h264, swf, flv and mov | JW Player

h264, swf, flv and mov

JW Player — Apr 04, 2014 09:09AM EDT

I'm a bit new to ...I'm a bit new to Flash video. I'm trying to ensure that people who do not have Quicktime can see the videos on my site. I am on a mac so it is difficult for me to test these things.

Currently, I am encoding to a Quicktime .mov using h264, uploading to the server and then simply using the JW Player with the code substituted with .mov, eg:

flashvars="height=240&width=320&file=test.mov"

This plays back fine on my mac, but I was expecting to have to encode a .flv with h264 which I think requires Flash Media Encoder 2 (that is Windows only). I'm wondering if since my file is a .mov, flash is simply using the quicktime engine to play it. And if that is so, it will (presumably) not play on a Windows PC without Quicktime installed.

If someone could check for me, that might be a start.

http://www.stevekirby.co.uk/test.html

Thanks.

The JW Media Player is a great piece of free software, by the way.

15 Community Answers

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Both videos work fine on Windows XP in IE6 and Opera9.

Be sure that you specify a minimum version of the Flash Player of 9,0,115,0 because h264 wasn't fully suppported (buggy) in earlier versions. This will force many users to upgrade their Flash Player from Adobe. The other option is to provide an FLV fallback using the 'fallback' flashvar. Details here: [url=http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Supported_Flashvars]*SUPPORTED FLASHVARS*[/url]

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

And you don't have quicktime on that machine? Thats great...

Now I just need to figure out how to enable image smoothing with the h264/JW Player...

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

No Quicktime.

There are two flashvars for improving video quality.

*deblocking* (true, false)
*smoothing* (true, false) or (1-5)

I've seen several posts on the smoothing flashvar. I'm not sure if it's (true, false) or (1-5) or both.

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Well, thats good news.

Although in my tests, setting deblocking and/or smoothing seems to make no difference at all. I've screen grabbed a paused frame and zoomed in to see it at the pixel level and that confirms what my native eye suspected. Compare a frame from the same .mov played in quicktime vs played via swf/jw and the swf looks a bit non-antialiased. Perhaps a limitation of the player at this time...

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JeroenW

JW Player Support Agent

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

The smoothing is already set to high quality by default. I indeed suspect that QuickTime has better built-in algorhytms for this. Video playback is the core of Quicktime, while only with the latest releases Flash focussed on it.

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

I am trying to convert .mov to flv and getting the following error on Windows XP:

C:\ffmpeg>ffmpeg -i all.mov output.flv
FFmpeg version SVN-r11870, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --
enable-liba52 --enable-avisynth --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgs
m --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --en
able-libx264 --enable-libxvid --cpu=i686 --enable-memalign-hack --extra-ldflags=
-static
libavutil version: 49.6.0
libavcodec version: 51.50.0
libavformat version: 52.7.0
libavdevice version: 52.0.0
built on Feb 5 2008 23:46:38, gcc: 4.2.3
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'all.mov':
Duration: 00:01:14.3, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 92 kb/s
Stream #0.0(???): Audio: Qclp / 0x706C6351, 22254 Hz, mono
Stream #0.1(eng): Video: h263, yuv420p, 352x288 [PAR 12:11 DAR 4:3], 29.97 t
b(r)
Output #0, flv, to 'output.flv':
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: flv, yuv420p, 352x288 [PAR 12:11 DAR 4:3], q=2-31,
200 kb/s, 29.97 tb(c)
Stream #0.1(???): Audio: libmp3lame, 22254 Hz, mono, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
Stream #0.0 -> #0.1
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters su
ch as bit_rate, rate, width or height

Any idea how to fix this? I have tried various parameters to set bit_rate, rate, width & height, - still no sucess. Many thanks in advance for spending your valuable time! BTW: Great player!!!

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Hi Deb,
Try to convert using following command line:
ffmpeg -i all.mov -ar 22050 output.flv

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Many thanks... and sorry for the late reply. I am sucessfull in converting .mov file on Windows but not on Linux Red Hat. Although, I had installed the codecs such as lame etc., and then installed ffmpeg, on linux, it is still giving error... Could you please give me any pointer?

Many thanks :)

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

why do u need to convert if the player plays mov??

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

i'm totally new to flash. i have flash 8 professional. i am a video editor and my client wants to put a put a swf video on their site, with play and stop buttons attached. i have learned how to import into flash 8 make the setttings and pump it out. my understanding is i have then 3 files and flv, swf, and a file with the play, stop settings. my question is can i make one flash file that has all the elements and can play stand alone on any computer?

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Step by guide to convert flv files to mov on Macs
http://www.macyoutubeconverter.com/mac-flv-to-mov.html

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

I'm working with JW player 4.4.198 and I need to convert a huge mpeg file around 100 Mb into flv file. To achieve this I use ffmpeg program in php. But I could not convert that file into flv. This happened because of that input file size. The stuff goes well if the file is smaller. Is that related to input file size in php.ini file?

Can anyone help me to convert this mpeg file into flv.

Thanks

Web-Farmer
http://letsnurture.com

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

in the middle of the topic people seem to have gotten it mixed up. the OP is trying to convert FROM MOV to FLV. people seem to have switched midstream trying to discuss FLV to MOV

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Hi you can convert flv to mov using Macvide FlashVideo Converter.I like this simple program.

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JW Player

User

Apr 04, 2014 11:40AM EDT 0 rated :

Hi you can convert flv to mov using Macvide FlashVideo Converter.I like this simple program.

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