Encoding Flash Video – Guidelines
You need to encode your video to Flash Video (FLV) format before uploading it to the Brightcove service.
- Source Video: Full-Resolution, Uncompressed Video Yields Best Results
- Determine Whether to Encode for Flash Player 7 or 8
- Filter Settings to Improve Encoding Quality
Source Video: Full-Resolution, Uncompressed Video Yields Best Results
- Best source video: Uncompressed QuickTime or AVI files.
- Mildly compressed video is okay: DV, for example.
- Video compressed for Web delivery: Quality and data-rate can vary widely. Will yield lower quality results.
- For any previously compressed video: The same video and audio codec must be installed on the computer used to encode the video to Flash Video format.
Determine Whether to Encode for Flash Video 7 or 8
The Brightcove service supports video encoded in the FLV format for Flash Player 7 or 8.
Viewer audience considerations:
- Flash Player 7: Currently has a larger installed user base.
- Flash Player 8: Provides noticeably higher quality video and improved performance (because of the On2 VP6 video codec).
- If you encode your video for Flash Video 8: Anyone with Flash Player 7 installed will be prompted to auto-update to Flash Player 8 the first time they try to view a video in your Player.
Tool considerations:
The Flash Video version you want to encode to may influence your choice of video encoding software.
- For Flash 8 video: Brightcove recommends On2 Flix Pro 8 (includes the new VP6 Pro codec and supports two-pass encoding).
- For Flash Video 7 video: Brightcove recommends Sorenson Squeeze, which includes the Sorenson Spark Pro codec.
Sorenson Squeeze users: You can purchase the VP6 Pro codec separately to enable two-passing encoding using the VP6 Pro codec within Squeeze.
View compression specifications: For Flash 8 video or Flash 7 video.
