Squashed ffmpegx Flash Video in iWeb

[IrishP]

This is a stumper and I could really use a freah perspective on it.

I have been trying to get a Flash movie on my iWeb site bu using the instructions on the iWebUnlimited site here...

http://iwebunlimited.com/iweb-tips/iweb-tip-9-flash-video-in-iweb-jw-player/

The problem I have is that when I publish my changes in iWeb and point my browser to the page the movie is on, the movie plays as a litttle squashed box in the middle of the player. Let me explain...

I followed the instructions on the iWebUnlimited site to the letter. I have downloaded the .swf and .js files, placed them in a folder called "flash" on my iDisk as well as my .flv movie file and a screengrab of the same size.

I have changed all the parameters in the HTML code to point to my iDisk and the relavent files.

I have changed the video dimensions to that of my newly encoded .flv video (640 x 352 - in ffmpegx)

When I go to my movie page in my browser, I see the still shot I took as a place marker in the right dimensions. Yet when I play the movie, although the player is the size I requested - 640 x 352 - the actual movie plays inside it as a squashed box. Take a look at the screenshot attached to see what I mean.

The video should fill the black areas, but whatever I do this is the result...

The weird thing is - I uploaded a flash movie a couple of years ago to the same page and it plays ok - looks fine. Shame I can't remember how the Hell I did it! I wondered if having 2 flash movies on the same page were causing the problem, so I deleted the old one.

Same result.

I created a new fresh movie page and tried that - same result again.

I thought that maybe each movie needed it's own set of .swf and .js files as the 2 movies are of different dimensions, each player would need to be different dimensions also....?

So I even added another set of .swf and .js files. I tried copying the 2 sets of movie files to individual folders, but iWeb didn't see them at all - it only seems to see them is they are in a folder called "flash" in my "Web >Sites" folders on my iDisk.

I was wondering even if it was down to the encoding of the video, which I did in ffmpegx. I did have to do it in a roundabout way...

In Final Cut Pro I exported a full quality QT movie - ProRes422 1280 x 720 that turned out at 5.32 GB and 12 mins 5 secs in duration.

This is not recognised by ffmgegx, looks like the ProRes codec has it confused.

So I put it into Compressor and re-encoded it as a H.264 movie 1280 x 720 that turned out at 1.72 GB.

When I put this into ffmgegx it encoded just fine, but stopped after 7 mins and 7 secs.

I tried a hundred different ways but it always stopped at 7m7s...

So I eventually dropped it onto a droplet I downloaded somewhere to convert videos for Vimeo HD - 1280 x 720. I dropped this into ffmpegx and Hey Presto - it worked!

So I now have my full length .flv movie at my 640 x 352 on my iDisk with iWeb pointing at it and the correct dimensions input in the HTML code, and it STILL comes out squashed when viewed in my browser....

if anyone has a clue what is causing this or what I am doing wrong, I will be forever in your debt! My ffmpegx settings were .flv, 1500kbps, to fit onto 1 x DVD at 4GB, 16:9, 640 x 352, Pal 25fps, High Quality and 2 pass both checked...

I know this is an epic mail, but I wanted to give all the info I can......

[Case]

when I publish my changes in iWeb and point my browser to the page the movie is on, the movie plays as a litttle squashed box in the middle of the player.

The smaller video area is 320x240, which is the old default size for FLV video. This makes me think that perhaps your FLV file does not have any meta data embedded to let the JW Player know the true size.

Did you install the flvtool for ffmpegX? This post-processing tool injects meta data into an FLV file, which web players can read and use, before any movie decoding gets done. [When most web videos were 320x240, many users wanted the meta data so that the player knows the duration, and thus provide more functionality on the play bar at the bottom (remaining time on the right side and skip to a time by moving the play point on the slider).]

Installing flvtool requires one-time use of the Terminal, which some users didn't find so easy, as there are some topics on installing it in this forum. The steps are described on the ffmpegX website and the ffmpegX 0.0.9y announcement topic. Let us know if you get it working.

You don't have to re-encode your FLV file to add the meta data, although ffmpegX will automatically run flvtool for FLV encodings. You may run flvtool manually from the Terminal to apply it to a ready FLV file.

flvtool2 -UP filepath/filename.flv

[IrishP]

Case, thanks for the heads up on the flvtool - it seems like that is the culprit...
Although when I follow the instructions for installation, after opening Terminal, I type cd and drop in the decompressed folder which gives me this...

cd/Applications/flvtool2-1.0.6

But after I hit Enter, I get the message...

