SWF Output to LCD Projector

[denny b]

Hi FKC. This is my first post on a flash forum and am a complete newb in relation to many of you.
I am still running Flash MX (04). Because i find flash a little more useable than other progs, i am using it to create a presentation. I am creating a project that i intend to only use as a standalone SWF (not uploadable to a site or anything). I intend to play the SWF full screen on a laptop and output to an LCD projector as a presentation. I have the stage set at 1024 x 768 and am using movie clips imported/embedded (which arent the full 1024x768 but slightly smaller ), text, photo's and audio. I am nearly 2/3rds the way through and the SWF file size is growing (currently at 16 meg). I expect it to be in the region of 90 meg + or so as some audio yet to be loaded and still photos are quite size heavy.

I have never used and LCD projector before. Could anyone advise if this output on full screen via an LCD projector will work ok? Any tweaks or advice as how to get the best results?

Is there any way i can get the audio to sound a little cleare as when the SWF is published the sound seems to lose a little quality in the compresssion.

Also, what is the maximum size you would recomend a standalone SWF in this scenario should/could be?


thanks v much

regards

den

[RanTen]

Hi Denny,

A few things to keep in mind when putting a stand-alone SWF together.

Build the swf for the final output aspect ratio.
1024 x 768 translates roughly to 1 : 1.3 ie standard screens (monitor & TVs)

If your presentation is played out on a wide screen plasma tv, with a ratio
1 : 16.9, then you will get either a black/white edge on either side.

As for file size - really dosent matter, as long as the comp that you will be using it to play on dosen't have junk all over the place. I have made presentations that touched the 300Mb mark. Of course, this played out differently on different comps...because of all the accumulated junk on the playback comp.

Hope that helps...if u need any more info...feel free to ask

[denny b]

hey Ranten, thankyou for your reply.. v much appreciated.. that's good news that the size is irrelevant as such as long as i've got enough mices in the box to tick the frames over...


re the ratio of the screen output thankyou for the advice... i havent as yet seen the setup.. this is for a family members 50th and i am reliant on the venue suppliying an LCD projector and a portable projection screen.. which i believe is wide (ish) screen.. the date is some way off yet, but i hope to gte down there soon to check it all out...

re the audio (i have it set to stremed).. it sounds a little more muffled in the SWF than the original wav file (prob the compression)... is there any way of avoiding this without trying to sync up external devices or pull in audio via xml etc (omg action script.. HELP)?

re projection - if the images look ok on full screen on my laptop/desktop, does that mean that the projection should translate as well but just larger? .. also is this way of doing things (ie swf file to full screen > output) a correct way of doing this or i am cuttting some pro corners?

sorry for,the questoins.. so much to learn so little time...lol

thanks regards

denny

[RanTen]

Hi Denny,

To answer your questions...

Make sure you know the res of the TV monitor.... any comp will do just fine - as long as there's NO JUNK floating around on it, that will make your swf slow.

Audio - streaming is fine. I would go with MP3s. WAV files are heavier...so try and convert your audio to MP3s. Muck around the settings of the audio file in the library...and arrive at what best you want for the audio export.

Are you going to sync the audio to certain images, etc????? Do you know how to??? if not...check this:
http://www.kennybellew.com/tutorial/
Audio can be problematic...so let me know how it turns out.

Re projection - remember, your comp monitor has a much higher resolution than any TV monitor thats ever been made - no matter what its size. So if an image looks great to you on your monitor...don't worry how it will look on the TV. And no...you are not cutting any corners.

Most importantly....don't use the swf....publish it as an EXE file....so even if the comp that you are running it on, dosent have flash or flash player, the EXE will always run.

Any more help...just ask.

[denny b]

Hi Ranten.. thanks for the reply.. not been at the pc to reply until now..

