August 11, 2005

Flash video being used in the "real" world

(warning, long post..go get a coffee)

I couldn't help but respond to the couple of posts out there on flash video of late. The first one is Geoff's post about how flash video is taking a bit more precendence in their everyday work, and then how JD posts about what made him take notice of the post was exactly that. Not me, not even close... The one item that made me snicker and nod was the part where Geoff points out that flash video just isn't being used by the masses yet at all for "kooky amateur video".

Sure you have the "major" sites like Toyota, Sony etc doing Flash 8 video (before it's even released...), and then there are the all flash sites up until now for movies and games and whatnot that put some flash video in there, but for the most part "just normal movies" are almost always up in WMV, MOV or MPG.

When you go to sites that have funny movies, commercials, bloopers etc, they are most likely quicktime. Why is it that these people don't use flash video? Could it be the (up until flash 8 video) bloated size and crap quality? well.. maybe not crap, but it doesn't compare to any others. Is it perhaps because people just don't understand how to put Flash up? How about the HUGE misconception that the flash player isn't available enough/people don't have it installed so won't be able to see it? I think this one is a bit big. Also in relation to that problem, thanks to the crap flash stuff out there, people hate flash and install blockers specific to stop flash content!

Or how about that you have to go out and buy a completely seperate encoder just to create FLV files? That there is no FLV player that is used commonly used everywhere? Then, you go through the trouble of downloading the whole file from whatever page it is on, snag it from your cache (because nobody puts a link up to an FLV file, and it's not like you can right click a flash file and "save to disk") to view it offline, double click it and it doesn't play in anything..

At least when you go to a page with windows media or quicktime you are guaranteed a play/pause button, volume and playhead with some reference as to how much is loaded etc. It looks like a video player, it feels like a video player and this is what the masses are used to. This by far is not the fault of Flash but there are a lot of messed up video players out there, and they are all are slightly different. To the savvy of us it's nothing, but without a familiar interface it's tough to see what's up on the page when suddenly some vid shows up and all you want to do is stop it and the interface is completely different from what you may be used to. It would be smart of MM to make a free standalone player though... I wonder why they don't.

Of course, there are some great players out there, and some really nifty ideas but that's not the point. The point is that flash video has to get out there in a comfortable and intuitive way that everybody can understand. The way to play it is "normal", the way to upload it is "normal" etc. MM is trying hard to do this I think providing a new Flash video component that is easy to setup/skin and use though. Kudos there :).

Anyways, once that happens I think we'll see a lot more flash video out there especially with the leaps and bounds that it has made in the latest release. As much as I'm doing a bit of bashing on the flash video concept I'm all for it and I don't even remember the last time I uploaded an MPG/MOV/WMV file.

On the flip side:

What is the one MAJOR bonus that I can see with flash video? Being able to put in closed captioning (something that most video and now podcasting don't have at all) and timed animations. The interactivity is most definitely the biggest bonus for flash video, and that alone for us makes up the difference that we have to pay with bigger files to get the same quality that the other encoders enjoy. Of course that all changes now with the new encoder from ON2.

Anyways, just some thoughts at the moment that I had to pop out onto the blog. Hopefully that makes a few people think on what they are doing with vid out there.

Posted by Graeme at August 11, 2005 06:51 AM
　



Comments

Oh your just mad. Dude, check out Albinoblacksheep.com; tons of stupid shiot done in Flash video!

Posted by: JesterXL at August 11, 2005 11:47 PM

Oh yeah, and ebaumsworld.com, too!

Posted by: JesterXL at August 11, 2005 11:48 PM

You are totally right about the "stupid shiot" Jester. I couldnt check ebaumsworld.com. Either it is an incorrect link or the site is down.

However, the point Graeme made still holds true regarding albinoblacksheep.com in that it is still content from someone in the des/dev community. Not your everday joe that wants to post vid of their kids or vacation on the web.

Posted by: Kris at August 11, 2005 11:59 PM

My thought is that for the FLV format to become "mainstream" among consumers, either digi/digivid cams will have to start sporting direct encoding of FLV or the introduction of highly accessible conversion services.

Posted by: Kris at August 12, 2005 12:01 AM

Interesting post. I kinda agree. I think if MM produces a standolone flv player it will certainly help the situation. The biggest positive issue of flash video is it's interoperability, almost every OS can display flash. Don't know about anyone else but I hate Micro$oft's media player, so unituitive to say the least.

Posted by: steve at August 12, 2005 02:03 AM

I think part of the issue stems from the fact that software/services are widely available to take your video content and save it in a format that is accessible in .mov or wmv formats. Apple provides imovie, and MS offers a similar application. Many cell phones now can create video files and automatically upload to a website, just by sending to an email address (www.popug.com) offers this, amoung others. Until there is an easy, inexpensive way for endusers to save video as an FLV, then there probably won't be many kooky amateur video(s)" available. This goes hand-in-hand with the limited availability of a stand-alone FLV player.

Posted by: Scott Slone at August 12, 2005 04:23 AM