Using Flash for Video Compression

shadow-the-hedgehog · Post by **shadow-the-hedgehog** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 3:39 pm

Yes! The web's favorite program can be used for video compression! I used muh "AMV" that I did for one class. I got it from about a little over six megs to a little over 1 meg. Granted the quality is a little shotty but considering thats about 1/6th of the original file and at 50% compression. The best part is you really don't have to worry to much about codecs and you can easilly add play, stop, Rew, FF buttons to the vids. As well as links to your site and email address.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 5:43 pm

Flash is pretty much worthless for doing any kind of high-quality animation unless it's vector-based, so you'd have to do one of two things:

(1) trace each frame (at a respectably tight threshold)
(2) shape tween between frames where possible (which would be WAY more time than it's worth)

Oh yeah, there's the whole "Flash Player is slower than most modern video players" deal.

Additionally, in absolute terms, a 6:1 compression ratio also isn't all that much of a difference, especially considering how much detail you lose.
DivX5 already gets somewhere on the order of 54:1. That's what "always" came out to, anyway: 2.6 gigabytes down to 49.5 megabytes -- and the encode retains a surprising amount of sharpness.

By loading all 5,059 frames into Flash and exporting the animation, I'd be making the thing look like hell, run slow as hell, or both of the above, and I'd not have a much smaller file for the trouble.

The best part is you really don't have to worry to much about codecs and you can easilly add play, stop, Rew, FF buttons to the vids. As well as links to your site and email address.

Who cares? MPEG-1 can be played on any platform, and MPEG-2/4 nearly any platform. I can't think of a media player that DOESN'T have seek functionality, and you can advertise yourself all you want in a good old bumper.

the Black Monarch · Post by **the Black Monarch** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 9:24 pm

Yeah, but Flash is good for comedy videos because it looks funny.

*shuts up*

shadow-the-hedgehog · Post by **shadow-the-hedgehog** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 11:55 pm

No! Your missing the point. You Import your movie to flash...the finished movie. It is kinda like "post production." I am not saying do the WHOLE movie in flash.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:08 am

shadow-the-hedgehog wrote:No! Your missing the point. You Import your movie to flash...the finished movie. It is kinda like "post production." I am not saying do the WHOLE movie in flash.

That's precisely what I'm arguing is a bad idea. Read my post again.

If you did the whole thing in Flash, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to export in Flash.

Nightowl · Post by **Nightowl** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 3:56 am

shadow-the-hedgehog wrote:It is kinda like "post production."

Funniest thing I've read all week.

-N

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 5:26 am

shadow-the-hedgehog wrote:No! Your missing the point. You Import your movie to flash...the finished movie. It is kinda like "post production." I am not saying do the WHOLE movie in flash.

Flash = Mathmatically Scalable Vector graphics that are animated.
Normal AMV = Pixels setup on a fixed bitmapped grid.

The two are incompatible.

If you embed into Flash, you must compress your bitmap video to codec. Which is stupid since you can do this w/o flash. Or have flash try to convert it to vectors(if that's possible).

So this is a BAD IDEA. It would not work since digital video and digital vector animation are two VERY different things.

shadow-the-hedgehog · Post by **shadow-the-hedgehog** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 10:34 pm

But ot works damn you! Hold on...lemme upload the test I did.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 10:55 pm

I have tried converting videos to flash before. They come out MUCH larger and look MUCH worse than the equivalent xvid or rm.

shadow-the-hedgehog · Post by **shadow-the-hedgehog** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 12:40 am

on the test I ran the file was considerably smaller than the original file. And the only reason it looks bad is b/c I put it at 50% compression.