[F8 AS2] tips to optomize FLV playback?

programming flash
1

hey all… hope everybody is having a good holiday season…

I recently had a project which entailed creating a motion piece in After Effects and playing through flash for a holiday themed ecard. Normally we do the animation in Flash, but this time I really wanted to try something different. We were under a very tight deadline and this project has already been approved by the client, but we really didn’t have much time for proper playback testing. I’d really like to know how this project works on different setups. If anybody could take a look and relay your experience, I would greatly appreciate it. And then I’m looking for any suggestions or tips on how to improve playback (loading time, quality, etc…).

I know this FLV is rather large, but that is what the client wanted. The load time may be a little long as well because my boss is a quality freak and would not accept anything less than 800k for the bitrate, which made the buffer time increase otherwise the video would choke pretty bad.

the ecard is only a minute long, so if you could take a look and let me know how it works for you, that would be awesome.

it might help to copy/paste the following:

Platform/OS:
Browser:
Load time:
Playback:

Ecard is located here:
http://www.hififusion.com/ecard/ryman/2006/

Also, this is the code i used. Please let me know if you notice any way that i could improve it.


stop();
var videoPath:String = "http://www.hififusion.com/ecard/ryman/2006/video.flv"
_root.buffer._visible = true;
_root.buffer.playAgainBtn._visible = false;
_root.buffer.bufferText.TF.text = "It's getting ready to snow...";
// Create a NetConnection object
var my_nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();

// Create a local streaming connection
my_nc.connect(null);



// Create a NetStream object and define an onStatus() function
var my_ns:NetStream = new NetStream(my_nc);
my_ns.onStatus = function(infoObject:Object):Void {
    
    trace(infoObject.code);
    
    if(infoObject.code == "NetStream.Buffer.Full") {
        _root.buffer.stop();
        _root.buffer._visible = false;
    }
    
    if(infoObject.code == "NetStream.Buffer.Empty") {
        _root.buffer.play();
        _root.buffer._visible = true;
    }
    
    if(infoObject.code == "NetStream.Play.Stop") {
        _root.buffer.gotoAndStop(1);
        _root.buffer.bufferText.TF.text = "Play Again?"
        _root.buffer._visible = true;
        _root.buffer.playAgainBtn._visible = true;
        
    }
};

// Attach the NetStream video feed to the Video object
my_video.attachVideo(my_ns);

// Set the buffer time
my_ns.setBufferTime(30);

// Begin playing the FLV file
my_ns.play(videoPath);


_root.buffer.playAgainBtn.onRelease = function(){
            my_ns.seek(0);
            my_ns.play(videoPath);
            _root.buffer.bufferText.TF.text = "It's getting ready to snow...";
        }

Happy New Year to all, and thanks for any comments or suggestions…