Until i am able to go check the equipment in the next month or so i wont know the res etc or the details of the kit... all i do know is that it an LCD projector with an available mobile pull up/down screen (large for presentations 6x 4 i think ). I shall report back when i know more
Re wav and mp3's, i agree that mp3 is normally lighter on the load, but i have found a comparable loss of quality to that of aif's or wavs in the past. it's just my personal hearing and experience i think. would prefer that even the wavs weren't compressed in the swf to be honest if theres a way.. i'm a little too much of a perfectionist for my own good i think...without the flash skillset yet either lol..

The only part's i have had to syncd up are some old tv adverts/programme intros that i have downloaded as a montage intro..... gee that took some pitch and tempos controlling on my music software to match down to 12 fps and matching up voiceover to lipsync......got there eventually.. the remainder of the presentaion will be oversized (not distorted) stills slowly drifting on to stage and across stage expanding fading etc etc.. nothing too gimmicky just simple fades and a little drift movement... all of this will be to a track that you may have heard by by Sigur Ros..(it was made a little more famous by the BBC when they used it as a sound track under junction points for future programming information) it's an odd video, then again the vocals are odd as they are icelandic but sing in a completely made up language...

heres a link if you'd like to hear it..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkP_NaMsrMM

the only syncing here is to accentuate certain lifts and falls with image stage entrances and fades etc..

thanks again for your advice.. i will check that link as well and update when i now more about the kit.. hopefully all will be fine..

regards

denny

[RanTen]

Hi Denny,

Looks like you are on a good wicket.

Just one point up the frame rate to 20. Flash's default frame rate of 12, is a tad to slow for me. With that done, your audio wont have any problems.

Hope that helps

Ranten

[denny b]

Hi Ranten et al..

just an update.. was supposed to check out the projector last month but the hosts keep cancelling a meet..will be next fortnight or so stilll awaiting..

anyway project done an dusted....all 8352 frames of it..fla circa 350 meg and the swf (uncompressed) 56 meg.

i found that when i saved compresssed (although it saved 10 meg) the sound which i had imported (all wavs) was really affected.. even exporting the movie as uncompressed (GIGANTIC SIZE) with all settings for sound set to highest quality and wav 44.1 htz etc gave me audio problems (clicking sounds throughout)

i found the best option eventually to be exporting movie as uncompressed and setting audio output to MP3 160... originally the wavs sounded a little light (have done quite a bit of music production professionally etc and have a personal beef about the difference that allegedly no one else can hear between the depth of a wav and an mp3 compressed file...i'm hearing those voices again...lol) anyway i reproduced the wavs in Sound Forge to boost the bottom end and all sounds solid now on playback of SWF.


Ranten i wish i had remembered to re-read your post re saving output as exe...
lol... i borrowed the (new shiney) laptop i shall be using and had a nightmare trying to download a standalone flash player for it. these days it appears flash auto downloads plugins and active x that runs in the background somewhere for web content etc, but could i find the flash player exe? could i hell.....i finally got around it by donwloading from a link hidden away on the adobe site and some research..if anyone wants a standalone player.. just download the standalone tool labelled debugger. why do adobe do this? you'd think an update of flas player means all things connected to flash playback, standalone as well?

Ranten when you say you prefer 24 fps am i right in thinking if i had used 24fps and replocated my tweens and input at the speeds i have used would i in fact be uisng twice as many frames?.. would this double the size of the fla and swf?

what are the pros and cons in your opinion regarding higher or lower fps settings?

i take it this wont have a bearing on playback through a projector as you mentioned earlier if all looks well on both machines then all should appear ok when amplified through the projector?? all appears ok on both machines i'm glad to say.. the only thing that may be a headache apart from the connection to the projector/playback etc is that the shiney new laptop is widescreen. i reset the resolution to match 1024x768 of the workhorse desktop and SWF setup....this plays ok but leaves black screen space on the sides of the laptop widescreen.. this wont appear on the projector ouput will it? i'm imagining and hoping that the projector will only project the screen resolution setting?

anyways look forward to hearing from you


thanks for your help and response..


kind regards

denny

[Video Man]

