Tool to convert SWF (actionscript) to uncompressed AVI or image sequence?

[Koppel]

Hi,

I have a constant problem with converting SWF files to real video files.
Sometimes After Effects can do it, sometimes not. All commercial tools seem to work similarly.
I think actionscript is to blame. Sometimes a script in flash is used to drive the animation and converting it to a frame based video just doesn't work

The tools that sort-of work are the ones using screen capture. But they are limited with lousy codecs and I can't resize the capture beforehand. SWF files being mostly vectors, I can resize them up without any loss in quality.

I wish at least Adobe Flash itself could read the SWF files it creates but apparently not.
So is there a tool in the world that can convert all kinds of SWF files to video.

Thank you!

[jan5678]

There is a tool from iwisoft called SWF / FLASH to video converter : http://iwisoft.com/swfconverter/
I used it to convert a swf file and it works very well but it is not free.
There is a trial period but it has restrictions.

Good luck

[Cornucopia]

Most of those converters only work correctly when converting SWFs that consist of SWF/FLV video+audio, not a true cast+actionscript oriented SWF.

The best option here is using CamStudio (or other Screen Recording soft) during playback. Save to AVI with high quality but low resource utilization (so the SWF won't stutter).

Scott

[intracube]

The tools that sort-of work are the ones using screen capture. But they are limited with lousy codecs and I can't resize the capture beforehand.

If you're having trouble scaling the SWF file to a decent size before using screen capture software, you could try the standalone Flash player:
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

- download the 'Flash Player 10.3 Projector' program for your system
- open a SWF file with the standalone player
- click View->Quality->Medium Quality (to reduce CPU usage)
- scale the Flash Player window to whatever size you want, then run your screen capture software
*you might need to experiment with the 'Show All' and 'Zoom In' options to get the SWF file to scale properly

Here's an example of the YouTube player enlarged:

[Koppel]

There is a tool from iwisoft called SWF / FLASH to video converter : http://iwisoft.com/swfconverter/
I used it to convert a swf file and it works very well but it is not free.
There is a trial period but it has restrictions.

Good luck

Ironically I already use it...
It works so that it captures the video.
The best format it captures is x264 mov and max bitrate 8000Kbps. - not lossless, but it's OK.
There is also a problem with framerates, capturing at 25fps, the result looks like its 15fps or 20... its noticeable.

I guess there really isn't a tool that can convert actionscript driven SWF-s to uncompressed frames.

[DarrellS]

Sothink SWF Decompiler will extract the elements of a SWF file. The problem that I had though was the naming of the bitmaps. there were no zeros added so it put 1,2,3,etc in the wrong place and it is a lot of work finding and renaming all the files when there are thousands of bitmaps. I haven't used it in a few years though so it may have changed.

Here is the link to the program. It's $80 but there is a 30 day free trial...

http://www.sothink.com/product/flashdecompiler/

There is a download on the page above for a free SWF catcher that can come in pretty handy. It integrates into your browser and allows you to save SWF files on a webpage.

Another good tool to have is SWF Protect Remover...

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/WEB-Design/Flash/SWF-Protect-Remover.shtml