How do I make .flv(flash video) file from a quicktime .mov?

Hello All,

thanks in advance to anyone reading this. I have edited a trailer of my film in FCP (final cut studio 2.0), on a macbook pro (fall 2008 version). For my website I need to convert it to an .flv 320x240 format.

In compressor I could not find a setting for .flv. I have downloaded and tried ffmpegX which can supposedly convert to .flv but I cannot get it to work after having input quicktime .mov exported with different settings from fcp.

Any suggestions for software or is there a way to do it with final cut studio 2.0???

Thank you!
Best regards,
Robert

You need a program that can convert to flv. I recommend DVKitchen whose ad I believe you can find in the sidebar. It does a great job on flvs, movs, and wmvs. It's also quite a bit cheaper than other comparable conversion software on the market.

Andy

HI Andy,

thank you for your reply and your advice. I will check it out.

It is weird that the ffmpegX is not working. Have you used it?

Do you know of any free software?

Thank you,
Robert

I've never used ffmpegX, but as far as free software...

I couldn't find any that really worked well at all. This is one of those, "you get what you pay for" type situations.

Having said that, there is something you can do that doesn't cost money. You can sign up to a high quality video sharing site like Vimeo or Blip.tv. Those sites let you upload large QT files and they convert them to flv for you. They give you the HTML code to embed the video into your own website.

I've used Blip.tv to upload 20 minute QT H264 files at high bit rates and frame sizes of 960x540. The result looks very good, and Blip.tv carries the load for the data transfer.

Andy

[Andy Neil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
You can sign up to a
high quality video sharing site like Vimeo or
Blip.tv.]

Then you could use a .flv downloader (e.g. Moyea) to download the .flv file for yourself.

Or in fact there is a way to do it with Firefox...
In Firefox, just go to the page the vid is uploaded, wait for it to buffer completely.
Go to Tools>Page Info>Media and find the [embed] file that is a .flv, highlight it and [save as].
N.B. it doesn't always work!

Are you sure you need .flv?

H.264 .mov works fine in Flash.
Adobe Flash 9 FAQ

Flash 9 Update 3 and later supports H.264 .mov

craig seeman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are you sure you need .flv?
>
> H.264 .mov works fine in Flash.
> Adobe Flash 9 FAQ
>
> Flash 9 Update 3 and later supports H.264 .mov

A bit late to the party... Assuming your audience is using Flash plugin 9.0 or higher then all you have to do it change the extension on your QuickTime movie from .mov to .flv and you are good to go.

Actually you don't need to even change the extension.

I've used H.264 .mov and built it in to Flash Players (JW/Longtail) as is.

Adobe on H.264 extension compatibility

Quote
Q: Will Flash Player 9 Update 3 support non-FLV files?

A: Yes, with this update, Flash Player will also support files derived from the standard MPEG-4 container format such as MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP, 3G2 if they contain H.264 video and/or HE-AAC encoded audio.

Hi, Robert!
I'd recommend you to use Macvide FlashVideo converter. It's an effective tool designed for Mac, I'm sure it will help you.

Hi, since i have some experience of this job, maybe this flv to mov can hlep you a little.

Hi Craig,

may i ask something here ?
i have tried the same, playing a .mp4 clip with the JW flash player on my website, but there is a problem there - since i guess the .mp4 clip is missing 'metadata' (which i have no idea why and how..), the JW player thinks the clip is 9 minutes instead of 2 (the play progress counter actually shows 9 minutes), and therefore, when it finishes playing the clip, its gets stuck in "downloading" mode... so now i am in the same problem of the other guy here, trying to convert my .mp4 files to flv, to see if that will take care of the problem...

any advice ?

Thanks a lot,

Aylam

The first thing to check is how you encoded that .mp4. I've used both mp4 and mov in JW Flash player without issue.

Maybe there's a bug in your encoding app. What did you use (specific version number as well)?

Compressor H.264 MOV work fine. I've used Telestream Episode H.264 MP4 and F4V also.

H.264 Flash should never be FLV. You can try encoding to F4V as an alternative to MP4.

I would definitely not encode an already heavily encoded file to another heavily encoded codec such on On2VP FLV.

Always use your master file as source.

Hi Craig,

thanks ! i encoded that .mp4 using my Final Cut Pro (version 6.0.6). I exported the clip using the "export using Quicktime conversion" function, with the H.264 Codec, and AAC sound, and that gave me a .mov file. Then, i just changed the extension to .mp4 (someone advised me to do that, so that the clip could be played by flash players). so that's all i did.
what do you think..?

Thanks again,

Aylam

Quote
Then, i just changed the extension to .mp4 (someone advised me to do that, so that the clip could be played by flash players). so that's all i did.
what do you think..?

Someone gave you bad advice. There's no reason to change the extension and you should not simply change the extension as the internal data for the two formats are not the same.

You should have mentioned that in your first post. You were not playing an mp4 file. You were playing a mov file and you confused the player into thinking it was an mp4 file.

Follow Adobe's advice rather than "someone."

[labs.adobe.com]

[labs.adobe.com]

I'd think Adobe knows their product fairly well and should be the first source of support. If someone believes Adobe is wrong or otherwise found a bug they should report it and also identify why they're making such a recommendation.

Q: Will Flash Player 9 Update 3 support non-FLV files?

A: Yes, with this update, Flash Player will also support files derived from the standard MPEG-4 container format such as MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP, 3G2 if they contain H.264 video and/or HE-AAC encoded audio.

ok thanks.

that 'someone' happened to be a top rank employee of Adobe, but i guess he was wrong. thanks for the correction.

i'll use the original .mov file, with the JW flash player and hopefully that will fix the problem.

Aylam

You don't have to change the extension. Changing the extension doesn't change the wrapper/format of the file. The player will play it if it's able to natively take in that format. H.264 in a QT wrapper works for the JW player.



www.strypesinpost.com

Quote
that 'someone' happened to be a top rank employee of Adobe,

Kinda reminds me of one place I worked at where the VP of sales actually would tell people what an Avid can do, despite never actually having used one. Only programmers/engineers count or those trained by such critters. Sometimes the field commander knows more than the General.

Thank you guys.

yes, the field commander and the general parable seems to be true in my case.. ;-)

but alas, i did as instructed, went back to the original .mov file (H.264, AAC, extracted from Final Cut Pro), gave it to my designer who put it into the newest version (4.7) of the JW player, and it still gives us the same problem... ahhhhhhh !! what could be the problem now ?

thanks again,

Aylam