Good video on the web:

Thought I would start a new stickie in the hopes that others would share some of the better video they have found on the web.

I'll start it off - a friend turned me onto this site today:

www.bethorton.mu/ // Goto the video link on the upper right - It's Quicktime/Flash. Made with Live Stage Pro.

This is very good as well:

http://www.vw.com/newbeetle/convertible/flash.htm // Flash video.

I don't think the focus of this forum needs to be just Flash video, I would love to see more discussion and exploration of different forms of Flash integration with video.

Broadcast, Flash combined with QT, QTVR's, Windoze Medium (rare), Real - whatever.

Flash is not the end all when it comes to video delivery, it has it's valued place - for sure. I personally believe that QuickTime is the most versatile and offers the best overall quality at similar data rates. I find myself working with QT much more than Flash (and it's much less time consuming I might add).

My favorite software (besides Flash of course) has to be a tie between the Sorenson-3 Suite and QT Pro. Both cheap and easy to use (your sophmoric joke goes here).

It really depends on the need, I don't recommend doing Flash because you can - but using it because it's the best solution for your requirements is proper justification. I guess I'm saying - don't force it, use it if it's right.

Anyway, my .02c.

Here's a good example of Flash video gone bad, but certainly a worthwhile effort:

http://www.eaglef1.com/opener.html

The main problems are an oversize screen (FV likes 320x240 or less), six or more onEnterFrames running in the background, and likely, incompatible frame rates between the host movie and the video .swf. There is also too much motion for Flash's capabilities.

The compression isn't too hot either - even the QT alternatives are blocked-up.

this one´s pretty cool.
http://www.moviola.com.sg
while your at it wheels.
what kind of acompression do you think they might use on a site like this?

Thanks Phreak,

To answer you question, it looks like there are a variety of source compression formats that have gone into these pieces. This is often the case when you are getting source from a variety of producers.

Some of the better looking pieces were probably cut down to Sorenson before compression to .flv. According to Ben Waggoner, jpeg is the most compatible with the Flash codec - although I haven't tested it yet.

You can see some of the pieces were double compressed - that's what causes the color banding - reds and blues - and blocking. The source on those was probably saved out to Sorenson-3 first, a common mistake. I've been using Sorenson and None with best quality for most of my stuff recently, but I'm going to try JPEG next time around. It's best to get control of the frame rates and pre-compression with a good source output to get the best final output from Squeeze.

Garbage in - garbage out.

I like the Virgin Mobile clip - kind'a steamy.

Hi.
One of our users just posted these links in our forum. The BBC is using Flix to provide news updates from the war in Iraq.
The site is very well done.

BBC News Broadband Multimedia Console : Iraq War
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iraqcons/

Narrowband version here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iraqcons/index_nb.html

jb
www.wildform.com

www.khfilms.com is something i just completed (not trying to blow my own horn, just thought i would contribute something to the thread).

it took me a while to get the hang of flash video and it's still not quite where i'd like it to be quality wise. but it is a start. i found that buffering a certain amount of it is important.

Nice job aa!

I just got the new Apple 20", and the video looks super.

I'm wondering how you are buffering? Are you just preloading a set amount or are you adaptively preloading?

thanks, i'm glad you like it.

i am buffering i think 40% of the total bytes for the video swf. i thought it was a good number to start with, even though broadband seems to be as fast or faster than the data rate of those swfs. can't ignore the 56kers i guess.

enjoy that apple 20" those are the BEST there is

Really nice site, nice design, really clean, one questin i had wheels already made, however about the compression you used, becaus the vids look really nice and theyr not really heavy.

thanks again -- appreciated. for compression i used Sorenson Squeeze and i highly recommend that app. it's kind of a dumbed down version of media cleaner but it is just as good for this type of video.

Here's another:

http://www.robbiewilliams-usa.com/

Very well done, not too much bad to say - just the standard buffering issue and some minor lip sync problems. I got stuck on the "videos" page when I tried to load another - but I was trying to break it. Still loaded eventually.

