How to create FLV video from Blender?

[wordsand]

I want to create flash-video (.flv files) for the web from Blender. Blender is a free 3D animation application that includes an excellent video editor. I'm very new to Blender, using v2.48a, on Windows XP. Following earlier research, I installed 'FFDShow tryouts', which solved some problems. Blender crashes when I try to output an FLV file from the VSE. I can output a very nice avi from Blender with the huffYUV video codec (lossless), or the xvid codec. I have Adobe Medio Encoder (AME), for converting video to flv format, but AME crashes when converting Blender created video to flv. Summary:
- Blender crashes when I try to output an FLV file from the vse.
- AME crashes when used to convert a Blender-h264-avi to flv (the avi works in windows media player),
- AME crashes when used to convert a Blender-xvid-avi to flv (the avi works in windows media player),
- Quicktime mov file from Blender has no video (it does have audio).

So I have been looking at ways to use FFMpeg to convert a Blender-avi to flv (i.e. remove AME from the process). I'm using WinFF (a GUI for ffmpeg on windows). With WinFF I get flv-video that is much too rough (probably too compressed). If I use WinFF to convert a Blender-avi to a DivX-avi, Then I use Adobe Medio Encoder (AME) to convert this to flv, I get better video but the audio is out of sync.

I feel like I've tried a lot, but I'm at a deadend Can anyone point me in the right direction to produce quality flv with synced audio, from Blender? I suspect the possible solutions could be in any of the following:
1. How to output FLV video from Blender without crashing?
2. How to update/fix video codecs in Blender so AME doesn't crash when converting from a Blender avi?
3. Settings for FFMpeg (using WinFF), to output less compressed flv, with synced audio.

[Baldrick]

1. Can you export to h264 mp4? THen use it as it is supported by flash.
2. Have you tried any other codecs than huffyuv and xvid?
3. Increase the bitrate, I think you can change it in WinFF.

Or convert the huffyuv avi to mp4 with h264 video and aac audio, it works fine in flash also. Use handbrake or xvid4psp.

[wordsand]

Thanks for the quick response Baldrick

> 1. Can you export to h264 mp4? THen use it as it is supported by flash.
ok, In Blender, I have an option to export as MPEG-4, but when I try Blender crashes. So I guess thats a 'No'.

However in WinFF I just did the following:
1.) Converted my Blender huffyuv-avi to MPEG-4 with the pre-set 'MP4 Fullscreen'.
1a.) Used Adobe Media Encoder to covert the new mp4 to FLV. Result: Good video but audio is out of sync.
1b.) Used WinFF to covert the new mp4 to FLV. Result: Rough video and good audio.

> 2. Have you tried any other codecs than huffyuv and xvid?
In Blender I only have the options: mpeg-1, mpeg-2, mpeg-4, DV. However Blender crashes with all of these!
The only other codecs I can see in Blender are huffyuv and divx. I don't know how to add codecs to Blender. I'm new to this, I get the feeling the issues in item 1 above are in the right direction.

> 3. Increase the bitrate, I think you can change it in WinFF.
In WinFF I have created my own modified preset, based on the settings of existing presets for FLV, this is what I have:
-vcodec flv -f flv -r 30 -s 480x360 -b 900kb -g 160 -cmp dct -subcmp dct -mbd 2 -flags +aic+cbp+mv0+mv4 -trellis 1 -ac 1 -ar 22050 -ab 56kb
Any idea what I should change in the above for either a much better bitrate or synced audio. (Its all a bit swedish to me).

> Or convert the huffyuv avi to mp4 with h264 video and aac audio, it works fine in flash also.
Do you know what I should put into the WinFF preset to achieve this?