FLV progressive download problem

[BeckyD]

Hi all,

I've been working with video editing for a while and know a bit about basic encoding, but am now setting up my website to stream (pseudostream?) my videos using the JW player. The idea is for them to progressively download, but to start playing before the file has completely downloaded.

I've got the player working and you can see it here: http://www.tired-eye.net/test.php

The problem I'm having is that my FLV file will wait until downloading completely before it plays.

I've given myself a headache trying to find a solution, so I hope you guys can help... all the stuff I've found so far has been about MP4s and H.264 codecs.

I understand that there is such a thing as moov atoms that need to load first before the file can start playing, but as I'm working with FLV files I haven't a clue whether they (a) even have moov atoms, or (b) are capable of being moved to the front of the file.

The flv files have all been encoded using either Adobe Media Encoder via Adobe Premiere, or Flash Encoder CS3. The orignal source files were a variety of .avi files, some DivX, some Codecica, some uncompressed... others were .wmv files. I created the FLV files directly from these. I didn't see an option anywhere in either Adobe Media Encoder or Flash Encoder to 'encode for web' which I believe helps with playing before downloading.

I've got 20 videos, so it's not the end of the world if I need to re-encode them... so long as I only need to do it once! Ideally though, there'll be an MP4Box equivalent for FLV files or something. LOL. Confused.

Can anyone suggest anything? I would really appreciate a dummy guide :-p

Thanks in advance.

[Baldrick]

flvtool2

Usage

flvtool2 -UP movie.flv

[BeckyD]

Thanks for the quick reply Baldrick, but I'm still a bit stuck as I don't know much about command prompts

I've downloaded flvtool2 and copied the "flvtool2.exe" to the folder where all my flv files are.

This folder is C:\Users\Becky\FLV\

I've got the command prompt C:\Users\Becky>

I can't seem to get any further - what should I type to get into the FLV folder and then to run the code you put in above?

Sorry for being a noob,
Thanks

[BeckyD]

Ah, hang on I managed to get to this stage but this is obviously wrong:

C:\Users\Becky>cd c:

c:\Users\Becky\FLV>f
ERROR: No such file
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2/base
ERROR: flvtool2.rb:1
ERROR: flvtool2.rb:2

c:\Users\Becky\FLV>

[poisondeathray]

what should I type to get into the FLV folder and then to run the code you put in above?

"cd FLV"

cd = change directory

once you're in that directory:

flvtool2.exe input.flv -UP

[BeckyD]

Thanks guys, I've run the programme for all my files now and am in the process of uploading. A quick test shows that it seems to have worked :-p

Thanks!

Oh, and for any other noobs to command line stuff, you need to replace "input.flv" in poisondeathray's post with the full name of your video... so you have to do them all individually

If there's a way to do the whole folder in one go I'll kick myself! LOL.