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| Adding
a preloader to existing SWF & FLV files with
Flix Pro 4 |
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| Introduction |
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Flix
has a very useful feature that enables you to
automatically add a preloader to your video/audio
files while encoding (to do that use the SWF
tab of Flix Pro, but remember that this is for
SWF files only). You can also use the Existing
SWF/FLV tab of the Flix Pro Players window to
add a preloader to any existing SWF or FLV file.
The Preload option allows you to program an automatic
preloader into your SWF or FLV. This is for web
streaming purposes only. Preloaders will not
work on files played locally from a hard drive
or CD. The purpose of using preloaders is to
ensure smooth playback of larger videos for users
on slower connections. In this way, users on
slower speed connections (e.g., dial up modems)
can view larger, higher quality video files without
buffering or the video stopping and starting.
For instance, if someone on a 56k connection
tries to view a video that was encoded for a
256k connection, the video is still going to
play, but the amount of information contained
in each frame of the video will be much larger
than it would be for a video specifically encoded
for a 56k connection. This will cause an inconsistent
and choppy playback experience for the 56k user.
The purpose of a preloader is to ensure that
enough of the video has loaded so that there
will be no interruption once the video begins
to play. While there is a delay while the user
waits for the video to begin playback, if you
preload enough of the file, once it starts to
play, it will continue to play uninterrupted
until it finishes. |
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| Open
the Existing SWF/FLV tab of the Players window |
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| To
add a preloader to an existing SWF or FLV file,
use the Existing SWF/FLV tab of the Flix Pro
Players window. You can access this window by
selecting the Player Maker icon from the Flix
Pro toolbar or the View>Create Player menu
item. |
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| Browse
to find your source SWF or FLV file. The output
filename will automatically fill in and add “_player” to
the name. (This ensures that you don’t
overwrite your original SWF file by accident.)
If you want to change the name or location for
the output file, you can type the changes directly
into the field. (For FLV files you will still
have to export a SWF player, because the preloaders
can only be added to an FLV using a SWF player.) |
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| Select
a player |
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| Select
a player from the players list. For this example
we will use the “Blank” player. The
blank player does not actually add a player to
your output, but it creates a placeholder that
is the same dimensions as your source SWF or
FLV file and can be used to add any of the features
in the Existing SWF/FLV tab of the Players window
to any existing SWF or FLV file (except that
you cannot export a screensaver for an FLV file).
You can use any of the players in the list. |
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| Select "Use
Load Movie" |
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| To
add a preloader to an existing SWF or FLV file,
you must select the “Use Load Movie option.
This is because the preloaders are added to an
external SWF file that then loads your SWF or
FLV video file. So if you are using this method,
you will end up with 2 files – the player
SWF and your SWF or FLV video and you will need
both files in order to play the SWF or FLV with
the preloader feature. (Don’t forget to
include both files or your preloader won’t
work!) |
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| Check
the "Preload" option |
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Check
the “Preload” option. The preloaders
have a "__% loaded" indicator that
shows how much of the video has loaded until
the specified percentage has loaded and then
the video begins to play. Flix has 2 options
for automatically outputting the player for your
SWF or FLV video with preloaders that are built
into the players:
- Fixed: When selected this causes
the Flash Player to preload a specified percentage
of your output prior to beginning playback.
You specify the percent of the movie to load
(from 1% - 100%) in the box directly to the
right. The Fixed preloader works with any
Flash player version 4 and higher.
- Adaptive: An adaptive preloader
is an "intelligent" preloader that
will preload a variable amount of your video
based on the size of the video and the viewer's
internet connection speed so that the viewer
can watch the video without stops and starts
- no matter what speed they are connected
to the internet at. The adaptive preloader
determines the user's connection speed and
based on that figure and the size of the
video file you are preloading, it preloads
precisely the amount of the video required
to enable the video to begin playing as soon
as it possibly can and still not stop at
any point until it is done. In this way,
the preload process is optimized so the amount
of time taken for a video to preload is minimized
as much as possible. The Adaptive preloader
works with any Flash player version 5 and
higher.
If you select the adaptive preloader you
must use a buffer factor: The buffer factor
will cause the preloader to preload more
(or less) of the video than the initial calculations
determine is the minimum amount of time required.
This is useful because a viewer's connection
speed often varies, even during the course
of watching a single video. The time required
to load the file up to the end is multiplied
by this factor. If you don't want to use
a buffer you set the factor to 1.0 (a factor
of 1.0 means no buffer - loadingTime * 1.0
= loadingTime). To be on the safe side, you
may want to use a factor larger than 1.0.
If you think the viewer's connection will
get faster during the visit (e.g., perhaps
a download ends) then you can change the
buffer factor to a number smaller than 1.0.
If you think the viewer's connection will
get slower during the visit (e.g., because
the viewer starts a new download) you should
change the buffer factor to a number greater
than 1.0. As a general rule, it is a good
idea to make the buffer factor larger than
1.0 to be on the safe side. The default value
is 1.1 which should provide good results.
The buffer factor can be a number from 0
- 2 in increments of 0.1.
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| Select
preloader options |
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- Include Preloader Text: If you want to
include a "__% loaded" indicator
check this box. You can then select the font
and font attributes you wish to assign to
this text.
- Font: You may also select the font and
font size for the "__% loaded" preloader
text by selecting the "Font" button.
- Font color: You may also select the font
color for the "__% loaded" preloader
text by selecting the color picker button
which opens the color picker to enable you
to choose the font color you desire. The
default color is white.
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| Select "Create
Now" |
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Click “Create
Now”. Once you have created your file,
the player SWF file will be in the location you
specified. Remember that you will need both the
player SWF file and your original SWF or FLV
file and you will need to play the player SWF
file which will then load your SWF or FLV file
and add the appropriate preloader. If you want
to generate the html code to play your player
SWF then select the “Export HTML” option
as well.
Note: In addition to using the existing SWF tab
of the Players window to add a preloader to any
existing SWF or FLV file, you can also use this
feature to: 1) add a player with play controls
to any existing SWF or FLV file, 2) convert any
existing SWF file into a screensaver, 3) export
Windows, Mac and Linux projectors for your SWF
and FLV files, and 4) export the HTML code to
play your SWF files in a web browser or an email
client. |
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