Embedded FLASH Player

Howdy.

Well... still working on these FLASH clips as it's the way to go for web viewing as far as I'm concerned.

Our embedded FLASH player has now playing times and cool thumbnails.

If a few of you on MAC and PC can go and try it out...would be good.

http://www.hdvunderwater.com/

The clips have been kept small for easy playing.

Cheers

Wags

Works fine for me! OSX on a Mac running Safari as the browser

Tested on a PC using Firefox 1.5 and IE7. Works OK.

timo

Hi Wags.

Windows XP, and IE explorer 6

The flash player did'nt work at the first time, it looked like the picture that I have attached.

However, I only needed to hit the update botton in IE, and when the page reloaded, it was fine. Still it's a problem that it did not show up correctly in the first place.

HC.

Cheers for that guys.

I plan to get rid of all the other pics and stuff so there is just the player there for faster loading of the site.

Could also make the clips bigger but this size gives most play ability for people out there in net land.

Once it is all done I will offer a page/menu to anyone that would like their video loaded up... slowly building a wordwide collection of just underwater clips.

Anyone got a good map of the world?

Google does!

Hey Wags, It all worked just fine for me on the G5. You should have gotten the insurance company to buy you a new zodiac...hope the band aid lasts.

Steve B)

Hey Wags, congrats again to you and Kelly!

The Flash videos themselves look great. The still image that shows when the page first loads in my Mozilla browser (Camino 1.0.3 on a Mac) is kinda blown out though. But the vids themselves present beautifully.

I'm just not a big fan of Flash for videos, and admit it's probably an irrational reaction on my part. I have to use Flash to encode the vids I do for a Southern California news site. They have me using On2 VP6, and the vids are then incorporated into a custom Flash player interface. Of course, they're limiting me to medium quality and 400 kbps which doesn't help the image much. But even so, H.264 is still my preference even at medium quality.

Now that said, I've seen evidence that Sorenson Squeeze for Flash gives a simply incredible Flash encode--superior to the encoder that comes with Flash 8 Professional. A friend of mine sent me a sample of the same vid, same On2 VP6 settings, one encoded with Flash 8, one with the Sorenson Flash encoder, and the results were very impressive with Sorenson hands down the winner. Because of the work I'm doing for the news site, I'm seriously considering getting Sorenson for the Flash encodes, but it's not cheap.

Have you had a chance to use the Sorenson Flash encoder? Curious as to what you think if you have....

Still, all said I prefer using H.264... just a Mac curmudgeon, I guess.

Mary Lynn

Steve, we tried to get all new tubes for it but they would only put a band aid on it.

Mary, I did not know about Sorenson Squeeze, will go and have a look, thanks for that.

Yes the player grabs one of the thumbnails on first load. I will see if I can put a nice pic in there instead.

H.264 and wmv is better but FLASH just plays on all computers and I like the full screen option now on the latest player flash player 9, just right click on the vid. I may put that option on as well but need to make the clip larger and better quality, maybe Sorenson Squeeze will allow me to do that. At the moment they are runing @400kbps.

It looks like we will be able to soon go to 8mbps from 1.5mbps we have now for internet connection so things are really going to fly then.

Wags, there's a free demo available at the link in my previous post--I've sent for it and will give it a try myself. You are absolutely right on about the cross-platform aspect of Flash. And I do love the idea of doing a world map kind of thing using Flash that would let folks click on an area of the world and have that bring up a video from that area...is that kind of what you're thinking of doing?

Flash, itself is a real learning curve for me, though. I'm thinking of actually taking a class to get started--did that for AfterEffects and it gave me just enough of a foundation to get going with it.

Please do let me know what you think of the Sorenson if you demo it--I really am considering taking the plunge....

Hi Mary

Yes it's funny being married now...feels like the right thing to do though Have you got a fella?

A map of the world or maybe just country names listed so we can add more as they come in. Then from that a FLASH VIDEO menu with the clip name/thumbnail and who owns it, or maybe the country page has a list of places then to the VIDEO MENU.

Have a new uplaod page with status bar so folks can upload their wmv or QT clips then I just convert them to flash and into the sytem.

The embedded flash player is really cool as you just update it with a simple XML page.

Have Sorenson Squeeze now, will try it out....stay tuned....

Hey Wags,

Check out this Flash thing on beaches of OC. I don't have the Flash skills yet to construct an interactive map like this, would sure love to though. Imagine if the map were of the world and the interactive pop-ups were video clips and info from different areas.... Deep sigh. I think your plan sounds fantastic, and a great way for us to access underwater video clips from all over the world. Thank you for taking it on and making it possible!

