Video quality is poor when installed in website

[Holly]

Hello, I am new to the Xara Web Designer 6 Program. I used FrontPage for years until it crashed a month ago. I am working on replacing and upgrading a very big site.

I use many videos and to have them work on this program I am converting them from wmv files to flv files. A wmv file of about 10mb was great quality on my old site. converting the file to flv I have compromised to a 10 mb file going to 13 mb this shows the same quality with the adobe player on my computer. when i install this into my website the quality deteriorates so that movement is jerky. To get smooth playback I have to have a video of 68 mb this for a 4 minute video....and takes to long to download on the website.

does anyone have a solution to this? I am using a placeholder and going into webproperties to insert the swf file for the player and then using file - import to import the file into the player. I do get a weird error message that says the file format isn't recognized and it may not play correctly. then it also installs the small video player that is standard for this program. I delete the small player and the flv file is then in the player that I imported. Hope this makes sense. I'm really not techie and need easy directions and no code.... LOL.

thanks so much for any help
Holly

[gwpriester]

Hello Holly and Welcome to Talkgraphics

I do not know the answer to your question (I'm no techie either) but check back. I am sure one of our members will have a good suggestion.

[Soquili]

Hi Holly,

Does the program you are using to convert from wmv to flv offer conversion to swf?

The flash player works better with swf.

[Holly]

Thank you for the welcome Gary.

Soquili - I looked and one of my programs does have the option to do a swf file. I will try that and let you know!

thanks so much!!!
Holly

[pauland]

The flash player works better with swf.

Flv is the flash standard for video, and often swfs will load flv files!

Flv is not a problem.

There's a problem with the encoding somewhere - a setting on the encoding program is bloating the file.

[Holly]

The program I have made a very poor quality swf file and when I tried to increase the quality it would not convert....

What program has the encoding problem? How do i fix that? Use a dfferent program? if so what?

the program I use for converting gives me 3 files when I convert to H264MPEG4 a swf player file a html file and a flv file that is the actual movie. I do have 4 other options with the FLV converter. They are Sorenson, ZIP/Screen, Flash*, Flash8+Alpha. I guess I can experiment with the different types? It just takes so much time that I don't have. I think I should be able to buy a program and have it work...but in computers that never seems to be the case....
To put the file in the Xara program. I have been creating a place holder and adding the swf file in the web properties box. then I go back and import the flv file. For some reason when I do that it also creates the standard movie player that is in the Xara program. how do I get the file to only open in the player i have imported and not ad the Xara player. I have been deleting the Xara player but perhaps that is compromising the quality? Hope this makes sense it is confusing to explain properly.

again thank you so much for taking time to help me with your replies!!!
Holly

[pauland]

You should decrease the quality to get a smaller file, increasing the quality makes it bigger and takes longer to process.

The larger the screensize, the longer processing takes and the larger the file.

The swf file your software creates is probably a flash player that loads in the flv file. There may also be an option for embedding the video in a swf file directly. If you are using a flash player, you need to place the flv file in the same place as the web page so that the swf can find it.

It's all a bit difficullt trying to guess what software you are using and exactly what you are doing - particularly when you say "I go back and import the flv file.".

Why not use Xaras video player?

The player has nothing to do with the quality of the video - only the flv.

[Holly]

Hi thanks for the info. I have found that the Xara web program has problems with the H264MPEG4 format when i changed the conversion to the Flash8 format I have better quality and a smaller file.

I wanted the custom video player as it has more options that the Xara player. I have been able to install the custom player using the Flash8 format.

So that problem is solved and now I have another weird happening. I guess I need to start a new thread for that.

Thanks again for all the help!!!! :>) Holly