Why can't we watch mp4 videos embedded with flash on iPhone?

[scootaru]

I know the iPhone does not support Flash, but if an mp4 file, which iPhone supports, is embedded with Flash, why can't QT somehow recognize this, ignore the flash, and play the file? I don't know much about html or Flash, so I'm kind of throwing a dart in the dark. I would just like to be able to convert Flash to QT if the embedded file is mp4.

I already know about LiveBuster and iTransmogrify!. The problem is they don't support every site.

Is there anything already out there that can do what I'm asking? Also, will a javascript bookmarklet handle the conversion?

 

[goosnarrggh]

I know the iPhone does not support Flash, but if an mp4 file, which iPhone supports, is embedded with Flash, why can't QT somehow recognize this, ignore the flash, and play the file? I don't know much about html or Flash, so I'm kind of throwing a dart in the dark. I would just like to be able to convert Flash to QT if the embedded file is mp4.

I already know about LiveBuster and iTransmogrify!. The problem is they don't support every site.

Is there anything already out there that can do what I'm asking? Also, will a javascript bookmarklet handle the conversion?

Strictly speaking, MP4 is not a particular video codec. It is a container file, using special encoding to break up one or more media streams into "chunks" and store them for convenient replay and/or editing.

One of the video codecs which might be contained within an MP4 container file, is H.264. The iPhone has the ability to decode H.264 video when it is contained within an MP4 file.

Flash files are, for the purposes of this discussion, another form of container file, in which several different types of media can be broken up into chunks and stored. One such supported type of media is an H.264 video.

In order for the iPhone to play a Flash file containing H.264 video, it would first have to know how to piece back together those "chunks" of video inside the Flash file format. Apple has not provided any software for the iPhone that would do such a job.