What is the ideal frame rate for having video footage?

[jammer2]

OK... so I'm going to be slated for asking this without having read the tutorials or FAQ's... I'm just about to do this...

But I had a quick question: what is the ideal frame rate for having video footage in Flash?

I can't understand how you can have the same film footage play the same on different PC's? The nature of Flash means that the fast your processor, the faster Flash animations play - so, how can you have any sort of video footage??

Any help would would appreciated.

Thanks.


Jam

[pellepiano]

The framerate you set in Flash also works as a speed limiter. If you set a framerate of 15 f/s Flash will play 15 frames per second no matter how fast your computer is. If your computer is really slow though , it might not be able to play more that perhaps 10 frames per second.

[jammer2]

So what is the recommended speed for movies in Flash?
I normally have my animations at 30 fps.
But... if I did this... then surely it would be too fast for a video footage??

[pellepiano]

It would depend on the size of the video and what computer its played on. I use 320x240 at 12 f/s so I know most people can see it right away ( broadband people that is ).

[jammer2]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm going to be using my work for CD distribution only.
What speed would you recommend for that?

Having 12 speed is OK... but surely when you have animation, the animation is 'jerky'?

[pellepiano]

Usually the video is a separate swf that plays its own framerate (12 ) inside a 25 f/s site.

[jammer2]

Ah... I see.
But does that mean you have two swf's on your webpage?
Because if you imported one into another, then the imported one would take the attributes of it's parent?

Do you have any sample web pages to show?

What frame rate would you recommend for Flash work on a CD?

THANKS.

[pellepiano]

You can see one at ......

http://www.nanahedin.com under music/video

(Note that this video is playable from flash 4 and up, it is not converted with Flash MX but Flix ( it means that what you see is a simple sequence of jpg bitmaps, insted of a properly compressed video ).

........theres a video file there at 10 f/s and the main site is 25.

The external files will inherit the framerate only if there is no audio in it ( if I remember right ).

You have to check what works for you, and your target audience ( what computer speed do you expect them to have, what size would the video have ). Flash is not as good as QuickTime or Director when it comes to play videos. The new MX2004 player is faster though from what I hear.

[Wheels]

That's correct. The imported video will inherit the framerate of your host movie if there is no video. This is a good reason to add a silent second of audio to any video clip that doesn't have audio.

Conversely, importing video with audio will slow your main movie to the framerate of the improrted video.

The best framerates for Flash video are in the 10-15 fps range. Anything more will cause problems.

I just read a Google statistic on system profiles. 30% of people are still on Windoze '98. That means they are using P3's and early P4's. And don't forget, most Mac users are on G3 - even older G4's are plenty slow because of the bad Mac Flash player.

Sacrifice - it will give the best results.