Over in Tech Support we get a lot of questions about making Flash videos with Squeeze. Flash has many flavors and options and can be a bit overwhelming at first. This short training video goes over some basic concepts about Flash and the steps to create Flash videos in Squeeze.

High quality video on the Internet today overwhelmingly uses the Adobe Flash format. From YouTube to Hulu, Flash video is everywhere on the web. Adobe claims Flash content reaches 99% of desktop internet users. The Flash format uses two types of files to deliver video; a player file and a video file. The video file, a FLV or MP4 / F4V, is played back by the player file, a SWF file, with the Flash Player plug-in.

The SWF file is the standard Flash file format which is embedded on your web page. It includes the player frame and any controls.

Your Flash video file could be one of a few different codecs and formats, all of which are included within Sorenson Squeeze:
Sorenson Spark codec which uses the FLV (flash video) format. This is the first flash video codec used in Flash 6 and above. This is what most YouTube videos are encoded with and is also a great codec for mobile devices.
On2 VP6 codec, which also uses the FVL format, is used in Flash 8 and above. This is a more advanced video codec that’s included as part of Squeeze Pro or the purchase of the On2 plug-in, available at sorensonmedia.com
H.264 codec uses the MP4 (or F4V) format and is used in Flash 9 and above. It is also known as MPEG4 AVC. This is the most popular flash codec right now and will give you the best video quality for the file size.

So the two components to a Flash video you need on your website are the SWF file and the associated FLV or MP4/F4V video file.

If you have any further questions about making Flash video files in Squeeze, please submit a Support Ticket or visit our forum.

Jeff Udall
Squeeze Technical Support
Sorenson Media