Video to Flash Conversion - Which program?

Chanimal wrote on 11/1/2006, 10:19 AM

I need to convert my videos to Flash for one of my clients. The forum mentions a few codecs, etc. However, I haven't found enough information.

Requirements (can change):

- Flash8 support. I want the better quality, but the player compatability is 83% versus 97% for previous Flash versions.
- Need to be able to create a FLV file--not just a SWF file. This article explains why: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flv_download.html. Synopsis: the SWF is limited to 16,000 frames (8.8 minutes at 30fps), is too big, sometimes has audio sync problems, etc. The FLV has progressive and streaming (progressive will work fine).
- Would like double pass encoding. Quality - but may not be able to.

I need to create the FLV file, but don't know how it works with the associated SWF file (do I have to script anything).

I am comparing On2 (standard ($39) and pro (don't want to spend $249)), plus Swish Video2 and Camtasia Studio (I have 1.1.1, the new 4.0).

- On2 develops the codec used by Macromedia/Adobe for Flash8. The standard version looks OK and only cost $39, but it doesn't do double encoding and there may be something else it doesn't do (don't know enough yet). The $249 version does double encoding and more.

- Swish Video2 converts, but not to version 8. It has a nice interface and apparently creates the associated SWF file to go with the FLV file.

- Camtasia uses the ON2 codec (not sure which one), like Macromedia. It takes $149 for me to upgrade from my 1.1.1 version to the latest (this month) 4.0 version. I don't know if it makes the associated file.

I would love it if the codec and profiles where pre-set within Vegas--but considering the cost for the codec from On2 (based on a Swiftzone forum discussion), it is too pricy.

I've been doing homework for over two hours but still don't know enough to make a decision.

Any help here?

Ted

Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/1/2006, 10:22 AM

Ted, I would highly recommend Soren Media.

Chanimal wrote on 11/1/2006, 10:31 AM

Jay,

The Sorenson is a plug-in from On2 for $249. Any reason to get it here, versus from On2 at the same price? Is it better in any way?

Also, the price is $249 for a plug-in, when the latest Vegas was only $149. Sounds steep.

More comments?

Ted

Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/1/2006, 10:36 AM

Ted, the $149 price for Vegas was an upgrade price. If you own Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, that plug-in is only $149, same as the upgrade for Vegas.

It was just a suggestion.

seanfl wrote on 11/1/2006, 12:32 PM

I'm a user of the $250 on2 flix pro and have been very pleased. It looks great, and seems friendlier than anything else I tried...then again that was 6 months ago. Much can change. Flash 8 is very important in my book...much better looking at the same file size. And now that penetration levels are high for flash 8, you can be comfortable using it.

I haven't compared the pro with the cheaper product from Flix. There is only a slight difference in single vs. two pass from what I can tell.

Jay makes a good suggestion however, I tried squeeze and did output beautiful flash video (as does on2 in my opinion).

------------------------------
broadcast voiceovers

Tom Pauncz wrote on 11/1/2006, 1:32 PM

I use both ON2's FlixPro 8.5 and SWiSHVideo2 v2. FlixPro gives me great results and smaller files than SWiSHVideo2. That is not to say that I can complain about SV2. It's excellent for the price.

Tom

riredale wrote on 11/1/2006, 2:43 PM

I've also worked with single and two-pass and can't see much difference. In the MPEG2 world, the whole benefit of two-pass is that not only can the encoder invest more bits in complex scenes, but it can also accurately meet a specific filesize requirement. The latter is not that critical a feature for most stuff.

You'll need a Flash player, or if you're doing a website, some means of embedding the Flash video into a webpage. Do a search on this board--this has been discussed before.

As mentioned, Flash8 is significantly better than the earlier versions, and most PCs have already updated their players. If they haven't, it's a trivial download.

Flash just works. The whole web universe is migrating to Flash video, in my view.

douglas_clark wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:02 PM

Camtasia does not reliably encode DV video to FLV. Only video recorded within Camtasia is supported for the FLV encoding....and that is the word from TechSmith tech support, for both Camtasia version 3 and the new version 4. I tried putting a Vegas-edited DV clip onto the Camtasia timeline, together with Camtasia screen capture, and the resulting FLV file had video out of sync from audio by by 200 ms! That is quite noticeable. So only use Camtasia for FLV encoding of screen recordings!

douglas_clark wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:13 PM

Jay, does Sorensen's On2 VP6 Pro Encoder for Flash work inside Vegas? Or is it just a plugin to Sorensen Squeeze?

vitalforce wrote on 11/1/2006, 7:32 PM

While setting up a web site, because I had bought SwishMax, I recently bought Swish Video2, but was a little disappointed by the picture quality at 360x240 though the program has nice tweaks such as an overlay--still, only outputs Flash MX, not 8.

Then bought On2 Flix Standard. Noticeable difference, outputs in Flash 8 one-pass, also many nice tweaks, and completely acceptable for my site window. In fact, it does a nice trick--I can do a full-quality render of MPEG-4 and get a fine picture from that as well (to convert to Flash for site reasons).

Chanimal wrote on 11/3/2006, 5:01 PM

Thanks for all the great feedback.

For this project, I downloaded the demo of Camtasia 4.0 and gave it a try (I have Camtasia 1.1.1 but it won't export to flv, only swf format). Prior to even testing it, I called support. He said they use the On2 codec and recommended the demo. Macromedia only uses the single pass codec.

The demo allowed me to encode an existing AVI file and I was shocked to see that it had 2-pass encoding with the A6 (On2 codec). The only thing I noticed was a 20 frame/second limit--but I didn't have much time so I may have misunderstood the settings.

It rendered great, I didn't notice any voice problem and was pretty quick (320 x 240). I can pick up an upgrade for $149 so it may work for what I need.

Good to hear about the On2 Flix Standard--it is $49, the big brother is $249 (as is Sorenson).