Before you convert video to Flash Video you really need to understand a few things:
Flash Video streams into the Flash Player from your web server (that's where you keep your Internet site).
Decisions you make before you create the video will directly affect whether the viewer has a positive or a negative experience with the video.
Flash video is a streaming format , which means that the server only loads as much of the video as it needs before it starts playing and then keeps loading a steady stream of data while it continues to play the video currently in its memory.
What are the benefits and what is the data rate?
Well for a start, it means that if for example you have a large video file your viewers do not have to sit around all day while it completely loads into the memory before it either starts to play or crashes their machine.
The data rate is the amount of information that needs to be continually processed in order to play the video., in other words the size of the stream.
Size does matter! i.e. the bigger the stream, the more data can be processed e.g. the very small stream that runs through the golf course near where me mam used to live could be said to be equal to a dial up connection, whereas the river Tyne with regard to the same metaphor would be equal to a really fast one.
The actual data rate equation is:
Data rate = (width x height x colour depth x frames per second)/compression
an example:
Width: 320
Height: 240
Color depth: 24
Frames per second: 15
Compression: 60 (The benchmark compression ratio for both ON2 Flix and
Sorenson Squeeze is 60:1.)
Data rate = (320 x 240 x 24 x 15)/60
Data rate = (27,648,000)/60
Data rate = 460,800
When creating video for Internet delivery, these are some commonnly used data rates:
