How to convert to Flash FLV Video and add it on your homepage

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How to convert to Flash FLV Video and add it on your homepage

Baldrick posted 2006 Nov 29 03:06

This guide will help you to convert your video to Flash FLV Video and also how to add / embed it to your homepage. Google Video and Youtube are also using Flash Video but you might not want to use them for your video clips and by converting the clips yourself you can getter better quality. Remember that sharing video on your homepage requires a lot of homepage bandwidth.

Tools required
Converting to Flash FLV video
Converting with Riva FLV Encoder
Converting with SUPER
Adding the flash flv video to your site
Examples

Tools required
Riva FLV Encoder (Free) or Super (Free) or On2 Flix ($40-$250) or Flash Professional ($600)
Flash Video Player (Free for noncommercial use) / Flash Video Player 3.5 Mirror download

Converting to flash flv video
Convert the video to flash flv with Riva FLV Encoder or Super or On2 Flix or Flash Professional.
Riva FLV Encoder and Super are free and supports most video input formats. On2 and Flash also supports several video input formats and they also support the new flv4/on2 vp6 codec and that helps you create better looking video.

Convert with Riva FLV Encoder
Choose your video source.
Set the video Movie size/resolution, for example 320x240. If you use higher size and your source is interlaced click deinterlace.
Set the Framerate, use same as your video source, for example 25fps.
Set the Bitrate, higher bitrates means better quality but bigger file size, for example 360. You can use a bitrate calculator to calculate the exact output file size.
Set the Audio setttings, audio bitrate 56 kbps, 22khz and mono or stereo.
Set the Start offset and duration if you want to cut out a clip from video. Like start at 120 sec in to the video and encode 120 seconds.
Set the Output folder.
Encode! It will take some time. Check the output folder and a .flv file should be created, if not it doesn't work. You can then try encode with SUPER instead. See below
Click Preview to view the video.

Convert with SUPER
Right click in the super window and deselect Stay on top of all.
Right click and specify the Output Folder destination.
Select the Output container and choose flv or swf.
Set the Video Size. If you use higher size than 320x240 and your source interlaced click on Other Opt and select Deinterlace.
Set the Frame Rate
Set the Bitrate, higher bitrates means better quality but bigger file size, for example 480. You can use a bitrate calculator to calculate the exact output file size.
Set the Audio settings.
Right click to add your file(s).
If you want a custom watermark click on the O to the right of "Use DirectShow". A "me :-)" logo is enabled by default just select disabled to turn it off.
Click Encode and select FLV.
It should now say ENCODING FILE. Check also the output folder.

Adding the FLV Video to your homepage
You need a flash video player together with your FLV player. Download Flash Video Player. It includes a free Flash Video Player for your FLV video.
Upload the flvplayer.swf file that comes with Flash Video Player to your server
Upload your .flv video file to your server
Add the following html code to your page:

Replace myvideofile.flv with your flv filename
Replace http://www.myhomepage.com/ with your address.
Replace the width and height with your flv width and height.
Add &autostart=1 to the video file if you want it to autoplay, like

file=http://www.myhomepage.com/myvideofile.flv&autostart=1

(Read the included Readme in Flash Video Player for more advanced options)

Examples
Riva FLV Encoder:

On2 Flix Converter:

Test video

edit: update with riva and super converting.
edit: update html code so it should work in most browsers.

FTLOSM posted 2006 Nov 30 23:54

I got it working and it was easy with your help here thanks!

Got one question though, is there a way i can edit the code so the player starts automatically once a visitor clicks into the site that has the player embeded on it?

Baldrick posted 2006 Dec 04 04:54

Yep, replace

file=http://www.myhomepage.com/myvideofile.flv

with

file=http://www.myhomepage.com/myvideofile.flv&autostart=true

.

I have also updated the html code with object so it should work in most browsers.

CorpX posted 2006 Dec 11 10:49

the flv files created using super arent seekable. anyone know why? (i'm following exactly what OP said)

Baldrick posted 2006 Dec 12 08:24

Command line flv / flv4 vp6 / vp62 encoding:
http://sh0dan.blogspot.com/2006/09/command-line-flash-8-flv-encoding.html
you need the vp62 codec.

