| Flash Video | |
|---|---|
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| File name extension | . A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a Computer file applied to indicate the encoding convention ( File format) of its contents flv, . f4v, . f4p, . f4a, . f4b |
| Internet media type | video/x-flv, video/mp4, video/x-m4v, audio/mp4a-latm, video/3gpp, video/quicktime, audio/mp4 |
| Developed by | Adobe Systems (originally developed by Macromedia) |
| Type of format | media container |
Flash Video is the name of a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player (formerly known as Macromedia Flash Player) versions 6–10. An Internet media type, originally called a MIME type after MIME and sometimes a Content-type after the name of a header in several protocols whose value Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee əˈdoʊbiː ( is an American Computer software company headquartered in San Jose California Macromedia was a North American graphics and Web development Software house headquartered in San Francisco, California producing such products A container format is a computer file format that can contain various types of data compressed by means of standardized audio/video codecs. Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee əˈdoʊbiː ( is an American Computer software company headquartered in San Jose California The Adobe Flash Player is a widely distributed proprietary multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and now developed and distributed by Adobe Macromedia was a North American graphics and Web development Software house headquartered in San Francisco, California producing such products Until version 9 update 2 of the Flash Player, Flash Video referred to a proprietary file format, having the extension FLV. The most recent public release of Flash Player supports H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) High Efficiency AAC ( HE-AAC) is a Lossy data compression scheme for Digital audio. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. The File format SWF (acronym of " Shockwave Flash "pronounced swiff)a partially open repository for multimedia and especially Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Reuters.com, Yahoo! Video, and many television news operations are also using Flash Video on their websites. YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload view and share Video clips YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees Google Video is a free video sharing website and also a video service from Google that allows anyone to upload Video Clips to Google's web This article is primarily about Reuters prior to its 2008 merger with Thomson Yahoo! Video began as a video Search engine and re-launched in June 2006 with the ability to upload and share video clips
Flash Video is viewable on most operating systems, via the widely available Adobe Flash Player and web browser plugin, or one of several third-party programs such as MPlayer, VLC media player, Quicktime, or any player which uses DirectShow filters (such as Media Player Classic, Windows Media Player, and Windows Media Center) when the ffdshow filter is installed. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a MPlayer is a free and Open source media player. The program is available for all major Operating systems including Linux QuickTime is a Multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc, capable of handling various formats of Digital video, Media clips sound text DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow) codename Quartz, is a Multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft Media Player Classic ( MPC) is a compact media player for Microsoft Windows. Windows Media Player ( WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing Windows Media Center is an application designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub. ffdshow is a media decoder and encoder mainly used for the fast and high-quality decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP (e
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Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is a multimedia and application player originally developed by Macromedia and acquired by Adobe Systems. The Adobe Flash Player is a widely distributed proprietary multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and now developed and distributed by Adobe Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee əˈdoʊbiː ( is an American Computer software company headquartered in San Jose California It plays SWF files which can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, Adobe Flex, or a number of other Adobe Systems and third party tools. The File format SWF (acronym of " Shockwave Flash "pronounced swiff)a partially open repository for multimedia and especially Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently Adobe Flex is a collection of technologies released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross platform Rich Internet applications based on the proprietary Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee əˈdoʊbiː ( is an American Computer software company headquartered in San Jose California It has support for a programming language called ActionScript, which can be used to display Flash Video from an SWF file. ActionScript is a scripting language based on ECMAScript. ActionScript is used primarily for the development of websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player Because the Flash Player runs as a browser plug-in, it is possible to embed Flash Video in web pages and view the video within a web browser. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a The primary downside of Flash's FLV player is that it is very inefficient compared to a directly embedded video file, dropping frames when running on slow clients that run directly embedded video perfectly.
Format details
Commonly, Flash Video files contain video bit streams which are a variant of the H.263 video standard, under the name of Sorenson Spark. A bitstream or bit stream is a Time series of Bits A Bytestream is a series of Bytes typically of 8 bits each and can be H263 is a Video codec standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for Videoconferencing. The Sorenson codec (also known as Sorenson Video Codec, Sorenson Video Quantizer or SVQ) is a Digital video Codec devised by the company Flash Player 8 and newer revisions support the playback of On2 TrueMotion VP6 video bit streams. On2 Technologies ( formerly known as The Duck Corporation, is a small publicly-traded company (on the American Stock Exchange) headquartered in Tarrytown TrueMotion VP6 is a Video codec developed by On2 Technologies as a successor to earlier efforts such as VP3 and VP5. On2 VP6 can provide a higher visual quality than Sorenson Spark, especially when using lower bit rates. In Telecommunications and Computing, bitrate (sometimes written bit rate, data rate or as a Variable R or f b On the other hand it is computationally more complex and therefore will not run as well on certain older system configurations. Flash Player 9 Update 3 includes support for H.264 video standard (also known as MPEG-4 part 10, or AVC) which is even more computationally demanding, but offers significantly better quality/bitrate ratio. H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding)
The Flash Video file format supports two versions of a so called 'screenshare' codec which is an encoding format designed for screencasts. A screencast is a digital recording of Computer screen output also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio Narration. Both these formats are bitmap tile based, can be lossy by reducing color depths and are compressed using zlib. A lossy compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original but is close enough to be useful Color depth. or bit depth, is a Computer graphics term describing the number of Bits used to represent the Color of a single Pixel zlib is a software library used for Data compression. zlib was written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler and is an abstraction of The second version is only playable in Flash Player 8 and newer.
