Video Formats Supported?

[jhambley@mac.co]

Can you please tell me what video formats can be natively played using LPS (no players launched)?

[antun]

Right now you can bring in video in SWF format only. There are tools that will take video and convert them to SWF.

-Antun

[looch]

Are there any known resctrictions using SWF videos regarding bit rate?

THX

[dlewis]

Streaming video is supported in Laszlo by means of video which has been encoded as a .swf file. There are a few ways of encoding your video as a .swf file that the Flash 5 player can playback. The simplest way by far is to use a program like Flix <http://wildform.com/flix/> or Swideo <http://www.swideo.com/>.

Both Flix and Swideo work by importing your video file (QuickTime, AVI, or MPEG) and then exporting a .swf file in version 5. The benefit is that anyone can view the video without having to install a plug-in.

The optimal frame rate is 12fps, but you could push this a little higher if the video were small enough. One of the issues with video for flash 5 is that there is a 16k frame limit, which at 12fps limits you to abnout 20 minutes of video.

Just make sure that when you export a movie that you consider bandwidth limitations. We have found that movies at 240x180 at 12 fps tend to be the sweet spot on broadband connections. We have some Laszlo video players here that we've developed that try to be intelligent about caching and playing movies. You are welcome to the code and assets.

A mini one is here:
http://www.mylaszlo.com/lps/dlewis/mini_video_player/mini_video_player.lzx?lzt=html

and we have some larger ones on our demo page which I can send you as well:
http://www.laszlosystems.com/demos/

If you have any other questions regarding video in Laszlo please feel free to contact me at dan@laszlosystems.com

BTW, we are planning on supporting the .FLV format in an upcoming release later this year.

[chadpry]

are there any dates on that release?

sorenson squeeze looks like a good video converter for both swf and flv video files. and it is pretty affordable. is there an open source video converter available out there?

[dlewis]

Not sure which release it is going into. I will check on monday.

The only encoders I know of charge a small fee. Here's the list of encoders I know of and their pricing:

Swideo (windows only) - $40
http://www.swideo.com

Flix (win/mac)- $39-149
http://www.wildform.com/

Turbine Video Encoder (windows only)- $0 - 39
http://www.blue-pac.com/products/turbinevideo/

Kibisis (win only) - $59
http://www.kibisis.com/kibisis/index.html

Riva (win only) Free 30 day trial - $Free??
http://www.rivavx.com/index.php?encoder&L=3

Sorenson Squeeze (only encodes .flv) - $99
http://www.sorenson.com/solutions/prod/mx_win.php

[sourada]

This is one thread that I found when looking for a solution to the problem of embedding Flash 6+ video into a standalone Laszlo app. So I'm posting a pointer to a thread about that, and my solution to the problem.

See the "Just want to load and play a video" in this forum.

[rajkaushik]

Hi

Could you pl update on the status of flv. Are flv format supported or not in lps 3.0

Raj

[antun]

Hi Raj

FLV is not supported in OpenLaszlo 3.0 or above. As far as I know, there are no plans to introduce it. I don't see it in the roadmap either (http://www.openlaszlo.org/wiki/Platform_Roadmap).

Take care,

Antun

[d~l]

Beats me why developers need to design everything inside openlaszlo canvas .. why not just embed the video content (*.flv) in a separate iframe using third party utilities?

[rajkaushik]

Can you post a small example.
Thanks

[ccamelot]

Please check <http://www.ourada.org/blog/archives/6> - you can find here an awesome patch. You have to apply this patch "by hand" for a moment and rebuild laszlo from sources, but it works for me perfectly!