How to have Adobe Flash Encoder CS3 accept x264 AVIs

[Gargalash]

Hello,
I am having trouble with CS4 media encoder (unbelievably slow, 6h for a 30 minutes video, single pass, fast at the price of quality) and any other flash video encoding tool (free or paid) is giving me either horrible videos of just doesn't work.

I went back to Adobe Flash Encoder CS3, it was single threaded but it was working just fine. I now hit another problem as it doesn't "see" my avi files encoded in x264. I get the "This file has no readable video track" message in the video preview. If I open one of them in virtual dub and save a chunk of it in Lagarith, the encoder will "see" it and I will be able to encode. I have the x264vfw installed (here) and I use it to create my avi.

I am completely out of ideas about what I should do. I am humbly asking for advices and help.

Thanks!

[poisondeathray]

What type of flash ? Is this for online video streaming ? Why don't you use x264 ? You're using it anyway

[Gargalash]

poisondeathray,
Thanks for your reply.

This is for video streaming on a website I operate. We have used FLVs with On2 VP6 since we had that streaming system installed in mid-2007. I suppose I could repack a x264 video stream in a flv container, but I'm not sure if our system would take it. Testing would be obvious way to find the answer. For now I can only confirm that the flv extension is mandatory for the streams to work.

I will try to find what is that streaming system that is installed on our server and what it can do, plus I'll do some tests.

Thanks!

[poisondeathray]

you will likely have to add metadata to the flv for it to stream properly.

You could use flvmdi, flvtool++, flvtool2. flvmdi has a batch gui (flvmdigui) that can process entire folder at once, you don't even have to touch command line
http://www.buraks.com/flvmdi/

x264 supports exporting in flv container directly now , even the newer x264 vfw versions can export mp4, flv, mkv, rawavc directly (you just have to specify in the commandline box) . But it doesn't support audio (yet)

vdub also has a beta external encoder feature , so you could do audio & video in 1 step (but probably still have to inject metadata in another step)
http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=18789&

[Gargalash]

I was writing a reply and lost my text, but essentially:
- tested streaming with a x264 mp4 renamed to flv, didn't work (newbie move I guess, but I wanted to make sure)
- remuxed my mp4 to flv with ffmpeg, streaming worked.

So that is good news! I can throw away the primitive encoding of On2 VP6!

I supposed at this point I don't need the metadata step.

What would you use to encode in x264? I use megui and it only exports to mp4. That would save the remux step if I could encode right into flv... I will take a look at that vdub plugin.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[poisondeathray]

well x264.exe supports encoding directly to flv , but megui (the gui) might not

are you saying it plays immediately without metadata injection ? don't just check it locally , make sure you test remotely connected to the server (so you have to download it) .

you could use ffmpeg to do a batch file (e.g. batch remux, or even batch encode) .

You didn't mention what kind of audio? probably mp3 for the vp6, but you could use aac, much better quality at equivalent lowish bitrates

[Gargalash]

poisondeathray,
Yes it plays without metadata injection and I have tested it remotely, on a couple computers.

Thanks for the idea on the audio, I was using aac for other needs, but I should switch to it for my streaming flv as well.

I am going to try the "External Encoders" feature at this moment...

Thanks!

[lordsmurf]

On2 VP6 FLV files only encode with MP3. Not AAC.
At least not with anything I've ever seen to date. (Has this changed? Don't think so.)

MP4 containers would be fine, too.

[poisondeathray]

On2 VP6 FLV files only encode with MP3. Not AAC.
At least not with anything I've ever seen to date. (Has this changed? Don't think so.)

AFAIK they are mp3 only . What was suggested earlier it to use AAC, since he's not limiting himself to using VP6 anymore

MP4 containers would be fine, too.

Normally this is true, but apparently not for his application . MP4 seems to have some issues with pseudostreaming large files. FLV container seems to work better

[lordsmurf]

That still doesn't sound right ... what "system" prevents MP4 use?
I'd have to know more.

[Gargalash]

I will stick with encoding to mp4 in megui for now.
The "external encoders" feature in vdub is not my level...

Thanks all for your help!