Hands-On Guide to Flash Video: Web Video and Flash Media Server

This book is different from many others in it's class because that it starts at the beginning of the process...including the video shoot. From lighting techniques, to what not to wear, to Flash Media Server, this book has it all. Simply indispensable if you are a Web Developer producing online video. The chapters on compression and bandwidth are excellent. If I could only have one Flash Video book, this would be be the one.

I went to school for video so a majority of the book was review. There were aspects I found useful. There are some differences in video production for the web. This book clearly identified them. Very useful tool to have beside the computer.

Do you ever published video online using Flash? Do you ever used Flash Media Server and don't know where to begin? Do you know how to make your videos look gorgeus online? The response to all this questions (and much more) are beautifully explained in this book. It covers from capturing video, creating a 3 point light studio for maximizing the quality and size of the compressed file, to the deployment of your solution using Flash Media Server. It's full of real world examples that you can use right out of the box. Really really good book for starters. And if you want more, look for others titles of Focal Press.

This is an excellently mastered book. The writing style is clear. The step by step examples are appropriately illustrated. There is source video and a plentiful supply of links for needs. The illustrations are appropriate and carefully selected for the key points. If you are a FMS (Flash Media Server) administrator or programmer, you will find answers to those user inquiries why their video looks poorly. You will have intelligent responses and tools to analyze the problems likely caused by the capture and prepartion of the video. For videographers, this is your bible on how to capture video for Flash. For video editors, this is your bible on how to prepare and compress the files. For newbies to Flash video, you have the soup to nuts book that breaks it down into nice chunks with examples. Very impressive part of the text is that many assertions are supported with research from many major video publishing entities. Finally there is a thread throughout the book that provides the market and industry information to help you assess your choice of Flash video as a web video platform. You will learn the specific steps in major digital video software packages such as Adobe Premier and Final Cut to fix issues. You can learn how to set-up a recording set with the correct lighting that will be best for Flash video format. You can learn to install the Flash Media Server (free) and use it and not be a programmer, but willing to download example files needed. Or if you are interested in programming FMS, this gets you started.

The Hands-On Guide to Flash Video if full of good information for anyone interested in streaming video on the Web. For those interested in using streaming video for anything from professional level videos to those who just want to get something on YouTube, this book is a gem. Ranging from those who know absolutely nothing about Web video to those, like myself who need to learn more about taking videos and some of the technical characteristics of digital video, such as interlacing, you'll find this book invaluable. The 19 chapters are written in a friendly and accessible style covering 1) Creating video, 2) Preparing video for the Web, and 3) working with Flash, including a clear introduction to Flash Media Server. Having worked with Flash Media Server (FMS) since it's inception, I have found that one of the best tricks for saving on bandwidth is good lighting and good sound, both of which are covered in this book. Likewise, for those new to streaming video, you will find how to set up a progressive download that you can set up on your hosting server without having to use FMS if you choose. Among the many other topics I found revealing are the following: 1. Chroma keying - removing parts of a background so that any background can be inserted. Best known for weather reports on TV. 2. Cue points - adding triggers in the video that can be used as events. Cue points are very useful for adding information, 3. Interlacing and Deinterlacing in video files 4. Decision-making in setting video parameters 5. Optimizing light and sound for streaming video An area that is in need of serious help is provided by the introduction to Flash Media Server. This will help in developing FMS2 applications for those who are new to open socket server technology. So for newbies to FMS, this will come as a welcome addition. One of the interesting (and I think correct) decisions the authors made was to use the Flash CS3 platform with ActionScript 2.0 instead of ActionScript 3.0. Here's why. It will be at least a year or so before a significant number of users will have the Flash 9 plug-in for their browsers. Yesterday I bought a new iMac, and the Safari browser that comes with the Flash plug-in is still using Flash 8. (I found that out when I tried to play one of my apps built with AS 3.0.) What's important is that On2's VP6 technology started in Flash 8. So, no one is missing a significant video element using ActionScript 2.0 as would be the case with Flash 7 or earlier. [...]