ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

Chapter 16. Video

Introduction

The Flash Player is capable of playing back video. Although it’s possible to embed video content within an .swf file, most Flash video content is stored in Flash video files (.flv files) and loaded into the Flash Player at runtime using ActionScript. By loading .flv files at runtime, you have smaller .swf files, more flexible content management, and greater control over the loading and playback of the video content.

Flash video loaded from .flv files has two faces: progressive download and streaming. Streaming .flv video requires a streaming server, such as Flash Media Server. In contrast, progressive download doesn’t require any additional software. However, for the most part, the ActionScript required to work with streaming and progressive download video is identical. The recipes in this chapter discuss how to work with progressive download video and focus exclusively on working with .flv files.

Loading and Playing Back Video

Problem

You want to load and playback progressive download Flash video.

Solution

Use a NetStream object to load and playback the video and use a Video object to display the video.

Discussion

ActionScript 3.0 requires several classes working together to load and playback Flash video. You must use a NetStream object to load the video and control the playback; however, the NetStream class is only concerned with moving data, it doesn’t know how to render the data as a video. For that you have to use a Video object. The Video object allows ...