Corpx: Not seekable with the flash video player above? or what player?

giddykong posted 2007 Feb 01 04:49

tnx for the great tut but how can i change the overstretch to false i cant find where to do it

Baldrick posted 2007 Feb 01 05:18

overstrech?

giddykong posted 2007 Feb 01 06:17

yeah in the code some where there is a way to change the aspect ratio its in your readme html file search for overstretch

paul6 posted 2007 Feb 06 21:43

deleted

paul6 posted 2007 Feb 06 21:51

deleted

Garibaldi posted 2007 Feb 26 16:32

What about adding a button on the flash player so when you click it, it will pop up a new window without browser navigation so you can optionally view the video in full screen?

Baldrick posted 2007 Feb 27 03:54

It's not my flash player. Contact http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Flash_Video_Player

Baldrick posted 2007 Feb 27 05:08

Update to latest version and you can add a fullscreen button,

3.4: Various bugfixes. Added Flash9 fullscreen support.

Garibaldi posted 2007 Mar 03 00:05

Thanks for the info on this Baldrick. Coincidentally I'm using one of the plugins listed on his page, the AllVideos mambot for Joomla. I read through the readme about the fullscreen flashvars:

FULLSCREEN FLASHVARS

* fullscreenpage (url): The players automatically show a fullscreen button if a user has installed a flashplayer capable of true fullscreen (from 9.0.28). With this flashvar, you can also present a sort-of fullscreen for users who have an older version of the Flash plugin. A click on the fullscreen button will jump to the HTML page you specified here. In this HTML page, you can present a full-browser-screen version of the flvplayer/mediaplayer (just like in the download's example).
* fsreturnpage (url): To let the browser know what page to jump to when somebody wants to close the semi-fullscreen, you can set the "normal" page as the fsreturnpage flashvar. It will be passed through to the fullscreen page with a flashcookie.
* fullscreenmode (true,false): Set this flashvar to true for embedding of the player in the fullscreen page. The player will then get the "file","image","id" and "fsreturnpage" flashvars from a cookie and will present the "normal screen" button in the playlist, instead of the "full screen" button.
* showfsbutton (true,false): Set this flashvar to false to hide the fullscreenbutton, even if flash9 is detected.

And so I tried changing the code like this and adding the showfsbutton var since I just want it to be in fullscreen and not actually create a seperate url for the fullscreen video:

<p id="player1"><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
var FO = { movie:"flvplayer.swf",width:"300",height:"170",majorversion:"7",build:"0",bgcolor:"#FFFFFF",allowfullscreen:"true",
flashvars:"showfsbutton=true" };
UFO.create( FO, "player1");
</script>

However, no fullscreen button appears. What am I missing?

fandecine posted 2007 Mar 04 10:38

Is there a way to keep the "fla.tmp" files? I can see it in my Temp folder, but get automatically deleted when the browser is closed. I would like to view them "offline". Something I can do?
Thanks!
LD :roll:

Baldrick posted 2007 Mar 04 10:42

Please stick to the topic. This is NOT how to save flash, see http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=270338 how to record flash.

Garibaldi posted 2007 Mar 07 22:36

Any updates or ideas on this?

net posted 2007 May 31 05:30

Have anyone got it working in Firefox? Do you need the player if you have Flash 8 already?

Baldrick posted 2007 May 31 05:48

It works fine here in Firefox. I have flash 9 but I guess it should work with flash 8 also.

Baldrick posted 2007 May 31 05:50

Yep, it works on my other computer that has firefox with flash 8 also.
.

What exactly doesn't work for you?

net posted 2007 May 31 06:17

Well, I can se the "tv" and the arrow that you klick on to start the movie, but when I click the arrow disapears and nothing happends.

Baldrick posted 2007 May 31 06:32

Does it work in Internet Explorer?

net posted 2007 May 31 06:43

Yes, it works fine there. Could I be missing some pluggin?

Garibaldi posted 2007 May 31 08:22

net :

Yes, it works fine there. Could I be missing some pluggin?

What version of flash are you running? I just had to upgrade the other day, I think the newest version is like 9.0.28.x or something

imsameagle posted 2007 Jul 19 14:51

Hello,
Problem solved. FLV videos are playing nicely now on my page. Thanks Baldrick!