I think this is a good example of how much it helps to start with broadcast quality source. Most of the problems with quality are a result of having to start with poor source.

Orange County Earth Day 2003


I love the Williams site... clean and well designed. Some might think the boxes are distracting, but I liked it.

http://www.thefilmbusiness.com.au/

nice site. A little low res on the video side though.

Also, hey hey hey, liked the hk films site.

Any info on means of preloading video content?

hey my workflow would be much much faster if i could not place a controller/preloader in my video.swf does anyone know of a good system for this.

aa's site works really nice. say aa, i wonder if you ran into any of the probs i've posted here:
http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...hreadid=448665

i surfed your site a bit and didnt notice any sound dropping or player crashing but if i left a downloading video and began to load another one it seemed like i was downloading both, like the first one didnt stop loading. are you using unloadMovie() or removeMovieClip()? are you loading into a target clip and do all the videos share the same targetclip or do they each have their own?

sweet video controller btw. i like how it stopps the movie on mouseDown then adjusts the movie on mouseUp. is it in the video .swf? does it adjust itself for _totalframes for any loading .swf? if so i'd love to see how it works. if you are cool with that, could yo post it or email it to me?

thanks if you have time to answer some of these q's
grish

check out

www.blipstation.com

uses flash video to present a full-screen video wall diary of a journey from London to Istanbul. Plays for between 12 and 18 mins and is different each time it is played. In other words there is no definitive or final cut version, but countless variants of the same story. Like it or hate it , it is certainly different.

Why do people think it's cool to take over my screen?? Can’t see a damn thing due to two monitors and you can accomplish the same thing without taking over the screen.

Also, never got into the presentation because it shows 10-minute download. Really don’t have that time to wait. Oh well....

Alright, the title of the thread is "Good video on the Web" - not "Shameless self-promotion".

Although this blipstation thing is video - I would like to see someone other than the creator posting it up as something they consider to be good.

Blip, it's an alright piece - nice concept. But it falls short on the "Good video" part. I'll leave it up for now, at least until someone else complains.

Yeahh 10 mn for u for me it was like 30 or 23 or 15 mn on that blip thing, closed it, anyways. . .
Starting over: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/matrix_reloaded.html
I think the trick on this one is the Keyframes. . . also check: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/ theres a cooler one and has a "ultra bandwith" version wich is 1000 X 540 . .. but i think they are having some problems with the downloads . . too many pcs . . on mac i was doing a 56 kb/s and 1.5 for pc, you´ll see what i mean.
Try playing it frame by frame.

Qt rules.:D

I disagree....

QT is a pain in the butt. All the downloads, extended install, version problems. Not to mention platform issues.

Flash video is just as good, smaller file size, and less downloading and installing. Interactivity is also better.

Case in point: Lord of the Rings Flash Video Example

i have a site that is flash based with links to quicktime movies of my commercial work and such. they range in size from 1-4 megs (i'm pretty sure...) i can get them pretty small while looking fairly descent with media cleaner pro 5. so loading isn't too bad.

you can check it out at http://pupo.com/kelly

i'm an editor by trade. the flash site is my first attempt so be gentle. side note: i have used flash mx for use with the Avid (editing tool) for previsualizing animation with graphics and such. the only draw back is it doesn't export to quicktime video with alpha. i have to bring it into after effects to create the alpha. something flash will need to look at for future versions i'm sure. kind of a standard with the video world. :rolleyes:

let me know what you think of the commercials.:D
kvl

This was posted on cool sites, i think it has a realy great usage of video, pretty tight, a little heavy, but is worth it.
http://www.leschinois.com/

This is also from cool sites, http://www.foreverhonor.com/, also great usage of viseo.

Here is a nice example of well thought through video for the web. Consider the decision to use a monochromatic backdrop which enables them to squeeze the living daylights out of the file.

