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

[Baldrick]

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[/list]
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]

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]

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]

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

[Baldrick]

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]

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

[Baldrick]

overstrech?

[giddykong]

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]

deleted

[paul6]

deleted

[Garibaldi]

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]

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

[Baldrick]

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

3.4: Various bugfixes. Added Flash9 fullscreen support.

[Garibaldi]

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:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

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

[fandecine]

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

[Baldrick]

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

[Garibaldi]

Any updates or ideas on this?

[net]

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

[Baldrick]

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

[Baldrick]

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

What exactly doesn't work for you?

[net]

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]

Does it work in Internet Explorer?

[net]

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

[Garibaldi]

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]

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

[CindyPDX]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Askana]

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.