CindyPDX posted 2007 Aug 01 10:55

I was able to get the HTML code to work (A big thank you Baldrick! ), but I also wanted the option for FULL SCREEN MODE. So in the line: embed src = (after the width, height size) I added this : allowfullscreen="true"

And now when you view the video, you can watch it in the small window size or click on the Full Screen Button AND it works! BUT it only works when I use the FireFox Browser

When I go to JW FLV Player 3.99 web site (it's been updated to 3.99 now and I've updated), at the top he has a video there. I can click on Full Screen Button and his works on my IE based browsers and in Firefox.

My simple videos work great on my website, it's just that I can't get the FULL SCREEN mode to work in IE.

Anyone know how I can get this FULL SCREEN Mode to work on IE based browsers as well?

EDIT>> One more question in addition to my above question.
Even before I added the allowfullscreen=true to the HTML Code, my videos have never been able to work when I paused them - then click on it to play again from where it was paused.

What it does is that it goes back to the beginning of the video and plays rather than to play from where it was paused. Whether in Firefox or IE based browsers I get that same problem.

**help?**

LordCyb3R posted 2007 Sep 10 17:59

I'm getting some problems with IE. when I load the page where I have the videos, the preview loads just the superior right corner and I can not see the the total video.

please take a peak at it and let me know how can I fix it.
http://www.colombiansweethearts.com/videos_of_the_latin_women_2.php

Thank you.

Askana posted 2007 Nov 03 13:08

Hi All,

I m trying to make a web site where people can upload videos and watch them as flv.
Can any one advise me on which command line tool i should use so that people can upload any format of video and get them converted to flv. :| :?:

Thanks and Regards,
Askana

Baldrick posted 2007 Nov 03 19:13

Askana: ffmpeg. But this has nothing to do with this topic. Make a new if you want more help.

Askana posted 2007 Nov 05 10:51

my bad Baldrick, since i saw the topic as Howto convert to FLV, i thought i might get any clue in here and decided to post the question.

Thanks for the help.

Surely will make a new topic, i need all your guidance and help.

jmanbusan posted 2007 Nov 29 15:31

would i need a specific type of web host like

http://www.flvhosting.com/
or
http://influxis.com/flash_media_server.aspx

to host and play the flv files?

or would i be fine with regular web hosting account with yahoo,1and1 or go daddy? please advise..

rgds.

john

benow posted 2008 Jan 02 01:45

I just wanted to say that it is also possible to use mencoder to re-encode to flv:

mencoder input.mpeg -o test.flv -vf scale=360:240 -of lavf -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=56 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vbitrate=400:mbd=2:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3 -srate 22050

Among its advantages is that it is more easily scriptable (for website backends, etc)

spyonmenot posted 2008 Jan 02 03:38

jmanbusan :

would i need a specific type of web host like

nope.. not if you're using the free FLV player listed in page one of this guide. It uses a SWF to load and "stream" the FLV... as long as you have enough space

bayme posted 2008 Mar 15 23:15

benow :

I just wanted to say that it is also possible to use mencoder to re-encode to flv:

mencoder input.mpeg -o test.flv -vf scale=360:240 -of lavf -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=56 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vbitrate=400:mbd=2:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3 -srate 22050

Among its advantages is that it is more easily scriptable (for website backends, etc)

Or check these settings, which are a little more 'evolved', I guess: http://forum.videohelp.com/topic345987.html#1815806

tipiirai posted 2008 Apr 10 08:11

You have only mentioned JW media player in the "Tools required" section. Maybe you should also mention about Flowplayer

http://www.flowplayer.org

which is also free for non-commercial use.

chrismol posted 2008 Apr 22 17:02

This is a great post, thanks a ton for the help. I got it up and running quickly.

I do have a question... Does the client computer require a Flash player to be installed to play the flv video? Or does the flvplayer.swf file on the server take care of playing the file for the client computer?

Thanks,
c

chrismol posted 2008 Apr 22 17:05

[dupe]

ayyash posted 2008 May 07 07:42

ok, im getting this feeling that this whole website is mainly about coversion, not video editing or production, is it true? i came here finally after weeks of searching the site, but it wasnt what i expected, how do i make a movie clip (using an original movie clip) with some added text? virtualdub doesnt do that, i tried adobe premier it takes too long, im using flash encoder but unfortunately i have to create a mov file out of the resulting clip, and import again to FLV, and finally i tried good old movie maker, i created some textual effects, but dealing with movie maker is not smooth :( and i couldnt control the width:height ratio... then i take the resulting mwv and use flash encoder to get FLV... is THERE a way? a software, or some tool, i can use to clip the part that i want from a Divx or mov or avi movie, add my textual touches, and import again as FLV? im dying here please help!