Egomedia also uses this technique well.


http://www.fullsail.com/swf/index.cfm

QT Sorenson, high quality and loads fast on broadband. 25fps, PAL.

http://www.electricmountain.com/html...ricVideos.html

Phil
www.electricmountain.com

also check
www.riotmanhattan.com -- portfolio section. really good quality stuff there.

Quicktime...you have seen these all before, here they are together.

http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/pro...eyecandy.shtml

They have some other high quality QT's, no room for dialups here.

http://www.dancestar.net/vid/DS_vidplayer.html

Hope you don't mind us posting this here. We're keen to get some feedback, as we've just finished this new semi-interactive Flash video piece

On the technical side, we wanted to do a piece where the video was interactive and properly integrated into the background of the Flash movie.
We used Squeeze and After Effects on the video before taking it into Flash.

It's a personal, non-commercial art piece, not a commercial design piece for a client for a change. The theme is peace, without being too preachy about it. Fairly topical at this moment in history we think (and just about every other moment for that matter).

Minimum viewing requirements:
Broadband connection (the file is 542KB)
Flash Player 6
Min screen res. 1024 x 768

http://www.memoryburn.net/memorial/memorial_flash.html

{ J } & maytey

I post this not as shameful promotion, but for discussion.

We created this for a pitch to a client.

We wanted to show that video could be used on the web (or in this original case, CD) as a traditional, accepted way of telling a story. Most people create a site with photos… our goal was to get into the photographer’s head and tell the story behind the photos, interactivly.

Let us know what you think…

Gather No Moss

(Broadband recommended)

Mudgy,

Looks really nice but there was one thing that got in my way:
The one thing that really came to my mind is that it's distracting and annoying to have to find that very tiny X every time I need to close a slide so I can see the map location of where the next slide was taken.

Mouse down to look at map and open slide, mouse up, close window, mouse down to look at map and open slide... back up again.... and again...and again....

Please set it up so that a second click on the button that launched the slide closes that same slide? ;)

Also, on a more general note:
Despite the fact that many others abrasively try to shame people into not using full screen because of thier own opinions (that not all of us share), I have to say that the one thing I can't stand is to have a popup jump in my face that is NOT full screen. This goes for all of us. Either put it in the window I'm already using or make it something that loooks like a stand-alone application outside the browser. Fullscreen gets rid of the "Mickeysoft Internet Exploder" look and any site that does it well looks a hell of a lot better than anything crammed into a tiny window or a browser window.

NOTE: I said "does it well". Things that are done crappy look... well, crappy.

http://www.frosch-studio.com is a good example... though with all that clean space I'm not sure why the menu text is so small.

NCD

I really like the site mudgy.

I don't mind losing the map as much as it would be nice to have the images cycle thru. Maybe have him voice-over while the pictures are going thru, then use video simply for the shots he took - and make the video a bit bigger.

Just a little too much clicking to be done - and after a couple of clicks, I was already tired of the photog in the studio shot.

I like the way it plays like a movie - reminds me of the "Becoming Human" (?) stuff on Nat. Geo.

As far as full screen goes - I use it all the time. I've been using the Stage.onResize() quite a bit lately. I really hate the browser window and I don't see too many popups that are done tastefully.

In your case, the popup feels fine - but I like to grab the viewers full attention for stuff like this by going chromeless-fullscreen.

I'm not trying to disagree with Wheels, just let you know how it felt to me. I really liked seeing the x's on the map that mark where the shot was taken... kind of allowed me to put a "place to the picture" the same way it's nice to be able to use an avatar to allow people to put a face to the name (as Wheels himself has done :c) ).

To me, the main thing was having to constantly jocky up and down with the mouse to do what I wanted to do next. Let's face it, we're lazy by nature... I want to get to the site, park the mouse and just click when I'm ready to go to the next step without having to move the mouse all over.

Whatever ends up being easy to use (usability) and still delivers on the vision you set the site up with in the first place (which is great!) should work out fine.

