convert video to FLV with Flash CS3/Actionscript 3.0

• Create a folder to hold your FLV file and your skin.
• Start Flash CS3 Pro.
• Create a new flash document.
  • In the document property inspector, change the frame rate to 30 fps, to match the frame rate of the video
  • If the video is very long and has synchronized audio, you may need to change it to 29.97 fps, to keep the audio and video in synch.
  • If you want to use a slower frame rate, set it to 15 fps, so that every second frame is dropped.
• If you want the SWF file to be the same as the resulting movie component, change the document size in the Document Property inspector, click Size.
  • Width: 400
  • Height: 300
• You can also change the background color of the document to black to set a border around the movie, or to the same color as the HTML document on which it will be displayed.
• Save the fla file in the folcer you created.

Import the video

• Click File>Import>Import Video
• In the Select Video window of the wizard, be sure the on your computer radio button is checked.
• Browse to the video file you wish to convert to an FLV file. This inserts the pathname of the video.
• In the Deployment window, choose Progressive download from a web server.
• In the Encodings Window, Click Show Advanced Settings.
• In the Flash Video Encoding Settings dialog box, select Flash 8 - Medium Quality (400kbps) from the Flash Video Encoding Profile menu. This setting is the default.
  • You can try other settings to adjust the file size and quality of your video if you are unhappy with the results.
  • This action applies only a small amount of compression to the file.
• Click the Show Advanced Settings button, which reveals 3 tabs
• Encoding tab
  • Video codec is On2 VP6 for Flash 8 Pro. The other option is Sorensen Spark which will output your video for playing in the Flash 7 player
  • Frame Rate: same as source is safest. You can change it to other frame rates, which will alter encoding provile to Custom
  • Key Frame Placement: Automatic lets Flash set it. Key frames are ones in which entire video frame is repainted. Frequent keyframes slow down the movie and increase its file size. If the download speed is slow, the video may stop and only display keframes
  • Quality is set to Medium by encoding profile choice
  • Resize video lets you resize video dimensions. Click Maintain Aspect ratio to be sure video is not distorted
  • Audio codec is set to MP3, which is Flash's default and yields excellent results
  • data rate is set to 96 Kbps (stereo) for this encoding profile. If FLV movie is too large, reducing audio settings will reduce file size dramatically

• Cue Points Tab
  • You can designate specific times as cue points in the video
  • Event cue points can be used to trigger an event when video playback gets to the cue point
  • Navigation cue points insert a keyframe in the video cl9p and can be used for navigating or locating the specific point in the video clip
• Crop and Trim Tab
  • Crop lets you crop edges space from any of the four edges of the video clip
  • Trim lets you set an in point and out point to trim frames from the beginning or end of the movieclip
• Click OK to close the Settings dialog box.
• Click Next.

Skinning Window

Skins listed in the Skin pop-up menu are located in the Flash 8 Configuration/Skins folder or in a local Configuration/Skins folder that holds kinds you have made.

To skin with the FLVPlayback component using the FLV Playback Custom UI components, select None from the pop-up menu. See Convert Video in Flash Video encoder tutorial for instructions to use the video component.

• This skins include various combinations of buttons, to play your video
• Some of the skins display across the bottom of the video while others display below the video.
  • the skins that contain the wrd All will display many buttons, including Start, stop, rewind, volume control.
  • The skins that include the word External will display below the video.
• Some of the skins have minimum height and width requirements so be sure to choose one that fits the size of your video clip. Skins that state No minumum width and height will resize to fit the video clip.
• Click Next to encode the video
• The wizard puts the skin and the flv file in the same folder ase the fla file, so if the fla file has not been saved, you will be prompted to do that first.
• There is also a warning that you have to upload the skin, the SWF file and the flv component.
• You can change the pathname of the flv file in the Component inspector if you need to do that

Finish the wizard

• The Flash Video Encoding Progress window plays while the video is encoded.
• The resulting FLV file component is placed in the library for the movie.
• You need to upload the FLV file and the skin to the server, because they are separate from the SWF file.

Use the component Inspector or property inspector to modify the fLV component

• The Parameters tab of the Property inspector gives access to most of the component properties.
• Or open the Component Inspector panel to adjust the pathname, skin, autoplay, or other parameters.
• To have the movie not start playing automatically, change the autoPlay parameter to false
• Save your work.
• To test your document, select Control >Test Movie.
• The document plays in the Test Movie window. You can control the playback of the video file with the controls at the bottom of the Stage.