Choppy FLV playback

[mrluke]

We are working on a CD-Rom with multiple FLVs. It has been fine on the systems we are working on, however when I left the files on a disk with the client I was later told the playback is choppy as all hell.

We have since tested them on a shitbox 266 and even at 150kbits per sec the playback of both the video and audio is jerky and lagging.

We have created the vids in AfterEffects and export with flv exporter. We have also tried exporting an avi through QTPro with the exporter and are having no luck.

What do we need to do to have smooth playback on shitbox computers?

Are there optimal settings for the FLV exporter to get a good result?

[Mortimer Jazz]

There shouldn't be anything wrong with using QTPro to export using default settings for CDRom playback (I've had a few problems with the built in Sorensen converter though, which is why I got QTP.)
Have you tried reading the files directly from the HD of the shitbox instead of from the CDRom? If so how do they play back? They shouldn't be choppy from the HD.

Trouble is, if it can't read the data quick enough due to poor CDROM read speed and/or limited processing power combined with limited RAM then increasing the bitrate is unlikely to do any good at all.
Try lowering the quality of the files and experimenting with the bitrate then.

[mrluke]

Yeah all testing so far is off the HD

[Mortimer Jazz]

Arse-biscuits. If you were trying to stream them directly off a CD then I could understand but if they're choppy directly from the hard drive then I don't know - and they still work fine on the systems you were originally working on? No alterations have been made since?

[mrluke]

We are exporting out of AfterEffects using the MX 2004 FLV video exporter.

It works fine on any of our P4's (>512mb ram/>32mb graphics card).

[Mortimer Jazz]

I've not heard of any problems exporting from After Effects or Premiere etc
Your best bet would simply be to encode a test video at the lowest possible quality you can, and then start working your way up until you find something acceptable in terms of quality and performance.

You may find that it doesn't work even with the lowest possible settings due to the limits of the hardware. If this is the case(assuming the videos are still watchable at this point) you could buy the standalone Sorenson compressor, which I believe is quite a bit better than the one that comes with Flash, but at the end of the day if the hardware they're using isn't up to the job then short of them doing something about it, itmay be the end of story - just hope that when the project was signed off it wasn't specified that it had to run on such a low-spec machine... and charge them anyway

[mrluke]

Yeah, you asked and answered it at the same time, we have tried it at the lowest possible settings.

The problem is that the piece of shite test machine is the absolute crappiest box ever. A P2 266mhz with 128mb ram and an onboard graphics card.

I can't seem to find a better shite testing machine around here. I know I should set some minimum standard like a P3 - 1gig or similar and then work from that level. I was hoping there would be something simple I missed.

[Mortimer Jazz]

What spec is your client's machine? Surely it isn't as low-spec as the testbox? (*nostalgically thinks back to when his p2 64Mb was the dogs*)

Apart from purchasing that (allegedly) better compressor nothing springs to mind, but it may be worth asking around on other forums just incase there's something neither of us has thought of.

Just a thought, have you updated to the very latest flash player incase there have been any small speed enhancments, or you could try making the video screen size a bit smaller and seeing if you can get away with that.

[mrluke]

I tried using the latest Flash player, also tried using projector, no good.

The target market are mechanics/workshop owners - technophobes - I expect they would all have shitbox machines, not sure how shite exactly though.

The problem was brought to my attention by the client who experienced the problem using a P4 laptop (?? Video ram problem maybe ??) which was quite alarming.

[Stimpson]

Couldn't changing the framerate have any effect, as in taking some of the strain of the system. I can imagine that gets you a somewhat less smooth running movie, but also with fewer major hickups perhaps. Haven't really worked with FLV al that much though, so you have to test it :)

[mrluke]

Thanks - Frame rate was the first things we tried, I think it was what Macromedia had suggested on their site (for the same reasons you mentioned). Good suggestion though, but it did not help.

[Mortimer Jazz]

The laptop wouldn't suprise me so much. It's probably what I'd call a "PC-World special" - they stick a P4 processor in and skimp on everything else. I've found the rpm of the HD to be one of the most overlooked problems when dealing with anything intensive like video. Most people think that just because it's a P4 it will be fast but this is far from the case.

I'm not a hardware buff, but from what I understand the average laptop HD spins at 5600 rpm (whilst the average pc harddrive spins at 7200 rpm), but even laptops like some of the P4 Sony Vaio's (about £1,600) came/come with 4200 RPM HD's with only a 2Mb cache, which I believe is rather like buying an Audi TT and then putting square wheels on it.

I'm not sure exactly how much it will affect performance, I just know that it does. It may not be worth worrying too much that it doesn't run on this P4, but it would be interesting to find out the specs - if it's got a 7200rmp HD with an 8Mb cache then there's certainly something wrong with your encoding! ;)

[Hankster]

I ran into a similar problem, discovered that a .swf that contains the .flv is scaled in any way, the .flv became choppy.

Cheers.

[Mortimer Jazz]

Ah that's something worth knowing. Thanks Hankster :]

MrLuke are you running the app as an exe or a swf?

[mrluke]

It is going to be an exe, but I tried both. I am not sure what the media playback component does to the FLV size, I did specify the exact size (technically shouldn't scale).

It is a different size than the 240 x 320 they recommend. From memory it is 288 x 400 or similar.

I will check it out later though, thanks for the suggestion Hankster.

[mrluke]

Hey, the folks at Macromedia have released an update for the FLV exporter, I have downloaded it and will test it tomorrow.

Could be that the problem was with the compressor, but wouldn't you know it they haven't listed the bugs it has fixed...

[Mortimer Jazz]

got a link?

[mrluke]

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/video.html?trackingid=devnetupdate_email_121703

[Mortimer Jazz]

nice one - thanks :]

[mrluke]

Actually there is some documentation
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flash/mx2004/readme/fmxpro2004_video.html

[najamd]

Hey Guys,
I'm having this problem and was wondering if there is a solution to this.
Thanks,


ND

[demerit]

...using the FLVPlayback component.

Increasing the buffer size of the component worked in my case.