FLV or Frame rates?
Mar 21, 2011
By
Tammy Smith
I'm just full of questions today. lol. Everyone's been so helpful, though. I hope this is another question that has an answer someone wouldn't mind sharing.
My FLV is 10 MB larger than my original swf. Now, when I exported as the MOV file (which I needed to do in order to get that over to a FLV file), I increased the frame rate from 24 to 25. I know, Presenter needs 30, but I was just testing this out. Now, is it the FLV file instead of the swf that makes it big, or is it just the one fps rate that went up that increased the file so much? The large file seems to be be catching and dragging when I play it more than the swf file did. Anyone know how to answer this? I'd really appreciate it!
18 Replies
Hi Tammy,
Depending upon the length of the video file, one extra frame per second can make the video substantially larger. However, there are likely other factors in play here. For example, if your video has audio, you'll want to make sure that the audio settings are set as low as possible. You'll be surprised at how much file size audio can take up. Also, you'll want to make sure that you're converting the video at the size that you actually need. In other words, if the source file is 800 x 600, try to convert it to a lower size like 400 x 200.
Thanks Brian. Doesn't lowering the audio quality make the sound bad? I exported as low quality in the past, and the audio sounded tinny. I have a voiceover, so the audio needs to be crisp and clean.
Also, does Presenter and Quizmaker come with the Articulate Video Encoder? I'm using Adobe Media Converter, and going from my MOV file to my FLV file is looking bad. The quality isn't as good, even though I put it as best quality possible, and there are some gray boxes around some of my images. I'd like to try out Articulate Video Encoder '09, but I don't want to buy it. I'm hoping it comes free with the software I've already bought...
Hi Tammy,
But don't people have to have Flash 9 to be able to watch an MP4? I wouldn't want the video not to play for them simply because they don't have the newest Flash player.
Also, is the Format Factory relatively easy to use and produces high quality files? Right now, the problem I'm having is getting the high-quality MOV file into a high-quality FLV (or MP4 if your idea would work) file.
Oh wait!! I do have Video Encoder!! I was looking in the wrong spot before. I just finally did an all-system search and found it. I hope this works better than the Adobe Media Encoder.
Hi Tammy,
Let us know if you have any issues with AVE.
That's funny that you mentioned that because my video still isn't looking as good as it did as a swf. The Quicktime movie looks fine. However, when I'm converting the .mov file to a .flv file, the everything looks a little blurry. I have the video set to 740 x 540, have it set to 1500 kps whatever, have it on VG (or whatever the abbreviation is for how many times the video is passed through), I have it set to pass through twice. I'm not sure what else I can do to get it to look right. I changed the Flash video to 25 fps (will change it to 30 later)and was just testing to see what it looked like. Still a little fuzzy compared to the .mov file I exported directly from Flash. Not really sure why this is. Can you provide some insight, please? I'd really appreciate it!
Hi Tammy,
There's many reasons why the SWF could look better than the FLV. It's likely that the SWF is exporting to a much higher quality setting than that provided on the FLV side. I would recommend converting the file to MP4 as the file size will be smaller and the quality will be substantially increased.
Converting the .mov file to an mp4? Or the FLV file? If the FLV file is already lower quality, then should I just export the .mov as an MP4? And I should use format factory for this? The quality on that is pretty good? Is Articulate considering putting the mp4 option in the encoder as an export option?
Or, can the format factory take a Flash or SWF file and make it into an MP4?
Hi Tammy,
I'd recommend converting the .MOV file directly to MP4 using Format Factory. In my experience, that software is very capable of handling the conversion.
In regards to adding the ability to export MP4 from Articulate Video Encoder, we don't announce features of our products prior to launch.
Thank you very much, Brian! That will help a lot. Have you had experience with saving a Flash movie as a .MOV file? If so, what settings do you use? I have been doing the 'None" option under the Compression selection, Best Quality, and Automatic Frame Rate. Also been doing the Best Quality for Audio. Are these the types of settings you would recommend or something different?
Hi Tammy,
Yes, those are the settings that I would recommend using & then adjusting for file size and quality as needed.
Alright. Thank you very much for all of your help, Brian! I really appreciate it. I might be back with questions about this, though, after I try it. lol.
Brian, I've done what you've suggested. The MP4 I made from my .mov file in Format Factory looks great. The audio sounds a little muffled, though. I have the audio at the highest options, but it's still sounded muffled compared to my .mov file. Any suggestions? I'd really like the audio to sound the same.
Also, when I'm importing my MP4 into Presenter 9, I get this error message that says the Video codec might not be supported or played by Flash. I found a post from you previously when I Googled the problem. This was the link I got: http://www.articulate.com/forums/articulate-engage/18232-will-not-import-mpeg-4-a.html
However, I don't know how to Re-encode the MP4 using the H.264 codec. No idea how to do that, not even sure I can do that with Format Factory. Any suggestions? I know you recommended going to mp4, but it's kinda messing up for me...
Thank you for your help so far!
Hi Tammy,
You can re-encode the video just by starting with your .mov file. After you've added it to FormatFactory, right click the file & choose "Output Setting." Then, choose AVC(H264) in the Video Encode section:
Thanks, Brian!! I'm trying that now. Any suggestions on the audio, though, so that it doesn't sound muffled?
Brian, now when I'm converting to H264, I don't get anything. I play the file in Quicktime like I have before, but I don't get video or audio, just a really quick clip of white space.
Please see the reply in the other topic you started. Thanks!
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