Just a slight clarification on the aspect ratio discussion. A 1024 x 768 monitor has an aspect ratio of 4:3, not 1 : 1.3 (1024/4 = 256, 256X3 = 768). And most widescreen is an aspect ratio of 16:9, not 1 : 16.9.
So when preparing a presentation for wide screen display, (assuming you are using full screen, with no tool bars, etc.), choose dimensions that are appropriate for that aspect ratio or you will get distortion if stretched or black bars if displayed at another aspect ratio.
The dimensions can be whatever you want.... lets say your laptop display is 1200px wide... then divide 1200/16 = 75, 75x9 = 675. So for a full screen display 1200 px wide, the height would be 675 px.
As for a Flash stand alone player, you can easily create your own. In the Publish settings, choose "Projector". That will create a .exe which includes the player....and no, it has nothing to do with a LCD external project...completely different animal.
Video Man

[denny b]

thanks video man for the standalone tip.. think the .exe is what Ranten elluded to..

re the screen res, you got me a little confused there though... if i set the lappy widescreen back to the same res as the same as my own desktop wouldnt that resolve any issues? or would the projector override the settings and want to project the full laptop widescreen, black bits and all?

the swf plays fine and looks ok on the laptop when i reset res and go full screen...the black screen either side is an obvious result of the res change...is this gonna be a prob?





thanks

denny

[Video Man]

The LCD projector will display exactly what's on the laptop screen, black bars and all.
Next time you could create a 16:9, widescreen presentation on your 4:3 monitor you know. Just set the Flash doc size to a 16:9 aspect ration, for example 1000/16 = 62.5, 62.5x9 = 562.5. so the doc size would be 1000x563 for a 16:9 display.
Same way to create a 4:3 display on a widescreen laptop, it's just math.
Video Man

[denny b]

ouch.. thanks video man...

what do i do now?.. i dont want the black bars seen and the whole project is set up for the nomal 17/19 inch tft set up?

please dont tell me i have to re edit the whole project?

thanks denny

[Video Man]

If possible get ahold of the LCD projector ahead of time and play with it and the laptop you will be using. Perhaps there is some zoom or distance/angle that doesn't look too bad. You might even try taping of the sides of the projection lense to coverup the light being projected which produces the black bars, just be careful not to overheat or burn something up.
Clients will sometimes send me videos that do not fit in their Web page video players, it has black bars on top or sides. They shoot in widescreen HD but render the video in standard 4:3 def. What I do then (in Flash) is to cover over the area of the video screen where the black bars are displayed with a bar that matches the background color of the Web page.... voilÃ*! no more black bars!
Here's an example... video in middle of the page:
http://www.sqis.net/
Looks like the video was created exactly for the page!
Now in your case it would be a lot harder to match exactly the color of the projector screen.... some shade of off white/gray, depending on the lighting in the room. But you could create a new Flash document 1365 X 768 (a 16:9 aspect ratio) and just load your current .swf into the very center (1024 wide) with loadMovie and have a 171 x 768 grayish bar on each side....and next time remember the very first rule of goal setting, "Begin with the end in mind".
Best of luck to ya!
Video Man

[denny b]

thanks for the advice and the link video man... that's the whole problem really... the LCD projector is at the location where the project will be shown and as yet have not been able to get in and setup to test (will be in there in the next two weeks hopefully).Also the amount of time i've had with the laptop i am borrowing to output to the LCD has been limited.....i must admit the ratio aspect and output to LCD projector was on my mind throughout hence the the thread, but knew little about the alternatives before starting the project and was creating on a 4.3 res screen.

just so you can get a picture of the layout and make up of the project..

1 centered is a 10 sec countdown in 70's style font in circle (that unwinds) and audio sound test with circle sweep, quick glimpse of jittering swf timecode and frame (so Michael Winner darling..lol)


2 fade in of old style clock face and a selection of oversized photos gliding in (slowly rotating through the stage).. clock hand glides anti clockwise and date countdown overlaying clock begins... all fade in and out of each other with varying alphas, the photos taking precident..music spliced, reversed etc...and samples of music in the remainder of the project added..gives a dreamy reflection of going back in time..

