Anything to convert a SWF to quicktime?

[SPG]

Anyone know of a good program to convert a flash presentation's SWF files into quicktime for editing? I've only been able to find ones that will make SWF but not vice versa.
BTW, nothing sketchy going on here, just a presentation that we don't have any of the originals for anymore and need to put it on a DVD along with another newer presentation.

 

[jsw]

One possible solution is to use Snapz Pro to capture the video and save it to QT.

Not elegant, I know - but it's one way to do it. Snapz Pro's video capture is pretty darn good. I hope you find a better solution.

 

[homerjward]

i believe flash exports quicktime, but im assuming you don't have that or you'd use it. doesn't quicktime play .swf? if so, you could get quicktime pro and export it to a .mov or something

 

[SPG]

i believe flash exports quicktime, but im assuming you don't have that or you'd use it. doesn't quicktime play .swf? if so, you could get quicktime pro and export it to a .mov or something

I think the originals are gone with the machine that made 'em. All we've got is the CD with the final presentation so exporting the quicktime from flash isn't an option. I tried playing the SWF files in QTpro, but all I could get is the audio, just black screen for the video.
I'll take a look at Snapz in the morning and see if that gives us enough resolution. I'd rather avoid that kind of capture, but at this point whatever works...

 

[jsw]

If you go the Snapz Pro route, I recommend doing some short trial captures to fine-tune the compression algorithm that's best for your presentation. While I think Snapz Pro is a great tool, one of my quibbles with it is that, once you've captured the video, you get one chance to compress it. If that compression isn't good (too big, too compressed, whatever), you need to recapture everything.

However, it'll do captures up to and including your full screen, so make your Flash presentation as large as possible, and you should capture all the detail you need. Flash is vector-based, so of course a screen (pixel) based capture won't do it full justice, but it should be adequate.

 

[Diomedes]

Sorenson Squeeze, or Flash 2004

If you don't have Flash 2004, you can use something like Sorenson Squeeze. There is also a new product I saw in Macworld, but I don't remember the name.

However, if you plan on doing a lot of this, invest in Flash Pro. For example, I create Flash movies using Captivate on my PC; I can then use Flash 2004 (on either platform) to convert to QuickTime. For my purposes, since Captivate doesn't export to QuickTime (or any QuickTime-supported format), this works great - I have a range of editors, and if I need to convert a QuickTime movie to Flash, I can do the same. (FYI: Captivate is a screen-recording application from Macromedia. It is VERY cool, especially useful in training or showing something visually...I really wish they had a Mac version.)

 

[SPG]

Thanks for the tips.
I've tried using flash, but as these are SWF files and not the FLA files it doesn't want to do much there.
Snapz wasn't that great either, as the audio isn't recognized in snapz, and the video that snapz generates isn't recognized in Final Cut Pro.
I'll post here if I get this figured out, but at this point I think it might be a lost cause.

Oh yeah, there are a couple of PC based options that I tried but neither of them were able to give the results needed.

 

[iMeowbot]

If you need the audio, QuickTime Pro is likely to disappoint too, and aspect can be tricky. If you don't mind capturing the audio separately with something like Audio Hijack and merging it back in by hand, however, it can usually do the job.

 

[SPG]

That's kind of been the problem here. I could use three different programs to pull the individual parts and then put them all back together, but this project is too big and in the end, it's just not worth that kind of investment in time to do it. I'm really just looking for a single conversion program that would actually give me a quicktime with both video, audio, and the frame around it. I thought that snapz might be the answer, but the files it creates are seriously flawed and it won't recognize the audio.

 

[Diomedes]

That's kind of been the problem here. I could use three different programs to pull the individual parts and then put them all back together, but this project is too big and in the end, it's just not worth that kind of investment in time to do it. I'm really just looking for a single conversion program that would actually give me a quicktime with both video, audio, and the frame around it. I thought that snapz might be the answer, but the files it creates are seriously flawed and it won't recognize the audio.

Is my previous suggestion of usinf Flash 2004 and QuickTime not feasible?

Face it...you are going to have to use 2 applications. The bigger question is how you are authoring the Flash file? For example, as I said in my previous post, using Flash as an authoring application allows me to control and edit the movie, then I can export it into QuickTime. Or you can do the opposite: export the SWF file to QuickTime, then you can edit it in iMovie or Final Cut.

 

[ITASOR]

I think I remember trying to do this once, but I can't remember if I got it to work. Can you make a new flash doc (.fla), import the SWF, and then add like a title screen or another frame and save as .mov? Worth a try.

Also, I know I converted some .swf's to .avi's once on Windows XP using some freeware program. Maybe you can convert to avi and then to mov.