What's the best way to allow users to upload video and convert to FLV format?

[OM2]

I have a client who want to allow users to upload video to his website.

I know Flash really well. And can create Flash video with no problems.

BUT... in this case... the problem is allowing people to upload video.
Most people won't have a clue how to create Flash video.

Whatever happens... I want all my videos to be Flash video.

I can't think of how I can allow people to upload different types of video and have this automatically converted to Flash?

When I get rich, I will buy Flash Comms server and donate this to my client (who is a charity).
This will probably solve my problems.

I've seen somewhere where someone has video on their website... which is hosted on Google.
This sounds like a good solution for me.
Has anyone used this?

Can anyone suggest anything else?

Thanks.


OM

[CyanBlue]

Howdy...

You don't have to be rich... You can use Red5 to do pretty much the same thing FMS is doing...
http://osflash.org/red5

You can use FFMPEG to convert the user uploaded video to FLV file by using the FFMPEG...
http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/

Check them out... ;)

[Flash Gordon]

Hey CyanBlue,

Do you know of anymore video converters besides FFmpeg? I landed a great gig and the client has some resources to spend if needed. He wants the best (or something close to that) for converting videos to FLV. It seems like you've done a lot of this, so I was hoping I got get a little more input from you. Yea, I know there is a lot of stuff about this already but most of it seems to be cleaverly placed spam-ads by geovid employees. I don't trust anything about video unless it is by a real member.

By the way, we are using CS3 for this, so I'm not sure how that affects things.
Thanks a bunch
:)

[CyanBlue]

Well... It's been more than a year, so my memory won't probably remember much... But I did not find anything other than the FFMPEG when I was looking for the solution at the time... I do not know if there is any alternative out there or not though...

Well... Are you looking for a way to convert the video on the fly??? FFMPEG is the way to go if that is the case... I find the quality okay but not great... But I see nobody really complaining alot about the YouTube video qualities, so I guess that means that it is acceptable then...

If you are looking for a way to convert many video files to FLV, I've used Sorenson Squeeze... We had daily update from the production team, and the Squeeze has an ability to watch for a directory and convert the video if there is an update in that directory, and created a batch file to move it to the server and so on...

Since this has nothing to do with the Flash IDE, I don't think it really matters what version of Flash you are using... But it does tell me that you are rich... :p

Tell me more details and I'll see if I can help you with... ;)

[Flash Gordon]

Well not rich, just work for nice clients ;) The project is huge. I'll make sure I post it in 6 months when we get done.

I'll need to allow users to upload video files of various formats to the server, formats like .mov, .avi, etc. I'll need to convert the files on the server once they are uploaded with pretty good quality.

My initial thoughts are to start with FFmpeg since it is free and then have the client upgrade if deemed necessary to on2 (http://www.on2.com/) since I would like to have 2 pass encoding and that codec since it is supposed to be better video quality that the Sorenson one.

That's about all I know about it....I guess I need that 2 year old documentation. (that quote was too funny)

[CyanBlue]

Well... I guess you'd need to use FFMPEG or Mencoder to create the FLV files on the fly... On2 has an API that they sell at several K plus revenue sharing model, so you might want to have your client check on that if they really want that route... (That model could have changed already... I am only speaking with my past knowledge on that...)

Did a quick google with 'youtube clone' and this came up and I don't think anybody can beat their price...
http://www.vshare.in/

[Flash Gordon]

Doesn't seem like a whole lot to choose from. Might be a good market for someone.....

Thanks for the heads up with on2. I'll do my homework with that. I didn't see anything that suggested profit sharing, but I didn't read the fine lines. It looks like the converter is $3,000 which i don't think will be a problem if it delivers a superior quality.

Whatever I do figure out, I'll post back my experiences.

[CyanBlue]

One of the VP called them and found that out... Have your client call them and see what they hear...

[Flash Gordon]

They want $4k a year to use the product in addition to buying it for $3k. Seems quite pointless with HD FLV around the corner which on2 isn't supporting.

[CyanBlue]

I guess they are just anxious to sell the product... lol