[Rick Wise]

David,

Thanks for the encouraging words and the link. Unfortunately, the link demonstrates the Achilles heel of these flash files: without a robust computer, the images jerk along. At least, that what happens with your link on my computer (AMD 1593 MHz.) I have noticed that Flix Pro offers a buffering option — this seems to help. On your link, after letting it sit for a few minutes it plays more smoothly.

I have to assume that a significant number of potential clients will be working with underpowered computers. They are not going to wait….

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Thanks for the reply. As far as I can make out, to get the FLV to play in a SWF skin using Sorensen Squeeze, one has to go to Adobe for the skin part. At least that is what their directions/tutorial seems to say without using the word Adobe — the pictures seem to be screen grabs from Adobe. Maybe once again I am missing something here.

I have been working with Sorenson’s demo version of their Squeeze Suite.

On2’s Flix, on the other hand, includes skins and seems pretty straight forward.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

I’m on a PC. I am in the process of trying out the Squeeze Suite on a trial basis. But my real interest is probably the much less expensive Squeeze for Flash which includes the On2 VP6, while the Suite does not. Unfortunately there’s no trial version of Flash.

As for workflow, my first client in this enterprise has a flash-resistant web master so I’m stuck with handing over something he can simply drop into place. I think that means the complete package of skin with flv embedded.

If you have any suggestions for other software that will help a novice Flash user encode and embed an avi file to flash so that it plays cleanly on a web site, and can be scaled larger or smaller as needed, I would appreciate the help.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Thanks for all your help, Raymond.

Rick

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Thanks, I did find the comparison chart. It’s buried.

two more questions:

1) what is the difference between Flash flv and Flash swf? (I cannot get my web to work with flv, but can with swf — I use Frontpage 2003 to publish my web sites.)

2) what have you found to be optimum settings in Flix Pro for size / speed of play / quality of play?

Thanks!

[Rick Wise]

Raymond,

On2 makes Flix Standard for encoding Flash, and Flix Pro. There is apparently no way to tell what are the differences between the two versions on the On2 web site. Which one are you using? There’s a huge difference in price….

[Rick Wise]

Is the compression from the $249 Squeeze that much better than the compression from the free Super? Are the resultant flash files significantly smaller (so they load more quickly) and the quality significantly better?

[Rick Wise]

Spot, what software are they using to encode? I am using the free Super which may not be up to the task.

[Rick Wise]

Thanks, Spot. You have confirmed my worst fears…. For the moment, the technology sucks for web streaming.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

I used Microsoft Publisher to design a template for the single DVD, transparent cases, using 8×14 heavy stock with my Epson stylus Photo R200 printer. If you have Publisher and want a copy email me.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com