Practice 6.1: Encoding in Flash 8 for Playback from a Web Server.
In this practice, you will encode an existing video file into Flash 8 using the Macromedia/Flash 8 Video Encoder. 1. On the Desktop, double click on the MY COMPUTER icon. 2. Locate sample video file called C:\Student_DVD\source_video\return_pink_panther.avi. This file is in uncompressed (raw) windows video format (.avi). Hold your right mouse down over this return_pink_panther.avi file until submenu pops up, select PROPERTIES from SUBMENU. Record the following information from the Properties window:
3. Launch Flash 8 Video Encoder by selecting the START button in lower left corner select ALL PROGRAMS locate program folder Macromedia and select Flash 8 Video Encoder.
Web Video Course Practice 6.1

tony@mediatonetv.com

4. In Flash 8 Video Encoder window that appears, select ADD button to add video files to a queue that will be converted to flash 8 video.
5. In OPEN window that appears, locate file C:\Student_DVD\source_video\return_pink_panther.avi. Select this file and click the OPEN button at bottom right side of window
6. You are now returned to the Flash 8 Video Encoder window. You should see your file (.avi) is loaded in queue and has a status of WAITING because it is waiting to be encoded into Flash 8 video. Select the SETTINGS button to change encoding parameters for conversion process.
7. In the Flash Video Encoding Settings window, select Flash 8 Medium Quality (400kbps) from pull-down list. This setting is acceptable for home broadband users to view the flash video, but we may want to lower it even more in the next few steps.
8. In the Flash Video Encoding Settings window, enter return_pink_panther in Output filename
box. Then select SHOW ADVANCED SETTINGS button.
9. In the Flash Video Encoding Settings window, under ADVANCED SETTINGS, set the following parameters: a) Under Encode Video, select CUSTOM from Quality pull-down menu and specify a Max data rate to be 300 (400 is too aggressive for some residential broadband connections) b) Select Resize Video checkbox and specify Width of 360 pixels and Height of 240 pixels. This is a smaller size window for playback on the web, otherwise the flash video size would match the 720x480 size of the source (.avi) file and be too large for efficient playback on common broadband connections. Leave the checkbox for Maintain Aspect Ratio selected c) Under Encode Audio, in the Data rate pull-down menu, select 64kbps (mono) because the default of 96kbps (stereo) may also be too bandwidth heavy when combined with video for common broadband connection speeds. d) Select OK button to accept your new settings and return to Flash 8 Video Encoder window.
10. Back in the Flash 8 Video Encoder window, select the START QUEUE button and the flash
encoding of your video (.avi) will begin. The flash 8 encoding process will take approximately twice as long as the length of the video, but times will vary depending on CPU power and memory on your machine.
11. When encoding has completed for your file, a green checkmark will appear the status window indicating the encoding process completed successfully. The total elapsed time for encoding your file is displayed at the bottom of the window.

12. Exit from the Flash 8 Video Encoder by selecting menu FILE + EXIT. 13. Return to the Desktop, double click on the MY COMPUTER icon. Locate the newly encoded flash 8 video file called C:\Student_DVD\source_video\return_pink_panther.flv. Try double clicking on the file, you should notice that you can NOT play the flash 8 video file directly off your harddrive because there is currently no standalone flash player. To see the flash video playback, well need to embed the video files in a HTML web page, this is covered later in the course. NOTE: if you were using ON2 Technologies Flix Pro flash video encoder product, it does allow you to playback the flash 8 video immediately.
14. Again, locate the newly encoded flash 8 video file called C:\Student_DVD\source_video\return_pink_panther.flv. Hold your right mouse down over this return_pink_panther.flv file until submenu pops up, select PROPERTIES from SUBMENU. Record the following information from the Properties window. Please note that no information about flash 8 video files (.flv) is displayed under Summary tab of properties window, so there is no new information to record.
15. Compare the size of the original file (return_pink_panther.avi) from the beginning of this practice to the newly encoded video file (return_pink_panther.flv). What do you notice? 16. The newly encoded video file (return_pink_panther.flv) can be loaded onto a web server in another practice.