Component needs - a little survey.

[Wheels]

Hi all,

I've just been reading through some of the threads that have been posted lately, and it sounds like there is a real need for a system of flexible media components. So I'm wondering, how would you feel about a package of media components that can be used in any situation?

I'm considering going public with the components I've developed for my library - but I'd need to make some adjustments to make them flexible enough for everyone to use easily.

In order to cover the gamut of designers/developers I'm thinking of building the components in a variety of formats. As a community we have diverse coding and graphics skills - so I see a lot of questions here about how to use components, reskin components, or add controllers dynamically.

My components would come in a variety of configurations - Classes, prebuilt with graphics, prebuilt using the drawing API, XML menus, buffering/addaptive buffering options, or simply allow you to add your own graphics by defining a Object with linkage to library items you create.

I think the most powerful of these would be a Controller Class and a controller template in the library - so you could simply import the class then load video like this:

var myVideoWindow:MovieClip = new FlavorMedia(dataObj:FlavorObj);

"dataObj" could be as simple as a filename and dimensions, or as deep as a xml file containing the visual config (drawing API schemes, or graphic linkage names) and a data file in xml format that lists one or more file descriptions.

...

There are a couple of issues, I'm the moderator - so my selling of components/classes could be viewed as a conflict. But I've checked with the Flashkit Gods and they've given me the green light to do it - they feel I can be objective, and I'm sure someone would yell if I weren't.

So, let me get this thread going - tell me what you need, the things that hang up your development, your skill level and the types of files/classes/components you are comfortable with using. Tell me what you see is "simple to use", what kind of flexibility you need, etc.

There are three forms of video/media loading I feel would be the basis for these components - .swf (video/audio/timeline), .flv (steaming, comm server, and progressive), and .mp3 (streaming and progressive).

Loaders would be an integral part of the systems - with a adaptive buffering, percentage buffering, and .jpg preloader systems.

Also, what is this worth to you? You know, in $$. What's a legitimate price for these kinds of tools?