changing audio track on FLV movie?

Hi Gang,


I've got to deliver a very specifically spec'd FLASH movie to my client. Following the required specs of the website this has to go on, if I try to create my .flv file using FCP to Compressor ... or if I even use DV Kitchen ... I get a decent .flv file but really BAD sound. If I use Logic Audio to create an AAC audio track I can get very decent sound and still be at the 64 kb/sec data rate (God knows how Logic does this).

Can anyone suggest a way I could replace the Compressor or DVKitchen created audio track with my Logic created track on the .flv movie without having to recompress the file? I can do this easily with a Quicktime Movie, but have no idea how one might do it with a FLASH movie. I've gone through half a dozen small 'FLASH or FLV editors' ... but non offers this as a possibility.

All ears...

Ben

P.S. Cool question marks surrounding everything in this new 'Snow Leopard' generated setup...

Hello,

Looks like no one answered this question since September. I'm assuming you've moved on, but just didn't report your solution here.

My first question is: Why work with a file that generated the bad audio? Seems like you were looking for a workaround that might not be necessary.

That said, I have noticed *recently* that when I convert a Quicktime (H.264 with AAC audio) to Flash using the Flash Encoder CS3, I have been getting either no audio or audio that stops somewhere in the middle, with silence for the rest of the clip.

Mind you, I am using a process that just a few short weeks ago was working just fine. Dunno what I could be doing wrong.

I finally gave up using MOV as the source file, and created a WMF using Flip4Mac, then encoded that in Flash. I don't know why this worked better, but it was a workaround that didn't involve trying to strip bad audio from a Flash movie and add back the correct audio.

Anyone else have experience/solutions for this?

Thanks.

I don't know much about FLVs, as I don't use them too often. You would probably need it for alpha channels, otherwise, it is obsolete. The relationship between CS3, Quicktime and the Mac OS is a fragile one, since CS3 is way past its sell by date, and I am not sure if it is supported on the current OS. Point is, if you are running an outdated component with a modern framework, count your blessings and don't do any upgrades including automatic ones. I will definitely not recommend using WMV as an intermediate codec to FLV, because your footage suffers multiple super heavy compression, resulting in a less than optimal image even for web these days (web videos look pretty good now).



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks, Strypes.

The system I'm using is OSX 1.6.4, the Final Cut version is 7, and the Flash software makes Flash 9 videos. I realize this is not the latest thing, but if you think of my machine as a time capsule, it doesn't look too bad. ;-)

Anything where Apple and Adobe are talking is fragile, IMHO.

But seriously, this exact same set-up worked a couple of weeks ago, and then gave out just this week, producing Flash video with corrupted audio. I don't think I've installed any recent updates that would affect these programs. It's just curious, that's all.

Not sure what you mean about FLVs being only pertinent to Alpha channels. For a Flash movie, the desired output is somewhat different than your generic Flash animation. It's essentially 1 frame, with a movie component right in the middle.

Originally, I discovered the instructions for this process in the old Macromedia 8 docs (when putting a MOV into a Flash movie was the new hot ticket), but it still applied with later Flash versions.

The process begins with outputting a MOV (typically from FCP), then using Flash Encoder to create a .FLV version of it, as the input for a Flash .FLA file. You open Flash, start a new Flash .FLA file. Playback buttons are added from the Components panel. The MOV file is specified in the content path of the Components Inspector. Then the Flash .FLA file is Published as the final SWF, and typically, a HTML file, also. Flash generates other components to go along with this, including your playback component and Activescript. I have found that you must post the FLV, SWF, and the other components, along with the HTML in order for the movie to play.

So, I have used these steps to make dozens of Flash movies, most recently a couple of weeks ago with no problem, then this week, it screwed up the audio twice in a row.

If I create a high-quality WMV (29.97 frame rate), it doesn't look too terrible, but I'd rather use the MOV because it is a bit cleaner. Trouble is, with the MOV the sound has become unreliable - sometimes missing, sometimes cutting out. So, WMV is the lesser of these two evils, if the video doesn't have to be really large on screen.

The real question is why are users experiencing this problem with audio in Flash, and how can it be resolved?