h264 .mov to h264 .?

[btmdan]

Im trying to figure out a best encoding practice for taking .mov files encoded at bitrates anywhere from 15 -20 mbits/s

to an h264 version encoded down to a reasonable bitrate to push to custom flash player (progressive download).

I have found using QT Pro (h264.mov -> h264.mov) I can get decent results but would like to understand the possibilities of ffmpegx as being a better solution for encoding these things

Im really pretty new to all this video encoding stuff but a pretty competent flash developer.

I have tried to encode the same source .mov's using ffmpegx's mp4 h264 preset just scaled down the bitrate to 480 , audio 64. The results look great when played back in QT pro but passing off to my custom flash player Im getting.

NetStream.Play.StreamNotFound

could this be an issue with .mp4 extension? I was under the impression flash didnt care what the container was.

I have also read something regarding a moov atom that needs to be at front of stream but really have no idea what im talking about

any light shed would be greatly appreciated

thanks

[Case]

could this be an issue with .mp4 extension? I was under the impression flash didnt care what the container was.

Have you tried renaming foo.mp4 to foo.flv, to see if it makes a difference for Flash?

[btmdan]

im an idiot, file permissions weren't set correctly on video files. apparently amazon s3 server gives only read to owner upon upload. Once I set em 777 and all was good.

Thanks for the advice tho. I'll try it just to see if works and let you know.

AS it stands now the player can handle mov, mp4, and flv file types.
I wish I was more fluent in the encoding arcana. Eventually i suppose it will all make sense but the initial learning curve seems a bit steep. Thankfully I have this site for a resource