Posted by Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media] on 02/25/06 21:04

On 24 Feb 2006 18:21:52 -0800, ewinter@tli2.com wrote:

>That's great info. What about Flash? I see swf files on things like
>http://thetotaltransformation.com/Testimonials.php . Are those videos
>"Streaming"?

It depends what you mean. Anything coming off a web server is a
progressive download - a long term file download if you like.

Flash has somewhat better handling facilties for managing that
download (throttling) compared to a browser.

Random access into the file will still require some sort of
programming to make it happen, it's usually accomplished by splitting
the video into smaller clips and having flash player request the
sub-clip.

If you're interested in Flash video in general, there are several
items on the Macromedia (now Adobe) and Community MX sites to look at

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flash/articles/video_player.html
http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=BD063
http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=7574E

If you want proper streaming video using flash, you'll probably end up
stumping up for the flash streaming server, which other than real
server, is probably the most expensive solution available.

HTH
Cheers - Neil

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