Using MPEG's AVI's in Flash w/ audio..HELP

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08-13-2003, 03:42 PM
JSNewtoFlash

Using MPEG's AVI's in Flash w/ audio..HELP

Hello everyone I need serious help and am on a deadline. I recently began my flash experiences and have made a few simple presentations. Now the need has arisen to utilize movies in our flash ventures.
Here are my problems:

1) Simple convert MPEG/AVI to flash - video and audio are off several seconds, due to frames per second issues no doubt, but still no idea which program to use, or how to fix it

2) My second idea was to take the mpeg, extract the audio into an mp3, and extract video w/ no audio, and play them simultaneously, one problem...everything worked except when i inserted the audio into KoolMoves movie, it played in extremely slow speed.

3) Lastly, when every a convert something to flash, audio or video, it runs fine when i run in in the default shockwave flash player, but when i insert it into KoolMoves ( swf as an object ) upon playing the movie is is running at least in half-speed, very slow.

How do I fix these problems guys? Thank you for your help.

John
08-13-2003, 05:34 PM
FLASHPULSE

Ok, use CamStudio to convert your AVI to Flash, it's free. http://www.rendersoftware.com/products/camstudio/

Convert the audio to an MP3. Easy MP3 Converter is free as long as the audio isn't over 5 minutes. http://www.mediamatrixes.com

Use LOAD MOVIE in KoolMoves to load the new flash file. (This will only load when previewing the site in a html document.)

Load the MP3 in KoolMoves and to play when a link or something is activated to play your new flash file. You might have to use an audio editor to add or subtract seconds to get the timing right, maybe not, haven't tested this.

Hope this helps. This is the only way I can think of. Maybe someone has a better way.

EDITED: You might be able to have the sound included when you convert your AVI to Flash. I pretty sure there is a way to do this in CamStudio. Also, download the comcodec.dll from there to. It gives better quality for the video. After opening CamStudio, you have to set this codec up under settings or something.
08-13-2003, 06:13 PM
johnie

Re: Using MPEG's AVI's in Flash w/ audio..HELP

Quote:

Originally posted by JSNewtoFlash

Here are my problems:

1) Simple convert MPEG/AVI to flash - video and audio are off several seconds, due to frames per second issues no doubt, but still no idea which program to use, or how to fix it

In KoolMoves you can choose to stream MP3 audio. The streaming feature will synch the Frames to the Audio at the cost of throwing out frames. Flash, KoolMoves, LM2, I think Swish might, and few other tools implement this feature but most do not.

What tool are you using to convert?

Keep in mind that the Flash Player does not play the animation at the FPS selected. It plays the file as fast as the machine will play the file but no faster than the FPS you set. To be honest the actual FPS performance from the player is so variable that it is not to be relied on. You will get different FPS from the same machine at different times (It all depends on available resources)

Quote:

2) My second idea was to take the mpeg, extract the audio into an mp3, and extract video w/ no audio, and play them simultaneously, one problem...everything worked except when i inserted the audio into KoolMoves movie, it played in extremely slow speed.

This is becuase Flash really only plays back at 3 speeds. If the music/sounds originally were sampled at a different speed then the Flash Player estimates it. The actual rates 44.1kHz 22.050kHz 11.025kHz. It is explained in several technotes. Sample at those three speeds and it should fix the problem.

Quote:

3) Lastly, when every a convert something to flash, audio or video, it runs fine when i run in in the default shockwave flash player, but when i insert it into KoolMoves ( swf as an object ) upon playing the movie is is running at least in half-speed, very slow.

John

The loaded movie inherts the FPS of the timeline it was loaded on.

This is explained here http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...ovie_clips.htm
08-14-2003, 05:28 PM
necromanthus

I agree with johnie.
And anyhow,it is a bad idea to convert AVI into SWF (you'll get a huge SWF file for a few seconds movie).
About sounds:
The best compromise for internet is to stream a 24Kbit MP3 sound file.
For KoolMoves and WAV files,use 22KHz and 3bit ADPCM compression.

;)
08-22-2003, 02:50 AM
gusmus

if you have your movie (no sound)loaded and running correctly at speed, then make another movie with only the sound track( you can pad that out with empty frames for the whole length of the track), you can then make a blank movie as the main movie which will allow you to play with the frame speed. On frame 1 or 2 put the command " load movie "movie" and also load movie "soundtrack". If you have trouble over the length of the soundtrack then open it in a program like Goldwave (it's free) http://www.goldwave.com, and play around with the dead area at the beginning of the track by cutting it or pasting more dead area in to make it a bit longer. Ive done this a few times and it seems to work fine because both movies adopt the parent movie frame speed although the work involved is 90% related to getting your sound track right. Cheers
08-23-2003, 04:39 PM
johnie

The problem is that even if it synchs on one machine it may not synch on a second or even that same machine becuase of avialble resources.

There are teo good ways to keep sound in Synch.

The first is to stream the sound by checking the stream checkbox (Only available for MP3). This will synch the sound but through out frames if it has to in order to keep up.

The second way is to split your sound and diction up into chunks. Then attach them to various key frames throughout the whole movie. That way if it does go out of synch it will catch back up.