Month: July 2006

Categories
Flash

FabLabs

At Fabrique [the company I work for] I’m working on a project called FabLabs.
Fab[rique]Lab[oratorie]s is create to build stuff which is technically chalanging, could have commercial use but (for now) are no paying clients for.

My project is a webcam navigation using the Flash plugin. When this project is finish we will be able to navigate without a mouse or keyboard using only a webcam and the Flash plugin.
We are also looking at Red 5 so we can also use the webcam for recording video. It’s a very exciting project which I started in my spare time and I’m very glad that I get the opportunity to finish this project for Fabrique.

It’s still very much “work in progress” but I’ve made a FLV file where u can see me…. and the methode of activation.

I started with a proof of concept, and I think its from protozoo but to be honest I’m not 100 percent sure.

Categories
Open source / Freeware

How to capture your screen in a movie

I use AviScreen to capture screen activity. I’ve used it to make tutorials, record google sketchup, webcam, etc.

Update #1 I have an example in this post.

With Aviscreen classic you can capture fullscreen, predefined sizes, an object or resize the capture area in any rectangle you want.
You can decide which video compression to use, framerate and a delay before capturing.
When it starts to record the program will “hide” in the taskbar so it will not show in your capture.

Did I mention it’s freeware…

Categories
Flash video player

How can I make FLV with freeware / opensource software

I have written about the creation of FLV (Flash Video) with freeware/open-source software before. But I’ve made the mistake to talk about to many different aspects of the FLV: the encoder, the offline flv-player and the web flv-player.

This will be corrected in this post, so after reading this you will know:

  1. Which programs you can use to encode FLV but don’t have to pay for.
  2. Which program I would use.
  3. And why I would use this program

I know of these freeware/open-source projects you can use to encode FLV:

  1. Riva FLV Encoder
  2. Digitalgroover FLV Encoder
  3. Super
  4. Mediacoder

I’ve been testing them on a couple points.

And the winner is: Riva FLV Encoder!
But it was a close race with number 2: Digitalgroover FLV Encoder
Both of these programs are very easy to use: they can do only one thing: create FLV, which makes them very powerful and useful.
Riva FLV Encoder wins because it can save presets (settings), has some documentation and runs immediately on my home computer. Digitalgroover FLV Encoder could win with the next round (version) if: it runs on my home computer (it works fine on my computer at work…) and save/load presets (settings) in XML.

The other programs can be used to encode more than one at a time (batch) but both don’t write FLV1.1 (no MetaData) so you will need to update this with Buraks FLVMDI (FLV MetaData Injector) which also has the capability to batch.
The combination of complex interface, possibility to encode more than only FLV and no MetaData, makes Super and Mediacoder more programs for professionals.

Categories
Flash video player

Why do I need MetaData?

So the first question that I have to answer is:
What is MetaData?
MetaData is information stored in the video file itself (FLV-file) and is not immediately visible.
Typical information stored in the video is the video’s duration, creation date, data rates, but this depends of the encoder.

Second question would be:
Why do I need MetaData?
Well you don’t need MetaData for anything. The FLV-players need it. The MetaData is usually used to create the position of the playhead. Which makes it easier for the viewer of the video to determine how long the video will be, or skip to a specific place in the video. But can also be used to search through video with a specific creationdate, framerate, filesize, width or height. So with MetaData you will make it easier to view your video!

Some other questions:
Do I need to worry about MetaData?
No, if you use a encoder which creates FLV 1.1, it will also create MetaData.

How do I know if my video has MetaData?
If you play your video and the playhead doesn’t move, your movie probably doesn’t have any MetaData.

How can I make/repair MetaData?
To put MetaData into a FLV file you can use Buraks FLVMDI (FLV MetaData Injector)
FLVMDI is free to use, but you can’t distribute it. It looks very intimidating; [it’s a command line application] but there’s also a GUI which makes our lives much easier.
And the Digitalgroover flvplayer has a repair button to fix your FLV. It will not show the seekbar if there isn’t any MetaData.

Will repairing MetaData change the quality of the video
No, it will change in filesize (about 2kB on a file which was 2.014kB) but won’t change any video or audio quality.
Yes, it will change the viewing quality because you can see the playhead-position and the ability to search/skip parts.

Categories
Misc

Logo design [mck]

I’m still busy creating a new look for this blog.
But I’ve finished my logo (well at least the shape of it)
[mck] logo version 2
And if you compare it with my previous post you will see that there isn’t al lot of change in the design.
As I said before: I wasn’t satisfied with the “m”. And all it took to change that was a little triangle…