3. A selection of video clips centered.. resized (youtube ish size and not full screen due to stretch and pixelation etc.. narrative text below.

4. Full screen (oversized) photos sweeping on to stage and with slow glide and fade..(some alter to break it up) a little graphic and tween on top of the final photo.

so the main problem i think may have is that the oversized stuff starting off stage will show start of tween and also gaps will appear where they fade after stretch tween around the edges of the stage when fading...is this correct?

if so i may re edit another version just in case for 16.9...so i need to resize the stage to 1365 x 768 or 1000x563? and just adjust tweens accordingly?

how will i know if playback is cool in the 16.9 ratio (ie no stretching on video clips and all tweens for stills making it on off stage correctly to the edge without gaps..if i only have a 4.3 tft to work on for the time being?

i imagine just work to the new stage size and have faith?! then test on lappy?

sorry for all the questions, am info thirsty lol..... would also like to rectify if possible and have all bases covered..

good luck

many thanks

denny

[Video Man]

The simplest solution is to not change the .swf at all, just show with the black bars ..... or tape off the part of the lense that shows them, sort of like sticking your hand in front of the projector light... not the best way, but an option.
To get rid of the black bars you could of course, redo the whole thing, but a easier quick method would be to load your existing .swf into a movie clip called "swf_holder", or something like that. No changes at all to your existing .swf.
So, create a new Flash doc. 1365 x 768, from the top, create an actions layer, a bars layer, and a swf_holder layer, being sure the bars are above the swf_holder. On the bars layer, create 2 grayish bars 171 x 768 and place them at the far left and right side.
That leaves a 1024 x 768 gap between them. Create your swf_holder movie clip and place that in the gap on the layer below the bars (be sure you give it the instance name swf_holder). Then use something like:

stop();
swf_holder.loadMovie("myExternalMovie.swf");

in the actions layer to load your existing .swf onto the stage in that 1024 x 768 container. I don't think the off stage stuff of the existing .swf will show because of the swf_holder movie clip size, but even if it does, the gray bars are on a layer above and will cover it up. Tweak the final project as needed.
I would not recommend this way of doing it if you had to start all over but it would allow you use your existing .swf with no changes to it.
Then to test your display on a 4:3 screen, just reset the dimension of a Flash player on a web page. You could use any size, as long as the aspect ratio is 16:9..... so for example use 500 x 282.... and test it... see how it looks.
If you decide to redo the entire thing, then choose whatever size you want, just be sure the aspect ratio is appropriate for the end use, not the machine you are creating it on. Just because you are working on a 1024 monitor does not mean you can't create a 2000 x 1000, or whatever crazy size .swf if you want to.
Sounds like an exciting movie! Wish you the best of luck on it.
Video Man

[denny b]

video man thank yopu for such an informative response .. very helpful sir!

i'll give the action script a wide birth for now, because i am miles away from being proficient in that league like yourself and most on here..would like to nail it one day though....

since reading your post i have managed to redo half of the project as another version for 16.9.. so i will have two to choose from.. i know it's time consuming and in a pressured environemnt maybe not advisable, and if i had half of your Flash knowledge i could probably follow your instructions to rectify more efficiently.

anyways i have respositioned clips and graphics to centre stage and do not appear dwarfed by the additional screen space for widescreen at all..

only have photos left to do.. onsome where an issues with pixelation even on 4.3 on growing tweens may be an issue..i'll get around that hopefully by respositioning.... however the majority are very large (oversized in the main) size and fill the entire stage at 4.3 so resizing and current tweens will hopefully be ok..

thankyou once again for all of your responses and to Ranten a swell... very informative and helpful to a newb like me.. your time is much appreciated.

will be back no doubt with updates...


good luck with your projects..

kind regards

denny

[denny b]

quick update... unfortunately unable to play the new 16.9 version back on the widescreen laptop until next week,

full screen play back (no task bars etc) on the 4.3 scren shows that adhering to the stage (1366x768 - 16.9) leaves edges at the top and bottom as if cinema scope. i am not experienced enough to know if there is

a simple ratio button or actionscript that will pull this into line...

