Lots of FLIX video causing memory issues

[jfaust97]

I am creating a cdrom that has a ton (400mb) of video converted to *.swf files via Flix. They work and look great. The only problem is that they are broken into 15 or so seperate files for easy of navigation. I am having some issues loading them quickly when called. It can take up to 1 minute top load a 1 minute clip. I don't think preloading them ALL onto different layers is the answer (although I have not tried it) since this would require all 400mb to preload before starting the cd... not to mention most users don't have 400+ megs of RAM.... any suggestions??

[Flash 'N Pack]

You might want to look at using either Quick Time Player and load your flash into quicktime player, or use a third party tool that will allow you to load .avi, or .mpeg directly intop flash movie... one that will do that for sure is: http://www.flashnpack.com (Flash 'N Pack)

here is a demo :

http://www.flashnpack.com/samples/do...le=smvideo.exe

to see more video demos, download the free trial version of Flash 'N Pack then go to your sample folder for more info:

get your FREE Trial version here..
http://www.flashnpack.com

Also you might want to search this board because i think johnie have mentioned before how to do this with QuickTime Player.
[Edited by Flash 'N Pack on 07-13-2002 at 03:15 AM]

[Justmade]

Flash playing of movie need to load them entirely into memory first, so there is always delay. If the user CDROM speed is slow, it make the delay quite annoying. Also the flash player quality is always not as good as other common player like window media player and quicktime, etc. Flix DO make the problem smaller and the quality better and work very well for small to medium file size.

Playing the file using external player but let you have control in Flash is a good way of solving the problem. It play at the original quality and it start up at once.

LPFlashEx can let you load and control external media file directly in flash. The media will play at a borderness window and stick to your specified Stage position and size. It will move / resize with your flash window just like a movie clip in your window. There is also a smart clip control bar with slider which you can use directly or you can use the code inside and replace graphics with your own.

Moreover, LPFlashEx work with Normal Flash Projectors, you dont need to worrie if the end user got Flash player 6 plugin installed or not. LPFlashEx also has 2 media player. While one of them use Window Media Player to utilize its functionality, the other (MMP) make directly call to system to play the media file with whatever codec the system got to play the media file. So, it do not depend on media player / quicktime OCX. The player can view your movies if they got ANY player that support the playback of that kind of file. For example, it does matter the user got media player, quicktime, active movie (bundle with win 98), or even some other old player like Xing mpeg, your mpeg movie can play.

See a quick set of sample in
http://www.lpflashex.com/dl/MovieSamplesV2.zip (127KB)

publish the chooseplayer.fla to exe and you can click the folder button and choose those file you want to test on.

[johnie]

The Quick Time Player itself can play SWF Files and can be skinned so that the Media Skin is incorperated with your paticular media so that your media automatically plays with your skin. An embedded SWF is called a Flash Track and there are a few, minor restrictions with this method due to the QT Flash handler. With Flash MX you can embed Video files directly into it also.

This is becuase MM and Apple have cross liscensed technologies.

The good side to this is that Flash (Up to Flash 5 for QT6 or Flash 4 for QT 5) can be played natively in the QT Player along with the 200+ file types that it handles and this solution is 100% cross platform as you are using MOV files instead of EXEs and HQXs. Another upside is that the same file can also be used on the internet or intranet. The downside is that the user must have QT to play the file.

So where should you use QT or where should you use Flash?

If you are planning on having dependant files use QT. Also if you have a lengthy video, lengther than 6-8 minutes use QT. If you have a shorter Video and want it all in SWF then use Flash. Likewise if you desire a EXE that doesn't require the user to have the player installed then go with Flash. If you require just one file for both Mac, PC, or the internet then go with QT.

A solutions for large amounts of video and cross platform isn't a issue using one of the many tools that can embedd video into a projector -Only available for the PC. These tools include Jugglor, FlashNPack, SWF Studio, LpFlashEX, Flash Studio, FlashAnts FM projector, ECT (I don't think I left anyone out).

Another Option is to use one of the many tools that can play both Video and SWFs; MMB, MMF, Neobook, Director, ECT (I'm sure I left some out there as there are quit a number of these tools).

[jfaust97]

So how do you go about skinning the QT Player?
Also, my main SWF is using loadMovie to "call" the other video files which are also SWF.
How would I script the main SWF to cal a MOV or AVI file??

Thanks for your help.....

[johnie]

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/produ...ls/mediaskins/

You would replace your SWF with a flashtrack within a MOV. The MOV can load SWFs into it just like the SWF. You don't have to make a main SWF load a MOV into it but rather a main MOV that loads SWFs and movs in it. The oposite is not possible right now but rather the video has to be placed into the FLA and end up outputed as SWF at which point you will have the same problem as you are having with Flix.

Apple and MM have cross liscensed technologies so this means that the QT player can play SWFs in place of the Flash Player and Flash can create and edit MOVs. Flash MX can also embed video directly into it.

If you are wanting to luanch a MOV in the QT player alone (not in a browser)from a Flash projector use one of the tools listed or if you are developing in Flash 5 you can use one of the many methods mentioned here: http://www.aritali.com/flash/fsprojector.htm or use FS Tools or Flash Tools. Note you will make 3 files one for MAC and one for PC and one for the net. The advantage of using QT for it all is one file that is cross platform and editable.

