272 Working with Video
About video features in Flash
Macromedia Flash Basic 8 and Macromedia Flash Professional 8 provide several ways for you
to include video in your Flash documents. How you choose to deploy your video will
determine how you create your video content, and how you integrate it for use with Flash.
This section describes different video features in Flash, and how you can use them to
incorporate video content.
Flash provides several methods for integrating and delivering video content. The ways in
which you can incorporate video into Flash are:
Streaming video content Flash lets you host video files using Flash Communication Server,
a server solution optimized for the delivery of streaming, real-time media. You can import
video clips stored locally into your Flash documents, and later upload them to the server. This
allows you to more easily assemble and develop Flash content. You can also use the new
FLVPlayback component or ActionScript to control video playback and provide intuitive
controls for users to interact with the video.
You can host your own Flash Communication Server, or, you can use a hosted Flash Video
Streaming Service (FVSS). Macromedia has partnered with several content delivery network
(CDN) providers to offer hosted services for delivering on-demand Flash Video across high-
performance, reliable networks. Built with Flash Communication Server and integrated
directly into the delivery, tracking, and reporting infrastructure of the CDN network, FVSS
provides the most effective way to deliver Flash Video to the largest possible audience without
the hassle of setting up and maintaining your own streaming server hardware and network.
For information on streaming video from Flash Communication Server, or a hosted FVSS, see
“About streaming video using Flash Communication Server” on page 275.
Progressively downloading video from a web server If you don’t have access to Flash
Communication Server or FVSS, you can still enjoy the benefits of downloading video from
an external source when you use progressive downloading. Progressively downloading a video
clip from a web server doesn’t provide the same real-time performance that Flash
Communication Server does; however, you can use relatively large video clips, and keep the
size of your published SWF files to a minimum. You can also use the new FLVPlayback
component or ActionScript to control video playback and provide intuitive controls for users
to interact with the video. For information on streaming video from Flash Communication
Server, see “About progressively downloading video” on page 274.
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