And as for the marriage decision feeling like the right thing to do, I completely understand. My longtime sweetheart and I eloped and got married last month (October 24th). It's still kind of surreal, and will take a while to sink in completely, I'm sure. It's interesting to me that the rest of the world has such a different view of a relationship if a couple is married. But that's the reality and, I guess, part of ensuring that others respect our commitments on the legal front. Anyway, that's why I can so empathetically congratulate you and Kelly! It's a big one.

Keep me posted on the Sorenson experiment, Wags, and I'll do the same!

Mary Lynn

Hey you got married last month and did not even lets up know about it

Congrat to you as well.

That FLASH map is cool but the only problem is that it's time consuming to make and update it everytime someone new from a different place appears.

Just having places in a box that people can click on is much easier to update. I'll see how I go, want to get the player and compression sorted first. 400kbps plays well accross the board but 1mbps is much better and you can get away with watching it full screen then. I suppose we need two clips for each then.

Made a few clips with Sorenson and FLASH 8 and played then at the same time in a HTML page. 640/360 @ 1mps CBR On2 VP6.....So far the Sorenson gives a slight richer colour but the FLASH 8 is less blocky . Will try a few diferent settings to see what comes up.

I'll load up a HTML page so you can see for yourself soon....

Wags, I'm not impressed so far with the new Sorenson Squeeze encodes either. The colors are more saturated, but the image is darker and I've had to gamma up to compensate. And I'm seeing more blockiness as well. I even tried a comparison of the H.264 encodes and found I like the results Compressor gives me far more. I'll try a few more comparisons, but so far I'm not persuaded enough to warrant the extra $$.

And yeah I totally understand about the Flash map and updating. The "clickable box" approach is definitely easier to do and much easier to update.

It's a very cool project, Wags!

Mary Lynn

Are...there you go.... same result as us. Not worth buying anyhow <_<

I think I will stick with the FLASH 8 encdoer, it batch encodes great.

I think if I add a link people can click on for a larger option if they have good broadband as well in the player menu so they can even play them even at fullscreen. 640/360 @ 1.5mbps should be good and 400kbps for the average joe blow....

Just something I have been thinking off for awhile, hdvunderwater always comes up first in Google and it would just be for underwater clips and maybe dive product/gear video's.

Wags that works fine in Maxthon 1.5.8 (shell for IE6).

Mary Lynn, I'm interested that you think Sorenson Squeeze is better than On2 VP6. Haven't tried Sorenson but I did a lot of research on this and everyone was pretty universally saying that there's little in them or that On2 has a slight edge.

Take a look at the one I did for the homepage of surfacemarker.com using the On2 standard encoder (single pass, 320 x 180px, 200kbps). I have a feeling they may have squeezed it vertically by a couple of pixels, which would impact the quality, but for just 200kbps I think it's pretty good. Looks dreadful full screen though.

Cheers Nick.

Cool clip there Nick..did they give you a free marker for doing it

200kbps looks fine for that size but yes no good full screen. It needs to link to another higher mbps clip for full screen use.

Nick, Mary did think it was better untill she tested it herself. It puts out more of a richer colour buts ends up being more blocky than what Flash 8 can do. I agree with her my end as well.

Cheers for that guys.

 

I plan to get rid of all the other pics and stuff so there is just the player there for faster loading of the site.

 

Could also make the clips bigger but this size gives most play ability for people out there in net land.

 

Once it is all done I will offer a page/menu to anyone that would like their video loaded up... slowly building a wordwide collection of just underwater clips.

 

Anyone got a good map of the world?

The Ontario Underwater Council has combined Google Earth with their shipwreck directory. First, if you don't currently have Google Earth 4.0 installed on your computer, you will need to download your free version found here; http://earth.google.com/downloads.html.

Once Google Earth has been successfully installed on your computer, you can download the OUC Shipwreck Directory to your computer by clicking here http://www.underwatercouncil.com/?action=c...ge=dive-ontario and following the directions.

The file will open OUC Shipwreck Directory, powered by Google Earth, and you will be able to "zoom down" to Ontario shipwrecks, as well as OUC Member Businesses and Scuba Clubs.

They have listings for the dive shops and co-ordinates and descriptions for the diving sites. There are links to pictures and eventually there will be video as well. At the rate that technology is progressing we should be able to fill the map of the earth with dive destinations and information all available at the touch of a button within the next few years.