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Problems converting to swf

lplp
edited September 2010 in Announcements
Hi,

I want to use CamStudio in order to make an ".swf" which can be embedded in a website, but currently I hvae a few issues which prevent me from using CamStudio:

1. There are bugs in the conversion - parts of the screen becomes red. I saw in one of the threads of this forum that reducing with the "Sample / Playback Rate" and the "Keyframe Rate" might help, but in some of the combinations I tried the problem still occurs, and in others I'm getting a file which is not being opened.

2. The control which plays the video in the created HTML file doesn't contain all the functionality I need - a "Full Screen" button, and (as a nice to have) a progress bar.

If you can please help me so I can use your tool for creating a video.

Regards

Comments

  • edited September 2010
    lp,

    The "full screen" button and the progress bar appear as the result of Flash player commands. You do not need to keep the player "as-is" that CamStudio generates (the html code). When you use the (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) 2.6beta's SWF Producer manually (that is, recording an AVI, then loading that AVI using the Producer's "Open" command and then the "Convert to SWF" menu choice), you should be presented with a screen that allows you to select many video properties, including "Add Player Controls", "Autostart", "Add Preloader and Progress Bar" (Flash5/MX player only) and "Loop" as well as the new "Redirect URL" code. Some of these features require a Flash5/MX compatible player to be used such as described in the following paragraphs. Admittedly, the player in the SWF Producer is not that great.

    You can generate the SWF file using CamStudio's utility, and then use JWPlayer ( http://www.longtailvideo.com/ ) or any other flash player utility to play the file back. (At least I'm fairly certain this is true.) It is not free entirely, but can be used for free. The nice thing about JWPlayer is their code-producer. http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player-setup-wizard The code generated by this can likely be adapted to your CamStudio code, but I do not know whether that is always true or not.

    [Edit: I found Nick had added this in another post]:

    If you want to use LongTailVideo's free JWPlayer video player or another embeddable Flash file player to play the SWF - just make sure you uncheck or do not select:

    Add Player Controls
    Autostart
    Add Preloader + Progress Bar
    Loop

    ...before you create the Flash file in SWF Producer.

    [Unfortunately, this may also require disabling the "Redirect to URL" feature as well. Untested on my end.]

    Have you tried the 2.6beta's SWF producer module yet? The 2.6beta recorder still has some issues that will be fixed soon, so continue to use 2.0 for recording for a week or so, but perhaps generate the SWF manually with the 2.6beta SWF Producer. It has the Firefox/Chrome bug repaired (at least it does IF the SWF Producer module is the same as the one that had shipped with the older 2.5beta download available earlier -- checking on that now) AND the URL Redirect feature along with a few others. http://camstudio.org The result will work with JWPlayer mentioned above.

    If the even the 2.6beta SWF Producer continues to fail you, for the sake of you finishing your project quickly, download WinFF ( www.winff.org - free) and convert the AVI to FLV, then use the LongTail JWPlayer (http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player - free) to embed and play the FLV in a webpage. Several fixes are in the works on the 2.6beta upcoming in the meantime. Any reports you may have to share would be greatly appreciated!

    Terry
  • edited September 2010
    A lot of people never catch the Frequently Asked Questions section that discusses the SWF Producer, so here is that section here (at the bottom of http://camstudio.org/faq.htm )

    SWF Producer FAQ

    NOTE: There is no email or telephone support for this free product.

    What types of AVI files are suitable for conversion to SWF files by the Producer ?

    Currently, the SWF Producer performs temporal compression of the AVI file by comparing each frame with its previous frame and storing the difference between them. Because the algorithm works on a lossless basis, a very slight difference between pixels in each frame will cause the Producer to save data from each frame and render the temporal compression algorithm ineffective.

    What this means is that for an AVI to be effectively converted to a Flash file with maximal compression, your AVI has to satisfy certain characteristics. They should

    1. behaving a limited number of colors (i.e do not have many gradient-filled areas)
    2. not be changing much in between each frames, except for the mouse movements.
    3. be recorded in perfect quality (i.e the AVI images must not suffer degradation in quality when they are played back. A way to accomplish this is to use the MS Video 1 codec, with the quality set to 100)

    Most of the tutorials recorded with CamStudio satisfy the above conditions. In fact, when you choose the "Record to SWF" option in CamStudio Recorder, it automatically bypass some options and choose a lossless codec instead.

    Furthermore, if your AVI file includes an audio track, it is highly recommended that it is in the PCM format. If it is not, you may want to convert it to PCM first using a third party video editor (A good freeware is VirtualDub).

    Please note : The algorithm will not work very well with movies you see in the theatres. These images are usually saved with lossy codecs and change too much between frames. We , however, have plans to enhance the Producer so that it works with lossy images.

    Can the Producer operate in command line mode?

    Yes. The command to do so is

    producer -b c:\folder1\demo1.avi

    The resulting Flash file is stored in c:\folder1 as demo1.swf

    Can I use the SWF file produced by CamStudio in the Flash MX editor ?

    Yes, but you will need to use the Actionscript function (loadmovie) to load it. What this means is that you will need to create another Flash file that loads the SWF produced by CamStudio.

    This container file will manage, control, and enhance the original linear movie. Some possible enhancements include adding a custom preloader and control bar. You may also chain multiple SWFs produced by CamStudio with this file.

    In order to produce a linear SWF file that can be loaded, you will need to choose the following settings in SWF producer.

    1. Uncheck Add Player Controls
    2. Check Autostart

    For more information, please refer to the help file.

    Is there a limit to the size of a SWF file ?

    A Flash file has an inherent limit of 16000 frames (Macromedia Knowledge Base Technote 14437). For an AVI that needs more than 16000 frames, CamStudio will split the SWf into several parts, with the following naming convention :

    basename.swf, basename_1.swf, basename_2.swf ...and so on.

    If you enable the Chain Multiple SWFs setting in the Advanced tab of the conversion dialog, CamStudio will link the SWFs so that basename.swf will load basename_1.swf when it has finished playing, and basename_1.swf will load basename_2.swf when it has finished ... and so on.

    Terry
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