Streaming Media - August/September 2007 - (Page 54)

a crash course in flash video just a few simple lines of code. Let’s give it a try. Step One: Open a new document (either AS2 or AS3) in Flash. Step Two: In the drop-down menu of the Library panel, choose New Video (ActionScript controlled). The Video object will then appear in your document’s Library. Step Three: Then drag that Video object from the Library onto the stage. You can change its size to match the dimensions of the video you’d like to play, if you like. Step Four: In the Properties panel, give it an instance name of “myVid.” Step Five: Now, let’s add the ActionScript. Create a new empty layer on your timeline and call it Actions. Click on the first frame, then open the Actions panel (see Figure 7). The code you’ll enter there varies slightly from AS2 to AS3. If you’ve Note that there are a few syntax differences and a few extra lines of code in the AS3 version. In AS3, you need to include a function that handles metadata when it is received on the stream to avoid Flash complaining and throwing an error. You don’t need to do anything when the metadata is received, but you need to handle the event. (Really, you don’t need to worry too much about this, just be sure the function is in there and it’s all good.) Step Six: Finally, publish your SWF. You should see your FLV playing in the Video box, just as you told it to in the ActionScript code (Figure 8). The examples above all demonstrate progressive delivery. The only change you’ll need to make if you’re streaming is to change the NetConnection connection string. Instead of passing in “null,” you’ll pass in the URL of your streaming server, like this: nc.connect(“rtmp://yourFMSserver.com/AppName/AppInstance/”); Figure 7 (far left). Writing ActionScript to play video in a generic Video object. Figure 8 (near left). An FLV playing in a generic Video object. created an AS2 file, you need to add the following five lines of code (just be sure to change the source file name to point to your own FLV): var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection(); nc.connect(null); var ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc); myVideo.attachVideo(ns); ns.play(“yourVideo.flv”); If you created an AS3 file, you’ll need to enter the following code into the Actions panel: var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection(); nc.connect(null); var ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc); myVid.attachNetStream(ns); ns.play(“yourVideo.flv”); ns.client = this; function onMetaData(infoObject:Object):void { // catch onMetaData event to avoid throwing an error } 54 STREAMING MEDIA August/September 2007 If you want to understand just what this ActionScript code is doing, refer to the “FLV101” (p. 55) sidebar for a bit more insight. What Else Can I Do with Video in Flash? Anything you can do to a movieclip object you can do to video. You can animate, mask, crop, map to a shape, or even apply filters to it. You could add a drop shadow, blur, skew, transform the colors, and more. This can all be done in real time, so all of these effects can be interactive. FRESH AIR With the introduction of Adobe’s AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) application environment, Adobe is making Flash Video available offline as well. This tool, which will see its beta release later this year, gives developers the tools they need to easily create desktop applications that can store files on the user’s computer as well as access the web. AIR will give developers even more tools to work with video. Adobe Media Player—an early application written by Adobe in AIR—

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - August/September 2007

Table of Contents Sweet Sixteen Letters to the Editor Technology and Business Trends IBM Takes Webcasting to the Desktop ROI in the EDU Bank Serves Espresso, Enterprise Video Online Video Advertising: Hit or Miss MLB’s Foul Bawl A Crash Course in Flash Video Newspapers in Multimedia Metamorphosis Webcasting Large Entertainment Events: Seeing Through the Hype Webcasting With Windows Media Can’t Start A Fire . . . A WiMAX Primer Mobile Video at Last Telestream Episode Pro Grass Valley ProCoder 3 Silverlight Is No Flash Killer

Streaming Media - August/September 2007

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