The animated GIF doesn't look bad at all, but because of the jerky movement I don't know if it would be better or worse for Panos as an on-screen sample. The 400x300 Flash looks fine if it plays at the native 400x300 pixel size. I'm really at a loss to explain why most browsers and the Flash 9 player try to play it at full screen size with no apparent (at least in my version of Internet Explorer) way to resize it. It would seem logical to be the other way around. That is if I were designing a player the "default" would be to play at the size created rather than blow up a lower pixel count to full screen size and destroy the image quality appearance. Go figure!

I don't know enough about details of embedding Flash on a website to know if the display size can be constrained. When I use IrfanView or any of my other Flash players on my own system they play it at 400x300. When I try to play it over the web from a link it plays at a much larger size with no way to adjust. Of course it can be done as a Flash.FLV which would absolutely constrain it to the desired size because the player is configured accordingly, but I don't know how to constrain the file itself so it will always play at 400x300. Tis a mystery....

Here's a link to the zipped executable which should play on most systems smoothly..

http://www.lin-evans.net/panosfx/snowglobesample.zip

Best regards,

Lin

[jevans]

Jeff,

I've had a similar experience trying to use Flash version 7. I had to upgrade my player, or use Irfanview, before the new "swf" files would run properly.

Al,

I type "Macromedia Flash Player 7" into Google which took me to the Adobe flash player site. Downloaded the upgrade version and, after installation it states that I have Version 9 now. However Lin's .swf file still will not play when double clicking his downloaded .swf file. I get a blank window with "Macromedia Flash Player 7" at the top. Any ideas?

Jeff

[Lin Evans]

Hi Jeff,

Try a reboot. I suspect you are pulling this from the cache rather than a fresh read. Also you might dump your cache in Internet Explorer by using the "Tools" "Internet Options" "General Tab" "Delete Temporary Internet Files"

Best regards,

Lin

Al,

I type "Macromedia Flash Player 7" into Google which took me to the Adobe flash player site. Downloaded the upgrade version and, after installation it states that I have Version 9 now. However Lin's .swf file still will not play when double clicking his downloaded .swf file. I get a blank window with "Macromedia Flash Player 7" at the top. Any ideas?

Jeff

[LumenLux]

Sounds possible that some "testers" might also have similar problem to mine on a single PC as described yesterday in a separate thread. It appears now, in my case, that it is a problem from an incomplete un-install somewhere. That is, any effort to re-install, Flash readers, do not really install, when they encounter some deep seated remnant or something. Meanwhile Firefox runs the swf files and does not "disable" the flash reader when I tell it to.

[alrobin]

I don't know enough about details of embedding Flash on a website to know if the display size can be constrained.

Lin,

This is the code I used once on the page where the flash file is embedded:

"<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"

codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=5,0,0,0"

WIDTH=800 HEIGHT=600>

<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="promo-movie7.swf">

<PARAM NAME=loop VALUE=false>

<PARAM NAME=menu VALUE=false>

<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>

<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>

<EMBED src="promo-movie7.swf" loop=false menu=false quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH=800 HEIGHT=600 TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="<A href='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></EMBED>"

Change the WIDTH and HEIGHT to the values you want, in each of the 2 places where they occur. Make sure the original "swf" image is the correct size, too.

When I just click on your link, it downloads automatically and starts playing, at a convenient size, in my browser. You have to be patient, though, as it takes a few seconds.

You can see the page referred to above here.

Hope this helps!

[jevans]

Hi Jeff,

Try a reboot. I suspect you are pulling this from the cache rather than a fresh read. Also you might dump your cache in Internet Explorer by using the "Tools" "Internet Options" "General Tab" "Delete Temporary Internet Files"

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

Tried all that but to no avail. Even tried to uninstall Macromedia Flash Version 7 using jv16tools utility. Problem may be associated with the fact that, in Windows Explorer, Tools Folder Options, .swf files are shown associated with Macromedia Flash 7 and there does not seem to be any way of changing this - I do not know what the current flash player would be listed under.

Jeff

[Peter S]

Lin,

As others I found it ran perfectly in Firefox and instantaneously. IE6 I could get nothing. Saved to hard drive and it opened perfectly in IrfanView.

There are no significant differences that I could see in the browser settings.

The picture quality was identical in both IrfanView and Firefox.

It's certainly a nice effect.

Peter

[thedom]

Hi Lin,

It ran perfectly in IE7 and took 30 seconds to load.

[alrobin]

Al,

I type "Macromedia Flash Player 7" into Google which took me to the Adobe flash player site. Downloaded the upgrade version and, after installation it states that I have Version 9 now. However Lin's .swf file still will not play when double clicking his downloaded .swf file. I get a blank window with "Macromedia Flash Player 7" at the top. Any ideas?

Jeff

Yes, I remember now that I too had problems with Player 9, and so set the file association for ".swf" to open with Internet Explorer. However, you can also download from GlobFx a "Swiff" player and then set the file association to it for playback of Flash files.