Flash Video clips -

[Bob Goodwin]

I tried sending a saved YouTube video clip as an e-mail
            attachment this morning. So far two Windows users were
            unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
            able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.

What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
            least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.

Bob

[Reindl Harald]

Am 22.07.2011 14:34, schrieb Bob Goodwin:
>         I tried sending a saved YouTube video clip as an e-mail
>         attachment this morning. So far two Windows users were
>         unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
>         able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.
>
>         What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
>         least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.

no way to use any format all machines can play
linux with nonfree-repos (VLC, ffmpeg) seems to be the only
system which can play nearly all video-formats

H264/MP4 should be a godd choice in 2011, but WinXP is too
dumb to play it out of theb ox without quicktime installed

apple perfers H264 but FLV only with VLC

[Bob Goodwin]

On 22/07/11 08:39, Reindl Harald wrote:
> Am 22.07.2011 14:34, schrieb Bob Goodwin:
> >          I tried sending a saved YouTube video clip as an e-mail
> >          attachment this morning. So far two Windows users were
> >          unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
> >          able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.
> >
> >          What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
> >          least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.
>
> no way to use any format all machines can play
> linux with nonfree-repos (VLC, ffmpeg) seems to be the only
> system which can play nearly all video-formats
>
> H264/MP4 should be a godd choice in 2011, but WinXP is too
> dumb to play it out of theb ox without quicktime installed
>
> apple perfers H264 but FLV only with VLC

I sent them a URL for VLC/Windows. One guy installed it and was
        quite pleased with the result, the video played. I'm not
        familiar with Windows but these are people for whom a computer
        is just another appliance so it must have worked automatically
        once installed?

[Fernando Cassia]

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 09:34, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> So far two Windows users were
>            unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
>            able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.
>        What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
>        least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.

Flv (FLash Video) was meant to be played with a Flash based player, inside a
browser. So it´s not a common codec to be played stand-alone.

Windows Media Video is a propietary Microsoft format, and thus not used
widely on the web.

Your best bet would be WebM, Google´s latest patent-free codec.

But your users would need to download and install the WebM codec to see it
in Media Player.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/WebM-Codec-Plugin-for-IE9-and-Windows-Now-Off...

In the end, it´s all solved if you tell windows users to just download and
install VLC Media Player (VideoLan).

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

It features internal codecs, and doesn´t need you to download and install
codecs on windows, almost every format on earth is supported internally.

With that, you´ll be able to e-mail webM, flv, Xvid (avi), Divx (Avi) and
users will be able to see all.

OR, you could convert videos before sending them using an open source
application like www.winff.org

FC

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Fri, 2011-07-22 at 09:49 -0300, Fernando Cassia wrote:
> OR, you could convert videos before sending them using an open source
> application like www.winff.org

Or ffmpeg, which the above is simply a wrapper around.

See also transcode, mencoder etc.

poc

[Andras Simon]

2011/7/22, Fernando Cassia :
> Flv (FLash Video) was meant to be played with a Flash based player, inside a
> browser. So it´s not a common codec to be played stand-alone.

True, but mplayer has no problem playing it.

Andras

[Ed Greshko]

On 07/22/2011 08:34 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
>         I tried sending a saved YouTube video clip as an e-mail
>         attachment this morning. So far two Windows users were
>         unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
>         able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.
>
>         What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
>         least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.

Usually I don't bother to send folks a saved video...I just send them
the link and let them watch it directly....

But, for saving youtube videos (I use Chrome) I have the "Download
YouTube Videos as MP4/FLV" extension and pick MP4 which seems to be a
very easy one for Windows to deal with.

[Ed Greshko]

On 07/22/2011 08:53 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 07/22/2011 08:34 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> >         I tried sending a saved YouTube video clip as an e-mail
> >         attachment this morning. So far two Windows users were
> >         unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
> >         able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.
> >
> >         What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
> >         least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.
>
> Usually I don't bother to send folks a saved video...I just send them
> the link and let them watch it directly....
>
> But, for saving youtube videos (I use Chrome) I have the "Download
> YouTube Videos as MP4/FLV" extension and pick MP4 which seems to be a
> very easy one for Windows to deal with.

Meant to add.....  Firefox has the same addon.

[Bob Goodwin]

On 22/07/11 08:54, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 07/22/2011 08:53 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> > On 07/22/2011 08:34 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> > >          I tried sending a saved YouTube video clip as an e-mail
> > >          attachment this morning. So far two Windows users were
> > >          unable to run an ".flv" file. I figured most people would be
> > >          able to deal with that except Apple Mac perhaps.
> > >
> > >          What format do most require, Youtube offers several, or at
> > >          least the Firefox add-on does? I didn't see a ".wmv" listed.
> >
> > Usually I don't bother to send folks a saved video...I just send them
> > the link and let them watch it directly....
> >
> > But, for saving youtube videos (I use Chrome) I have the "Download
> > YouTube Videos as MP4/FLV" extension and pick MP4 which seems to be a
> > very easy one for Windows to deal with.
>
> Meant to add.....  Firefox has the same addon.

I found an add-on DownloadHelper which seems to work and
        normally I would simply send the link, actually I don't normally
        bother with streaming video, but this morning tried it to see
        that the saved file was usable ...

Mpeg4 was an option, probably should have tried that.

Thanks,

Bob