so i am now repositioning the images as if it were 4.3 ish, but using 1366x1040 custom stage (not great with the math to work out exact ratio).shall continue with this unless someone can advise a simple and better way as i think a couple of the images (but important ones) may struggle resizing to this width/height...

also i now have the model of the projector.. it is apparently a Sanyo Proxtrax Multiverse (not the latest model by any stretch and by the looks and on sale on ebay for £5 lol..) ...and in the spec if i read correctly, it

cannot display pc output over 1280 x 1024..not sure where that leaves me with the 1366x768...

so having tampered to reshape fr 16.9 i a shall do a little more ongoing fiddling at leisure just in case,

but want to trial the pojector now asap as am unsure how it will take to 1366x1040 setup for the widescreen lappy..don't want everyone projected on screen looking like they need the atkins diet....

a little aside which is really strange... the new fla with 16.9 ratio with more stage space and larger images (not all done yet) is showing a saving of 110 meg lol... swf still same size on ouytput..

ratios.. ssmachios


cheers

denny

[Video Man]

Hey denny,
Trying to assess a wide screen aspect ratio on a standard ratio monitor may be confusing you. Displaying a 1366 wide .swf on your monitor will of course leave a bar across the top and bottom. That does not mean there's a problem with the size, etc. It IS displaying correctly and would work as expected on a wide screen monitor.
The reason for the bars is that in order to display the 1366 pixels in a 1024 monitor, there's not enough room, so the image is shrunk down a little to get all the pixels (1366 of them) to display in 1024 of space. Well if you have to shrink the .swf in width, then it also has to shrink it in height, or the content would be stretched taller than it should be (a circle would not be round but would be oblong).
I'd suggest you set up a Flash player on a web page to test the aspect ratio thing, don't rely on playing it full screen on your monitor. Just create a one frame .fla, with the doc size (stage set to 500 x 282), draw a simple rectangle and "Publish" the .swf to produce a "test.html" web page with the Flash it. Then by just altering the name of the .swf on web page source code, you can test the appearance of your .swf, viewing it in 16:9. Or rename your .swf to match the test.html page .swf. You don't need to shrink down or change your .swf in any way, it will just diplay in a much smaller area than normal. It should fill the space (500 x 282) perfectly and maintain correct proportions for all the content.
Best of luck to ya!
Video Man

[denny b]

ah video man.. i think you're right with the confusion....i'm gonna read and read that post again and give it a go...very nicely explained..thankyou

i am nearly done resizing the whole thing lol...

gonna refrain until i get the laptop to be sure of what i'm seeing..

i thought it was a bit odd that i had used the ratio suggested 1366x768 and stil had issues..

i guess i'm gonna have issues now having resized again to 1366x1040 arent i even though it's all looking fine on the 4.3?! grrr..


thanks again VM

i'll try the tutorial you posted when i get a mo..

back soon lol


kind regards

denny

[denny b]

hi people. just like to say thanks to those who posted here.. after a little stress with the screen setup and zoom all played out perfectly at 4.3 res, no black bars anywhere in sight. also bypassed the projector with a 3.5 mm jack to rca via a inhouse amp.. perfecto... thanks again..

am now aiming to dump the swf or fla out to an auto play version on dvd for playback on dvd/tv etc.. not worried about dimensions too much...

anyone with any ideas on this..fla to avi? or swf to avi or any other effecient ways?
having researched it looks like the output file will be absolutely mega... possibly 60 times the orignal... ouch!


regards &
good luck

denny

[Video Man]

Well there is the option in the Flash menu to "Export" / "Movie", then choose the format you want, like .avi. Just be aware that certain functions will not export out, like any interactive elements. But it's a quick, easy way to get the Flash into an different format. Test it and see if it works for you.
Then you import your .avi into a video editing program to touch-up and/or burn the DVD.
Video Man