Recommended settings for EX-1 Web Video Delivery

[Leonard Levy]

Craig - SUCCESS - Thank you so much, I thought this would be much harder and would require purchasing Flash.

I went on the forum at Longtail video and discovered that i was using the wrong codec for my audio. I was using MC4 instead of AAC. Actually I'm not sure how that happened as I thought I was using AAC all the time.

Anyway that got me the audio and also on the forum there were many complaints about "no autostart" and after going through about 5 possible solutions one of them worked.
So this is my final code ( I substituted "movie.mov" for the actual video and location:

<p id='preview'>The player will show in this paragraph</p>

<script type='text/javascript' src='swfobject.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var s1 = new SWFObject('player.swf','player','480','380','9');
s1.addParam('allowfullscreen','false');
s1.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
s1.addParam('flashvars','file=movie.mov&autostart=true');
s1.write('preview');
</script>

You were right it plays the same whether I have a suffix of .flv or.mov.

So here are my final questions:

I have a web page with about 15 pieces of video. It is all set up now for quicktime player instead of Flash.

Should I simply redo every page and use the Flash player instead so that I have better coverage among users? is this Flash 9 pretty much ubiquitous now?

Also can i set this up to have multiple versions of same piece for different speed connections. I haven't tried that with Quicktime but it is supposed to work right.

Lenny

[Steve Browne]

Hi Jon

Thanks for that info on encoding for web and especially on the idea of having frame sizes in multiples of 16.

Personally I still use Flash 8 and not Flash 9 as I believe there is more likelihood of people having it installed on their computer and one of those might just be a paying customer! (Also not everyone constantly upgrades their computer software / hardware - especially if they're over 40 - but are happy to just leave it how it is if it works)

I'll probably start using Flash 9 at the end of the year
Best wishes
Steve

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Leonard Levy

is this Flash 9 pretty much ubiquitous now?

In my neck of the woods, Flash 9 is pretty much there with some audiences - like us. If you see what I mean. But not all. I've been testing it out for some time now, and H.264 in the JW player is a go/no-go experience, and I'm still concerned that my audience is predominantly in the no-go camp. They don't like it.

Look at us... We've updated our Flash player, we've got fairly decent hardware, and you can pretty much assume 'better than 512k' bandwidth.

But for B2B, I have to stick to Flash 8 (On2's codec) as if you're pinning your hopes on your video being watched at the desktop from within big companies, the IT departments don't usually allow updates to software from websites.

So... B2C, go for it. H.264. A megabit per second if your audience is 'People Like Us'. 640x360.

But for B2B, Flash 8, sub 512kbps, 480x270* seems to be a fair lowest acceptable common denominator.

Multiple versions in different bandwidths and formats? Been there, done that. Didn't work for the majority. Keep the 'high end' version as a treat for people who sign up to you, and give them either 960x540 or 1280x720 at 2 Mbits. Or a downloadable version.

For what it's worth, regarding business use of stuff like YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and so on - you need to know why you're there, and play by their rules. I can't name names, but publishing on an ad-supported channel can have bad side-effects, and selling in an altruistic community is bad mojo. BrightCove charges a pretty penny to replicated what they do for the business community. I'd recommend self hosting where possible.

But hey. At least we're not streaming!

* Yes, I know 480x270 breaks the cardinal rule of web video dimensions being cleanly divisible by 8 to assist the macroblock issues, but quite frankly if a PC can do H.264, it can jolly well get on with 480x270. We're far better off concentrating on getting the compression, scaling and the aspect ratio right, as it seems that's the current bugbear.

[Craig Seeman]

Adobe Flash Player Market penetration by version. Note that one needs version 9 or 10 to play Flash 9

By December 2008 Flash Player 9 is 98.1% to 98.9%
http://www.adobe.com/products/player...netration.html
and the methodology
http://www.adobe.com/products/player...s/methodology/
They don't seem to break down home vs work so it's certainly possible work computer penetration could be lower but the overall numbers on Flash 9 is very high.

This from April 2007 says Flash 9 at 84.3% so the above December 2008 numbers are in line with growth.
http://www.noobflash.com/flash-playe...on-march-2007/

And see the current growth of Flash 10 (which of course plays Flash 9)
http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/29/fl...platform-race/

And on a final note, note that H.264 playback was added in Dec 2007 and given the above growth rates I can only imagine the inability to playback Flash 9 H.264 as rare
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php...9:Update:H.264

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

I can only imagine the inability to playback Flash 9 H.264 as rare

I don't have to imagine it. Come to Europe, work in the B2B market where, thanks to little issues with operating systems, browsers, et al, IT departments are running scared and locking their platforms to prevent malware, phishing, all sorts of things.

Sorry I can't name names, but my client roster is pretty much all Blue Chip and most are banned from moving up to Flash 9.

IMNSHO, If you want market share in B2B, you'll hold off H.264 for the moment. Not for ever, not even 12-18 months, but it's not prime time yet. I've offered it for 18 months, most of my clients can't even see the movies in my /cb site (which is 75% H.264).

Adobe are publishing white papers and poll results to push the new version of Flash, not to reflect the current (rather tardy) uptake in the business community.

WGR, I listen to clients more than I listen to Adobe when it comes to Flash uptake - but bless Adobe's cotton socks, Fl8 is there, and Fl8/On2 isn't bad. Maybe next year I'll have everything in H.264 is all.

[Craig Seeman]

I don't have to imagine it. Come to Europe, work in the B2B market where, thanks to little issues with operating systems, browsers, et al, IT departments are running scared and locking their platforms to prevent malware, phishing, all sorts of things.

Note in the above methodology it says they included people who responded from businesses but they do not break down the home vs business difference so I don't at all doubt the veracity of your experience.

It's actually one of the problems with surveys like these. They really need to break out the demographics.

Many businesses may be completely limited to WMV and I even had one with a known international client that was still asking for MPEG1 as they couldn't handle WMV9!!!

BTW H.264 works in Microsoft Silverlight as well but until enough computers are bought with it installed many businesses are Windows Media Player only. Some also are locked in to WMP because banning Flash entirely prevents people from spending time on YouTube and some of the social network sites.

BTW all this gets even more complex when you consider iPhones and Blackberries in the business market too.

[Leonard Levy]

Matt,
Thanks, that's very valuable info and it does concur with what others have told me.

For me that means - for demo reel I'm probably fine with H264 Flash 9 or maybe even just stick to Quicktime player altogether since it is nearly always going to media savy producers.
For stuff designed for corporate clients though stick to Flash 8 as it will be shown on B2B computers.

Lenny