Support for encoding Flash Video files is provided by an encoding tool included with Adobe's Macromedia Flash Professional 8 product, On2's Flix encoding tools, Sorenson Squeeze, FFmpeg and other third party tools. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently On2 Technologies ( formerly known as The Duck Corporation, is a small publicly-traded company (on the American Stock Exchange) headquartered in Tarrytown Sorenson Squeeze is a compression suite for video It batch transcodes to multiple formats including QuickTime, Windows Media and Flash Video. FFmpeg is a computer program that can record convert and stream digital audio and Video in numerous formats
Audio in Flash Video files is usually encoded as MP3. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression However, Flash Video files recorded from the user's microphone use the proprietary Nellymoser codec. Nellymoser, Inc is a privately held company that specializes in mobile computing FLV files also support uncompressed audio or ADPCM format audio. Recent versions of Flash Player 9 support AAC (HE-AAC/AAC SBR, AAC Main Profile, and AAC-LC). Advanced Audio Coding ( AAC) is a standardized lossy compression and encoding scheme for Digital audio. High Efficiency AAC ( HE-AAC) is a Lossy data compression scheme for Digital audio. Advanced Audio Coding ( AAC) is a standardized lossy compression and encoding scheme for Digital audio. Spectral band replication ( SBR) is a technology to enhance audio or Speech codecs especially at low Bit rates and is based on harmonic redundancy in the
On August 20, 2007, Adobe announced on its blog that with Update 3 of the Flash Player 9 (released), Flash Video will also support the MPEG-4 international standard. Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data [1] Specifically, Flash Player will have support for video compressed in H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), audio compressed using AAC (MPEG-4 Part 3), the MP4, M4V, M4A, 3GP and MOV multimedia container formats (MPEG-4 Part 14), 3GPP Timed Text specification (MPEG-4 Part 17) which is a standardized subtitle format and partial parsing support for the 'ilst' atom which is the ID3 equivalent iTunes uses to store metadata. H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) Advanced Audio Coding ( AAC) is a standardized lossy compression and encoding scheme for Digital audio. MPEG-4 Part 14, formally ISO / IEC 14496-142003, is a Multimedia Container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4 3GP is a Multimedia Container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP for use on 3G Mobile phones but can A container format is a computer file format that can contain various types of data compressed by means of standardized audio/video codecs. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project ( 3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations to make a globally applicable third generation ( 3G Timed Text refers to the presentation of text media in synchrony with other media such as audio and video ID3 is a Metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 Audio file format. iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application introduced by Apple Inc Metadata ( meta data, or sometimes metainformation) is "data about data" of any sort in any media
A Flash Player 9 update including a new MP4 H. 264 component was released on December 3, 2007. Events 1800 - War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. [2]
File formats
Because of restrictions in the . flv format, Adobe Systems has created new file formats listed below. Flash player does not check the extension of the file, but rather looks inside the file to detect which format it is.
