A player to load videos from file? (Flash CS3)

[Ultimate Dash]

use php to read the contents of the folder, and the LoadVars class to talk with php.

gparis

Well unfortunately I don't know PHP at all, and only some Actionscript. I'm admittedly more of an animator/designer than a programmer. I wish I knew more. Can you point me to some tutorials, both for PHP and Actionscript, that would help me build this video player?

Well yes you can script a swf file to load and play movie files from an external folder, but the Flash player does not play .avi, .wmv, or .mpg files. Flash players like those used on YouTube and other video sharing sites use Flash because it's very cross browser friendly. Not because it's the very best player to use locally on any one given machine.
Are you saying that you want to reproduce the player once for each video... using multiple "instances"? rather than just one player which plays videos from a playlist?
If you choose the Flash player then you'd be better off converting all the videos to one format, the Flash .flv video file. Then you'd have all the Flash resources available.
If you don't want to convert all the video files, then you should look at using a DivX or VLC player, which will play a wider range of file types.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video

Hmm...tell me more about this FLV format? How useful is it?

Also, yes. What I mean is...hmmm, okay, suppose I have a database page devoted to a certain subject. I would want the media player embedded in that page to automatically load the video of that subject, rather than having to search through a playlist or open a file from a directory.