[Christopher75]

As for skining a Wired movie you should use Livestage Pro.

http://www.totallyhip.com

And to get help and play with nice tutorials you check out
http://blueabuse.totallyhip.com


Check out this example of mixing QuickTime WIred Media and Flash. Farout and crazy

http://www.movtv.com

Or this great piece of work
http://www.icimediainc.net/lsp4flash/

Cheers.
[Edited by Christopher75 on 07-13-2002 at 05:38 PM]

[jfaust97]

Originally posted by Justmade
Flash playing of movie need to load them entirely into memory first, so there is always delay. If the user CDROM speed is slow, it make the delay quite annoying. Also the flash player quality is always not as good as other common player like window media player and quicktime, etc. Flix DO make the problem smaller and the quality better and work very well for small to medium file size.

Playing the file using external player but let you have control in Flash is a good way of solving the problem. It play at the original quality and it start up at once.

LPFlashEx can let you load and control external media file directly in flash. The media will play at a borderness window and stick to your specified Stage position and size. It will move / resize with your flash window just like a movie clip in your window. There is also a smart clip control bar with slider which you can use directly or you can use the code inside and replace graphics with your own.

Moreover, LPFlashEx work with Normal Flash Projectors, you dont need to worrie if the end user got Flash player 6 plugin installed or not. LPFlashEx also has 2 media player. While one of them use Window Media Player to utilize its functionality, the other (MMP) make directly call to system to play the media file with whatever codec the system got to play the media file. So, it do not depend on media player / quicktime OCX. The player can view your movies if they got ANY player that support the playback of that kind of file. For example, it does matter the user got media player, quicktime, active movie (bundle with win 98), or even some other old player like Xing mpeg, your mpeg movie can play.

See a quick set of sample in
http://www.lpflashex.com/dl/MovieSamplesV2.zip (127KB)

publish the chooseplayer.fla to exe and you can click the folder button and choose those file you want to test on.

So I am trying to use this product.
It works great when I am running everything from the hard drive... but if I burn this to a cd it takes 3 or 4 times of going "in and out" of the scene that contains the scripting that calls the *.avi file before it actually loads and plays. It is a rather large file 15+ megs. Is there any way to put some sort of preloader or error checking in this step to allow the player to initialize and load the video properly?? I know that such a large file will require 20 seconds or so to load from CD but I am not sure how to accomplish this with this product...

Excellent product otherwise!!

[Justmade]

Actually, it didnt need preloading becasue it should only take 1-3 seconds to startup what whatever size vedio as it do not need to load the video to memory.

You can even try to insert a VCD, use the sample browse buttons to browse into your VCD's MPEGAV directory and play those .DAT file.

I just tried a VCD with a 606MB file and it startup at 3 seconds for the first run and 1 seconds for the 2nd run up.

Can you have a try to use the sample to play the vedio which is on your CD to see if it is the same? If it play well, then there is a possiblity of the codeing is not optimized. You can email us how you code for the opening or you can even email a reduced copy of your fla (deleted artwork and non-related part) and we can optimize the code for you. You dont need to send us sample mpg file also we can use our own sample.

Actually, some of our other clients had already shipping their CD ROM using LPFlashEx as video playback for almost 2 months and they never receive a complain. Some other also put their product using LPFlashEx video playback and other functions to put to Lab test on 20+ computer with different settings and OS and it scored 100% success without any problem (except the timeout problem on a future dated computer as that customer did not registered at that time and of casue registered now). Those was on Media Player thought becasue the MMP is a new player.

A new sample of MMP which show the fullscreen playback and the new "MMPMouseClick event" :

http://www.lpflashex.com/dl/MMPMouseClick.zip

The mouse click setting of the sample is :
left click : play / pause
shift click : pause and hide the vedio
ctrl click : full screen / normal screen
right click : a popup menu for playback, fullscreen, close, etc

Note that all setting is within flash so you can set whatever you want in response to mouse click.

You may have interest to have a look of other samples as Vedio playback is just a part of the products.

You can email us for quick response because when we are busy, we had to skip checking forums for some time.

Thanks for trying our product and hope we can solve the problem you encountered and proved the product useful to you.

[Justmade]

Forget to answer this :

If you really need preloading. It is easy becasue LPFlashEx is event driven.

1. dont use autostart in the ini file.
2. in the onLPReady event, register a update event handler to handle the "MMPReady" event
3. After you load the movie, you hide it first
4. In the MMPReady event, show the movie and play.

function onLPReady(){
  LP.exec("setTitle","The Title you want");
  ...
  ...
  LP.updatehandler("MMPReady",this,"StartPlay");//or any func name you want
  LP.updatehandler("MMPFormClosed",this,"GoNext");
}

function StartPlay(){ // called when movie ready to play
  LP.MMP("hide",false);
  LP.MMP("play");
}

function GoNext(){ // call when the movie is closed (by autoclose or by user)
  gotoAndPlay(NextSection);
}

In the place you want to load your movie :
LP.MMP("load",filename,X,Y,W,H) // XYWH base on stage positon
LP.MMP("hide",true);