It should also be pointed out that MANY web developers, designers and web administrators STILL believe they need On2VP6 .flv files for video to work properly in Flash.
We continually get blank stares and resistance when pushing H.264 files of any type (f4v, mp4 or mov based etc.) to web designers, especially designers who use a lot of Flash on their websites.
We've especially seen this with flash developers who build their own flash video players that subsequently choke when fed H.264 encoded files. We've never pinpointed why this occurs, because we can take these same encoded files and make them play flawlessly using commercially available flash players like JWPlayer and FlowPlayer.
But the fact remains, MANY web designers want flv encoded files for use on the websites they build and administer. That said, we've found that you can get darn good quality using flv with just a slightly higher bit-rate than H.264...usually about 30%. And an flv file will play back on REALLY old computers. As an example, I have a 13 year old Windows 98 computer in my kitchen I use for word processing and email that can play flv files with no problem, but it literally will display about 1 frame every 3 seconds of any H.264 based video file. Yes..you read that right...it will display a still frame every 3-4 seconds of the same flv file it can play back at 30 frames per second.
So there are still good reasons to use flv if compatibility and wide playback reliability are important.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
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