trouble with .flv files from flash to dreamweaver

[ferociousd]

Hi

I'm new here and I came specifically to ask a question concerning a subject that is frustrating me greatly.

I am working on a mac g5 tower. I'm using Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8. These versions came bundled together when Adobe first acquired Flash and Dreamweaver - part of a group for designers.

I have been trying to encode a .mov file in Flash professional, first using the stand alone encoder and then switching to trying it straight from Flash. The problem is that it doesn't place the .flv file into my dreamweaver root folder where the .mov file is properly. It places an .fla and a .swf but the .flv file is not legitimate because it does not have the flash icon - it just looks like a little blank page. When I double click on it to try and find out something about it, my computer tries to open it as a mac OS 9 file and of course I do not have that on my computer - I have 10.

I have never done any work with videos before and I am finding this very frustrating. Apparently other people have had similar difficulties, but the ones I have found are using the more recent Flash and Dreamweaver software.

Maybe it would be simpler to just use a QT movie but can someone tell me either what I need to just encode it as a Quicktime movie or how to get my DreamWeaver program to recognize the flv.

Frankly I have to admit I am veering more towards the QT since even though I keep hearing how great flash video is I have found an awful lot of flash movies that stall temporarily or totally almost right away. It seems that quicktime movies always work pretty well. What do you experts think?

The .mov's I have are not compressed so I am assuming that encoding is what does that and I need to encode it so I can use it on the web?

I need to get these videos into a site I have been building in DreamWeaver pronto!

The tutorial I have been using doesn't tell me about these difficulties with getting .flv's into dreamweaver from flash. Is it a problem with macs only? The instructor is on a pc and I follow his instruction religiously and yet it doesn't work!!!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!!

I'm totally new at this video stuff and would be most grateful for any assistance you can offer my friends!

 

[Poeben]

What exactly are you expecting DW to do? Where exactly is the flv file you created? I would bet that the problem is not with the flv itself. If I understand you correctly, you created the flv in Flash which also created an .fla and .swf. The swf should be an object/embed within an html file (make sure HTML is selected in Publish>settings.) The URL for the flv file can either be coded in the swf, or passed to your swf using the HTML page. Make sure your URLs/paths are correct and test in a browser.

You should have something like this:

player.html - use object/embed to embed your swf - you can set path to the video file here
player.swf - this handles the playback of the flv - the path to the video can be specified in this file too using the FLVPlaybackComponent
movie.flv - your actual movie file. if you want to prove the flv file is ok try this.

 

[ferociousd]

Don't really understand

I'm not sure I understand what you are talking about.

To answer your question I am expecting to find 3 files in my dreamweaver root folder where all my files are for the web site I am building including my .mov files. According to the tutorial I am using flash will place 3 files in the same file where the .mov file lives that I have imported into flash to encode. The tutorial shows tht after the encoding process is complete, I should find an .fla and a .swf as well as a .flv file in that folder. I get the .fla - the.swf and a strange file that instead of the icon that usually accompanies the .flv it is an icon that looks like a miniature blank page.

I am not wanting to put the video on a server, but rather to have the .flv in my root folder so that I can insert it onto my video page in dreamweaver.

For some reason or other either flash or dreamweaver don't bring in my .flv file as it should be.

If I have the .mov file in another folder - outside the root folder - say just on my desktop - I do get all 3 files correctly, but I want the .flv in my root folder where it belongs because that is the way Dreamweaver works. I need to have it in there.

I have tried inserting the strange looking .flv file onto my page, but it doesn't work at all - it puts a small white rectangle on there - I see this after opening the file in Firefox or Safari.

I have followed the instructions precisely - step by step several times from different tutorials and it always does the same thing.

Thanks for your help....