goddi Posted October 2, 2008 Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 Since I mentioned this program...You "Open" the file, then under "Auto", you select FLV. Now you have a "Configure" button that you can use to change the bitrate.Dave============Dave, Thanks... I made progress with you help. So now I have created the file. What do I do with it??? I tried to Open it but Windows does not recognize it and, I guess, I don't have the appropriate program to run it. It is only to be run on a website, or can I actually play it in Windows? Thanks... GaryP.S. And the file I created does not have an extension. Should it have an FLV extension???Added later: Ohooooo... I just added the .flv extension to the file I created and it now plays in my Winamps player!!! Got it. Thanks... Nice file size reduction, 305mb to 14mb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spafford Posted January 1, 2009 Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 Apologize for re-visiting an older thread. Read through it the other day and found it quite helpful.Question ~ take a look at the following video (found it on another website). http://www.findingjoymovie.com/>> Can this be duplicated with PTE?>> Like the fact that the video "buffers" without starting first ~ and this is clearly 'messaged' to the customer, if you will. Again, any ideas on how they do this?>> The quality of the pictures is also very respectableI'm a newbie when it comes to streaming video ...but, this website seems to do an exceptional job of managing some of the details that were addressed in this thread (generated back in September'08). Simply trying to understand whether this same thing can be accomplished today with PTE (perhaps 5.6)? ...and, if so how?Thank you,Kelly .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted January 1, 2009 Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 Hi Kelly,Yes, there are numerous ways to do this with "any" video output which is converted to Flash, etc. There are essentially two types of "streaming". The first, which is used with commercial programming is called "server side" streaming. In this case the file remains on the server and is spooled out to the viewer via very expensive software. The second is commonly referred to as "pseudo streaming" and in this case the actual file is downloaded in the background to the client computer into a temporary folder and spooled from there to the Flash player. The user is not aware of any differences. In the case of Flash, this is called Flash FLV as opposed to Flash SWF. The primary differences between FLV and SWF are that SWF has the limitation of only allowing a maximum of about 16,000 frames per show and doesn't sync reliably with background music beyond about two minutes and doesn't allow what is known as "preload". Preload is what you referred to as buffering and this consists of a percentage of the file being downloaded before playback begins. Preload is possible with Flash FLV and the code which either shows the percentage of the file remaining before playback begins or the percentage downloaded depends on the html program by either yourself or by the specific Flash producer.The quality of Flash in terms of a still image is excellent. You will notice that in your linked example there is little or no animation except in text and almost everything is simple fade-in, fade-out. Once motion or animation is used Flash output quality drops quite a bit compared to MP4 or MPEG II played locally.PTE 5.6 allows output directly to Vimeo or to Youtube where the MP4 which is output by PTE is converted to Flash FLV. Both these support high resolution (HD) output. Your slideshows are uploaded to either Vimeo or Youtube and the code to enbed the show in your own website is provided free as a service. This is perhaps the "best" way to "easily" have the quality your saw as well as allowing the user to see the "buffering" via a "gas gage" type visual.Otherwise, you can use any of a number of commercially available Flash converters to convert PTE's output to Flash FLV. These range in cost from about $39 to upwards of $250 depending on features, etc. The one I used for several years was On2 Technologies Flix Pro. Right now I find it easier, quicker and just as convenient to use Vimeo or Youtube, but if you want to experiment, the best way is to download and install a number of different Flash converter trial software. Just which one was used for the sample you linked is difficult to say. Also whether it was server side or pseudo streaming is difficult to ascertain without searching your system for a recently downloaded temp file. If you want to see a sample of a PTE show done with Flash FLV (actually a really large PTE show with a running time of 27 minutes) here's a link to one I did a couple years ago. This one has a very simple percentage of file downloaded with 15% preload. When the percentage says 15% the show will begin. http://www.lin-evans.net/ctml/ctml.htmlBest regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spafford Posted January 1, 2009 Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 Hello Lin ...This is a very thorough and helpful explanation; now the light begins to go on. I read through this thread the other day and wasn't completely following all that was said. In fact, I watched part of the slide show you reference above. Very nice slide show ...and I was intrigued by the 15% preload you used in your show. This seemed to work very well ...and I follow your point about simple transitions vs. more complex animation.I'm helping my brother with a project for his company ~ creating small slide shows that he will then stream on his website and the website of a national agricultural journal. Trying to think through the solution. The explanation about FLV vs. SWF is very helpful. I am assuming the ag journal has a technical team. I will try to connect with and see how they handle "flash" videos, as they probably have experience in this realm. I'll least be able to 'ask' semi-intelligent questions.Thank you again ...and Happy New Year!Kind regards,Kelly ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picsel Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Yes, there are numerous ways to do this with "any" video output which is converted to Flash, etc.The quality of Flash in terms of a still image is excellent.... Once motion or animation is used Flash output quality drops quite a bit compared to MP4 or MPEG II played locally.PTE 5.6 allows output directly to Vimeo or to Youtube where the MP4 which is output by PTE is converted to Flash FLV. ...Hello Lin,Very interesting and helpful explanation indeed...I have another question : as it seems we are several PTE users to be interested for embeding video inside our own website page why not embeding mp4 video file directly, as it is output by PTE/Videobuilder without transcoding it to flv within Vimeo or Youtube? It seems that might be possible with VLC media player. Is it true or false?. If it is true, do you know how to proceed? It would be great if we could do that with PTE v5.6.Thanks Best wishes and Happy New YearDaniel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Hi