Baldrick posted 2008 May 07 07:59

ayyash: Please make a new topic in the editing forum as this guide is not for any editing.

canalcasting posted 2008 May 21 07:49

Hi everyone.
I see that " Baldrick " has posted some great info about the convertion....
I am new to this... and been trying hard to convert to FLV with good quality but I always ended up with decent quality but not top quality...

When I look at Baldrick's First post, there are few example on the convertion :

Converting with Flash FLV Video and RIVA FLV Encoder and SUPER.

I Do use MAC so I don't have all those program, except Flash Video Encoder CS3 ( good quality but still have some grain ( not sure how to describe this.. but you can see some pixel grain in it )... but when I look in your examples, I see you have a video encoded with On2 FLIX converter ( Movie preview with Robert De NIRO ) * which is also available on MAC .. I dowloaded the Demo .. but I still get those decent but NOT Great quality as you have in your example....

Would it be possible for you to tell me what are the setting you have used for this Video ? Cause i have tried over 50 times but I can't get it to a great quality video as shown in your example...

I have to admit I am also lost with all those settings in those programs... I just want to get a good quality video in FLV as you nicely shown in your example...

PS : I am trying to convert a file that is wmv.. may be that's the reason I can't get to a great quality ?

I have tried with :

- Flash CS3 Video Encoder ( that I own )
- Cleaner 6.5 ( Demo )
- On 2 Flx Pro ( Demo )
- Squeeze ( Demo )
- Vx30 Video Encoder( Demo )
- Wondershare Video Converter ( Demo )

I am so ready to get this to work.. but before I buy any of those program.. I want to have the good result...

Thanks for your HELP.. I Do appreciate it very much
Stef

sballepu posted 2008 Jul 23 00:25

Hi canalcasting,

I found this great tool, for free, that can convert your files into .flv
http://www.bitcomet.com/tools/flvconverter/index.htm

Steps I followed are:
1) Record video using CamStudio (Free): http://camstudio.org/
Settings I used:
Video Options:
Quality - 65%
Compressor: DixX Codec (Download here[Free]: http://www.divx.com/)
Audio Options:
Recording frequency: 22.05 kHz, stereo, 8-bit

2) Convert the recorded .avi file to .flv using Bit Comet(Free) - http://www.bitcomet.com/tools/flvconverter/index.htm

3) Use FLVMDIGUI to add meta-data info and fix the .flv file so that it plays nice in the JW Falsh Player. Input is .flv and output also .flv
Download FLVMDIGUI[Free] - http://www.buraks.com/flvmdi/

4) Directly use Flash player from jeroenwijering website[Free] - following code:

Replace =http://www.sharmanj.com/test_flv.flv with your .flv path.

Hope this helps.
Since you are having a .wmv file, did you try using JW WMV Player? - http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_WMV_Player. I never tried that though.

And people who are looking for full screen with JW Flash player, can copy the above code - works perfectly for fullscreen. (should not include

sballepu posted 2008 Aug 02 18:45

I have added detailed information about adding videos to website on my website.
http://www.sharmanj.com/create_my_video.html

webvideopro posted 2008 Aug 03 05:47

I would highly recommend against using the Riva encoder since it uses the old Sorenson Spark codec. If you are looking to produce professional quality Video, you should encode to either FLV VP6 or Flash player compatible MP4 video using either SUPER (low budget) or Sorenson Squeeze ($500).

Also, the JW FLV Player has lots of plugins available that can make it easy to integrate with Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.

Lastly, make sure you use JavaScript (like SWFObject) to embed your video ActiveX code, otherwise IE users will get the "Click to Activate" message.

verivius posted 2008 Sep 02 17:26

I'm sorry but where do I find the flvplayer.swf file? :(

Baldrick posted 2008 Sep 02 17:30

http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Media_Player

verivius posted 2008 Sep 02 17:36

Is it the one called player.swf?

test posted 2008 Sep 02 17:59

Yep. But I recommend this newer guide http://forum.videohelp.com/topic355179.html . Better quality. :)

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