[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Kai, absolutely. I actually already have high-quality H.264 .mov files to screen as a backup, even if I can screen 1920 x 1080i app pro res .mov files.

[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Andy, I shoot my videos in HDV and convert to App Pro Res upon capture. I hear you about the challenge of color-matching. This is why I’m liking the idea of using Playback Pro with my equipment (projector and computer), so I can tweak/save the settings in advance for each of my short videos.

[Magda Fernandez]

All good points, Walter, which I’ve learned before the hard way. Thanks for your help.

[Magda Fernandez]

Thanks, Mark. Based on my recollection, the screen is not very large, around 10 feet wide. My .mov files are in 16:9 format. If we darken the lecture hall while the videos play, will the lumens of the Panasonic PT-AE2000U projector be adequate?

The color of my .mov videos look true in the 1.8 Gamma color profile. When I viewed them in sRGB IEC61966-2.1, the colors looked garish. Any recommendations?

I checked out Playback Pro and it looks great. Where can I get the USB Enabler Key? Without it, I’m limited to the demo mode with watermark.

[Magda Fernandez]

That makes sense, Fernando. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Magda Fernandez]

Thank you, Mike and Fernando, for your amazing help.

Do any of you know why the flash videos load properly in Fernando’s IE8/XP and not in the IE/XP browsershots.org check? How reliable is the browsershots website?

[Magda Fernandez]

Thanks, Fernando!

[Magda Fernandez]

Ha! Love the idea of a “happy disturbed women’s choir.” Thanks for the feedback about the art, Mike 🙂

I will take up your suggestions about the flash players, too.

By the way, I forgot to mention that my flash videos are not loading properly on MSIE 8, according to the https://www.browsershots.org. I did some reading and learned that this version was released just a few months ago. Is it some bug that needs to be fixed? Or is it that MSIE requires Flash version 9? I used Flash 8 to create my videos, thinking it was the safe thing to do.

Sigh….

[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Mike,

Thanks so much for all of your great advice. I bit the bullet, downloaded On2Flix Exporter, converted my QT video files to proper flash files, lowered the data rate, and chose the VP6-E FLV, 56K modem setting.

The browsershot checks are looking better, although my flash videos still aren’t loading in older Windows versions, like 6 and lower. Frankly, I’m not too worried because my audience are mostly Mac users anyway.

May I bother you with 2 more questions?

Is there a way to eliminate the volume button from my flash skin? Most of my video clips are silent.

Can you recommend any free flash MP3 players for embedding a single track MP3 file in one of my web pages? I have one QT MP3 file in one page, and of course it doesn’t work in Microsoft browsers. Aarrgh.

I can’t thank you enough for your help 🙂

[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Mike,

I can’t thank you enough for the https://www.browsershots.org link! It reveals what I was afraid of.

The Quicktime/IE/Object Tag/ActiveX problem I was referring to is described here, and a fix referred to in the “Providing a Seamless Experience in Internet Explorer” section:

https://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/QuickTime/Conceptual/QTScripting_HTML/QTScripting_HTML_Document/ScriptingHTML.html

Dreamweaver 8 also includes the javascript fix, but I don’t own it. Since I don’t know how to work with javascript, I went ahead last night and began converting my Quicktime files to Flash files with a trial version of Dreamweaver 10, to solve the Quicktime/IE/Object Tag/ActiveX problem. This is why you didn’t find the Quicktime files when you tested my link. Sorry about the confusion.

Since my flash files are loading so slowly, I realize that I’m going to have to bite the bullet and purchase Flash and perhaps Flash Server. Up to now, I’ve been compressing my HD web clips in Compressor, and then converting those QT files into Flash by changing the .mov to .flv.

I’m starting to suspect that Flash will do a better job at compressing my master HD QT files into smaller files for the web, which hopefully will improve their load time significantly. I realize that I’ll need Flash to write the Flash document and finesse the skins, too, which I cannot do with the trial Dreamweaver program.

So, it looks as if I’ll have to invest in these programs, which I was hoping to avoid.

Based on the literature, it seems that streaming rather than progressive downloading is the way to go. This will require Flash Server and Flash, I believe.

Do you recommend streaming over progressive download? Do most browsers support streaming? Are Flash and Flash Server doing a good job at creating these files? Or are there problems?

Thanks for your advice.