going from wmv/mpg to flash video on a commercial site

[Fking]

I'm planning to convert my current videos (mostly wmv and mpg) to flv.
I hope that someone with experience in that will share the common dos and donts.
Recommend player (for the website side), preferably one which allows to skip forward the clip, even when not buffered, and loading only the necessary parts (for example if the surfer wants to start watching from the middle, it doesnt load the first half but starts buffering from where the cursor is)

Also how is the server load, compared to wmv streaming?
Is it true that it's not good idea to use flash for resolutions above 640x and why?

thank you

[Fking]

bump

[Fking]

Are there any standart or recomended resolutions for the flv videos?

[thecoalman]

Try this player: http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Player

preferably one which allows to skip forward the clip, even when not buffered,

You need a streaming server for that.... $$$

Also how is the server load, compared to wmv streaming?

Without a streaming server all you doing is serving a file and it's only going to affect your bandwidth.

Is it true that it's not good idea to use flash for resolutions above 640x and why?

I don't use flash and I'd assume that wherever you heard that they didn't understand the relationship between resolution and bitrate. Every codec has a sweet spot for a set resolution. I don't know what it is for FLV but for arguments sake lets say its between 250kbps and 500kbps for a 320x240 video. It's going to be close to that... anyhow once you get above 500kbps all your doing is creating a larger file without any benefit so you'd want to raise the resolution to take advantage of the extra bitrate. Once you go below 250kbps you'll start to get macroblocking, in that case you need to lower the resolution. There are other variables such as the content of the video... action video needs more bitrate.

So the question really isn't is there a standard resolution, it has more to do with how much bandwidth you're willing to expend to provide higher quality video and how fast your users connections are.

I'd start with a 320x240 and see where you get with that.