| File Extension | Mime Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| . f4v | video/mp4 | Video for Adobe Flash Player |
| . f4p | video/mp4 | Protected Video for Adobe Flash Player |
| . f4a | audio/mp4 | Audio for Adobe Flash Player |
| . f4b | audio/mp4 | Audio Book for Adobe Flash Player |
Codec support
| Codecs | Support |
|---|---|
| H. 264 | Yes |
| VP6 | Yes |
| MPEG-4 ASP | No |
| Sorenson H. 263 | Yes |
FLV players
An FLV player is a type of media player that is used for playing flash video from PC as well as from Internet websites. Media Player was a media player originally included in Windows 3 Flash Video is the name of a File format used to deliver Video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player (initially produced A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks An FLV player can be used standalone, without the need of the Adobe Flash authoring or developmental tools. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently
There are a few video players specifically made to play FLV files, including:
- Web-Anatomy FLV Player (Web)
- JW FLV Player (Web)
- Rich Media Project FLV Players (Web)
- Applian FLV Player (Desktop)
- Martijn DeVisser's FLV Player (Desktop)
- Sonettic Cinema FLV Player (Web)
- Wimpy Desktop FLV Player (Desktop)
- Flowplayer embeddable video player (Web)
- OS FLV - the Open Source, embeddable FLV player (Web)
- Moyea Desktop Flash Player (Desktop)
- nFLV Player - Able to play unrewindable/unforwardable . flv videos (Desktop)
- SWF & FLV Player (Mac OS-X) (Desktop)
- VideoLAN - VLC media player (Desktop)
Other media players based on the FFmpeg libraries should be able to play back Flash Video format video[3]. FFmpeg is a computer program that can record convert and stream digital audio and Video in numerous formats Listed below are some examples of media players supporting the Flash Video format:
- Adobe Media Player
- Chameleo
- GOM Player
- MPlayer (uses FFmpeg)
- RealPlayer
- VLC media player
- xine (uses FFmpeg)
- Any player which can use the ffdshow (based on FFmpeg) DirectShow codecs:
- Any player which uses QuickTime, after installation of the FLV component
Delivery options
Flash Video files can be delivered in several different ways:
- As a standalone . Adobe Media Player is a desktop media player provided by Adobe primarily for the purpose of advertising partner content Chameleo is a media platform with support for rich video playback GOM Player ( G retech O nline M ovie Player) is a freeware media player for Microsoft Windows. MPlayer is a free and Open source media player. The program is available for all major Operating systems including Linux FFmpeg is a computer program that can record convert and stream digital audio and Video in numerous formats RealPlayer (briefly known also as RealOne Player) is a proprietary Cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number xine (officially ksin is a Multimedia playback engine for Unix-like Operating systems released under the GNU General Public License. FFmpeg is a computer program that can record convert and stream digital audio and Video in numerous formats ffdshow is a media decoder and encoder mainly used for the fast and high-quality decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP (e FFmpeg is a computer program that can record convert and stream digital audio and Video in numerous formats DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow) codename Quartz, is a Multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft Media Player Classic ( MPC) is a compact media player for Microsoft Windows. Winamp is a proprietary media player written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of Time Warner. Windows Media Player ( WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing Zoom Player is a Computer program that plays video and sound files on QuickTime is a Multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc, capable of handling various formats of Digital video, Media clips sound text FLV file. Although Flash Video files are normally delivered using a Flash player for control, the . FLV file itself is fully-functional on its own and can be played or converted to other formats from local storage such as a hard disk or a CD.
- Embedded in an SWF file using the Flash authoring tool (supported in Flash Player 6 and later). The entire file must be transferred before playback can begin. Changing the video requires rebuilding the SWF file.
- Progressive download via HTTP (supported in Flash Player 7 and later). Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. This method uses ActionScript to include an externally hosted Flash Video file client-side for playback. ActionScript is a scripting language based on ECMAScript. ActionScript is used primarily for the development of websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player Progressive download has several advantages, including buffering, use of generic HTTP servers, and the ability to reuse a single SWF player for multiple Flash Video sources. Flash Player 8 includes support for random access within video files using the partial download functionality of HTTP, sometimes this is referred to as streaming. However, unlike streaming using RTMP, HTTP "streaming" does not support real-time broadcasting. Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP is a proprietary protocol developed by Adobe Systems for streaming audio video and data over the Internet between Streaming via HTTP requires a custom player and the injection of specific Flash Video metadata containing the exact starting position in bytes and timecode of each keyframe. Using this specific information, a custom Flash Video player can request any part of the Flash Video file starting at a specified keyframe. For example, Google Video and Youtube support progressive downloading and can seek to any part of the video before buffering is complete. Google Video is a free video sharing website and also a video service from Google that allows anyone to upload Video Clips to Google's web YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload view and share Video clips YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees The server-side part of this "HTTP pseudo-streaming" method is fairly simple to implement, for example in PHP, as an Apache HTTPD module, or a lighttpd module. Rich Media Project provides players and Flash components compatible with "HTTP pseudo-streaming" method.
- Streamed via RTMP to the Flash Player using the Flash Media Server (formerly called Flash Communication Server), VCS, ElectroServer, Wowza Pro or the open source Red5 server. Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP is a proprietary protocol developed by Adobe Systems for streaming audio video and data over the Internet between Flash Media Server (FMS is a data and media server from Adobe Systems Inc As of April 2008, there are four stream recorders available for this protocol, re-encoding screencast software excluded. Stream recorder, also called a stream ripper, is a Computer program capable of saving a Data stream – particularly Streaming media such as A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a Digital Data stream or signal. A screencast is a digital recording of Computer screen output also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio Narration.
Notes
- ^ What just happened to video on the web. Adobe.
- ^ Adobe Flash Player 9 Downloads. Adobe (3 December 2007). Retrieved on 2008-01-31. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes
- ^ FFmpeg Documentation
External links
- Flash Developer Center - Flash Video Articles
- Macromedia Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) File Format Specification Licensing Page (adobe. com)
- Macromedia Flash FLV Video File Format (Library of Congress)