NCD

www.mk12.com
Found it on locomotion, watch the reels, slick work.

Also : http://www.heliozilla.com/ awesome, thats the kind of action. . .
(check the reel of course)

we got loads of video on our new site - it needs testing if anyone wants to.... you have to select a video project and then the last file on the file list for that project www.bubblemedia.co.uk

check out our film and video section

Peak Studios - web design

nice site bubble, works well, nice and simple design, beautiful.
i have a question about how you are loading your video if you have a sec. i have noticed that it is possible to get more than one video downloading at once and that is a problem if one has larger movie files on the site cause it loads up the bandwidth and makes 'em load real slow. i haven't come across a site with video that this doesn't have this problem. it reminds me of the streaming mp3 problem a while back, you couldn't stop a mp3 from downloading once it had started, now the same with swf's? any insights here? im on an osx mac ie 5.2.2.

also when i get more than one video downloading at once on your site it seems to confuse the download percentage indicator.
thanks --grish

mmm - not sure about this...

The problem doesn't show up at my end but i am on 2Mb/s ADSL

I am loading swfs in to a target movie for example "McDropZone" to replace what was orginally there ...

I have made the assumption that if the new swf is being loaded into "McDropZone" to replace the orginal swf then that should stop the original swf from loading ...

there doesn't seem to be any actionscript / object to cancel a loadmovie

does anyone have a way of canceling a loadmovie action.

are you loading the swf on it's own _level or through a emptyMovieClip?

use this code for a _level situation.

//2 is the _level which you loaded the movie
unloadMovieNum(2);
//then load the other movie
loadMovieNum("yourfile.swf", 2)

or

//set this variable on the _root level
var switchSection;

//put this code where you need it
//set the 1st movie you loaded.
_root.switchSection = Home
//then load the 1st movie
my_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("home", 2);
my_mc.home.loadMovie("home.swf");


//now you can use this code to switch the movie
my_mc.switchSection.unloadMovie();
my_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("new", 2);
my_mc.new.loadMovie("new.swf");
_root.switchSection = new


That should give ya a good start.


Peak Studios - web design

re: multiple videos loading

hi bubble and quincewyss-- i built the project that i was working on the same way bubble did, loading into an empty mc. after seeing the multi-download bog down i tried an unlaodMovie() and a then a removeMovieClip() before loading the new movie. nothing stopped the download for my mac system, but in testing on the pc it seemed to kill the one that was downloading.

loading into levels i did not try. have you tested this on a mac, quincewyss? with ie 5.2.2, netscape 4.7 and newer, player6.0r79 (and the others too, but haunt tested with 7).

the uglyness of this problem is extra bad when say the first movie is downloading and you switch to a second movie which may be bigger or is less downloaded and you are seeing all the second movies content and copy and the first movie finishes its preload and pops itself in the second movies spot, yuk. then a bit later the second movie jams itself into the targetMc (shared targetMc with the first) and replaces it, unless of course you have moved on to another movie, or into another section and you at that point have three fat movies downloading plus the section.swf that you are in transition into and things are all slow. you get the idea.

i just abused bubble's (very nice) site hard, quite hard, and while i could still get the videos in projects 2 and 5, where i was testing, to be downloading at once which did slow things down noticeably, i didn't see the download indicator get confused but it did just not show up once until the movie was totally loaded and it animated to 100%. i'd say that is fixed as i then knew to hit play. i never say the first movie end up in the second movies spot, though it downloaded into the cache and was there when i went back to it, as one would expect. but it would be better if it had stopped downloading, naturally, but maybe this is impossible?

bubble, it would be great if i could see how you are pulling this off as you site as it is working better than i have seen a while. also, your videocontroller is working well too, i couldn't break it. is it something you developed from scratch? i'd love to see how it works. maybe you can post for us flashkiters to see or email something (emailremoved)? anything would be great even if you just talked it through, if you had time.

thanks a lot for all your help.
--grish