-bash: cd/Applications/flvtool2-1.0.6: No such file or directory

[Case]

cd/Applications/flvtool2-1.0.6

Try typing cd <space>, then drop the folder.
The cd is a command (change working directory) that takes a path as argument. The two should be separated by a space character.

cd folder1/folder2/flvtool2-1.0.6

P.S. There is no need to put the flvtool2 folder in /Applications, as it is sort of like an installer package, although I think it won't matter much. The final tools will be installed elsewhere with other OS bundled command line utilities.
I think many users keep the flvtool2 folder in the Downloads folder or on the Desktop, for easy reminder to delete or archive the package after successful installation.

[IrishP]

ok, when I enter Terminal to apply the Metadata to my already encoded .flv I key in...

flvtool2 -UP /paulstretton/Desktop/sharkmovie.flv

and get the error message "-bash: flvtool2: command not found"

I have tried closing the spaces in various ways, but get the same result....

What am I doing wrong??

[Case]

-bash: flvtool2: command not found

Either
1/ the installation didn't go successful (the Terminal messages should say so), or
2/ the installer put flvtool2 in a location that isn't looked at by the Terminal when looking for commands (see below), or
3/ you need to log out and log in again for Mac OS X to know about the changes (try this one if you will).

My copy of flvtool2 is located in /usr/bin, maybe yours is elsewhere. I think it depends on the version of Mac OS X (or more precisely the version of the OS-bundled Ruby scripting language, which is used by the flvtool2 installer script).

The last step of the installation (sudo ruby setup.rb install) should give feedback where it installed the various files. Could you copy and post that here? (If you don't have that anymore, it is okay to install flvtool2 again -- the Terminal output should be the same as the first time.)

[IrishP]

Ok I just installed it again and here's what I got from Terminal....


Macintosh:~ paulstretton$ cd /Applications/flvtool2-1.0.6
Macintosh:flvtool2-1.0.6 paulstretton$ ruby setup.rb config
---> bin
<--- bin
---> lib
---> lib/flv
<--- lib/flv
---> lib/flvtool2
<--- lib/flvtool2
<--- lib
Macintosh:flvtool2-1.0.6 paulstretton$ ruby setup.rb setup
---> bin
<--- bin
---> lib
---> lib/flv
<--- lib/flv
---> lib/flvtool2
<--- lib/flvtool2
<--- lib
Macintosh:flvtool2-1.0.6 paulstretton$ sudo ruby setup.rb install
Password:
rm -f InstalledFiles
---> bin
mkdir -p /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin
install flvtool2 /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/
<--- bin
---> lib
mkdir -p /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8
install flv.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/
install flvtool2.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/
install mixml.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/
install miyaml.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/
---> lib/flv
mkdir -p /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install amf_string_buffer.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install audio_tag.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install core_extensions.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install meta_tag.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install stream.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install tag.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
install video_tag.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flv
<--- lib/flv
---> lib/flvtool2
mkdir -p /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flvtool2
install base.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flvtool2
install version.rb /Library/Ruby/Site/1.8/flvtool2
<--- lib/flvtool2
<--- lib
Macintosh:flvtool2-1.0.6 paulstretton$



I have my copy of flvtool in my applications folder as it was a good a place as any for me...

[Case]

---> bin
mkdir -p /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin
install flvtool2 /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/
<--- bin

So flvtool2 is located in /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ on your system.

Either use

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/flvtool2 -UP /Users/paulstretton/Desktop/sharkmovie.flv

or first make a symbolic link of flvtool2 so you don't have to remember the long path to flvtool2.

sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/flvtool2 /usr/local/bin/flvtool2

flvtool2 -UP /Users/paulstretton/Desktop/sharkmovie.flv

[IrishP]

Thank you! That seems to have worked......

I have in the meantime created an .MP4 and uploaded it which has worked - it's the right size and plays, but looks really choppy and jerky!

It's at http://web.mac.com/paulstretton/Site/Movies.html if you want to take a look for yourself...

If it's not one thing, it's another!

[Case]

I have in the meantime created an .MP4 and uploaded it which has worked - it's the right size and plays, but looks really choppy and jerky!

What can I say... It plays smoothly for me on an 8 mbps connection.

[IrishP]

Brilliant! My connection here is 1.5 - 2 at best so I'm guessing that is the problem. I'l keep an eye on it though...

Thank you so much for all your help in this Case, it's a delight to find people like yourselves that are willing to take time out to help less experienced ones like myself that can get hopelessly lost in these kinds of issues.

Many many thanks and all the best