Daniel,It's easy enough to do, but there is no streaming so the user would have to wait until the entire file downloaded before play began.Just create a link from wherever you have the file stored on your server and an icon or image hyperlinked to that file. Then when the visitor to your site clicks on the link they will see the hour glass until playback begins assuming they have a player installed on their computer which will play MP4's.This can be done with AVI, MPEG II or MP4 files. The advantage of using Flash conversion is twofold; first the code is much smaller so the load time is less for the visitor and second, if you use Flash FVL you can have a preload with an indicator which lets the visitor know that the file is loading. Of course you could always put a message to the effect that it will take some time to download the MP4 before play begins but this is still rather "crude" compared to the automated Flash FLV message.If you want to see how this might work I will see if I can build a web page with a hyperlinked image to play an MP4 - let me know....O.K. - here's a sample - it's not elegant and it may crash if you don't have a player capable of playing an MP4http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/mp4test/index.htmlBest regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picsel Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 It's easy enough to do, but there is no streaming so the user would have to wait until the entire file downloaded before play began..........If you want to see how this might work I will see if I can build a web page with a hyperlinked image to play an MP4 - let me know....O.K. - here's a sample - it's not elegant and it may crash if you don't have a player capable of playing an MP4Hi Lin,thanks for your reply but unfortunately I didnt succeed to open your video from your web page by left click on the picture: nothing happens with Firefox. The only thing I succeed to do is to make a right click on the video which gave me the address of the video file on your server for download. After downloading it, I have checked there was no problem with my VLC media player, mountains are very beautiful, we even can see the top of one of them smoking with snow (I read the file with VLC and WMP, but VLC produced the best quality, I do not know why). So I think it is not a video player problem but most likely a problem of html code with tags. I read on other forum that for embeded video it is required to use not only <embed> tag but now it is required to use <objects><embed> tags as shown on this web page (http://www.commentquoi.com/comment-inserer-une-video-dans-une-page-web-ou-sur-un-blog.html) but I didnt succeed. That is a problem for experts in html code (perhaps Dave could help)! Concerning VLC Media Player I understood (but perhaps I am wrong) it is capable of streaming by using VLM (VideoLanManager) but what are the right commands and how to proceed? Are you aware about that? Who could help?Best regardsDaniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hi Daniel,I believe the problem you are having in opening the file is a Firefox bug or perhaps a Windows issue. I have Firefox 3.0.5 and IE 6.0 and it will download, open and run with either. Firefox has some known bugs depending on your version and how you have your system set up in terms of association defaults for playing mp4 files.Unfortunately, I don't know anything about VLM or a way to make MP4 files stream. This may be possible but I have no experience with doing it. I was able to find this information:Windows SupportUnlike the more common AVI and MPEG (or MPG) containers, Windows doesn't include built-in support for reading MP4 files. In order to read video and audio from MP4 files you'll need to install a special program called a media splitter. Haali Media Splitter adds support for both MP4 and MKV files to Windows (DirectShow), and is free.More on this here:http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/ho...y_mp4_files.cfmYou may also want to read this:http://owlet.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!...1!297.entryYou might want to do some web searches and perhaps you can discover a way to successfully stream mp4 directly from your web site. The only way I know to get it to work is as I have presented it. This player claims to be able to stream mp4's but you would need to purchase this player ($119) to make it work so perhaps not a "solution" for everyone.... It would be worth looking into however.....http://transparentplayer.com/What I have discovered, at least as I interpret it, is that there seems to be no "unified" way of getting mp4's to stream across various operating systems and individual configurations, which is why I suggest either Flash or using Vimeo/Youtube embedding. I believe that there simply is not enough information to make an informed commitment to doing this at this time.Later:After emailing the developer of this player I received the following reply:=================Hi Lin,At this time transparent player uses progressive download streaming which requires no extra server side software.Yes, our software supports mp4 streaming and our code allows you to set the buffer time but only if it is encoded with h.264 codec as only h.264 encoded mp4 is supported by Adobe Flashplayer.=================So it appears that if you purchase this player, you can embed MP4 on your web site and have it streamed to the visitor when they click on the link or image you have provided. It "appears" to be a nice solution for those who wish to embed MP4's which are encoded with h.264 codec which I believe the PTE output is. The only downside is the $119 purchase price, but that's still a small price to pay for this rather unique player which has myriad advanced features not found in other players.Best regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picsel Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hi Lina lot of information, thanks for your search. I have read all the document but I need some times to study it in details. I understand that the streaming of mp4 is not so easy and the quickest way could be to use the transparentplayer but ...Coming back on the difficulty to open your mp4 video test, I confirm that with my IE6.0 by clicking on the image I get a pop-up window "open" or "download" that's all (as you already said, in both cases the file is downloaded either in Temp file either in a selected one and the file can be read after downloading), with my Firefox 3.0.5 nothing happens why (?), I will check later on. Best regardsDaniel.PS: do you use Haali Media Splitter + FFDShow, rather than dedicated codecs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hi Daniel,Perhaps the reason your can't see it on Firefox is that you haven't downloaded and installed the Adobe Flash player 9 and Windows doesn't know what to do with the file? Players like VLC apparently don't need the Flash player to be installed to read the file but maybe Firefox doesn't call the VLC player by default? I haven't installed the Haali Media Splitter, etc.Best regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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