Most commonly used video formats

[griffen]

I've been looking at Sorenson media.
Am I best of exporting to a variety of formats and sizes or can I settle on a single format?
What is the most popular format for viewing video online?

Thanks.

[nousername]

hmmm.....

what do you mean by video formats? Sorenson is a compression routine that exports various video formats.... sorenson squeeze for flash, for example, will compress a video file when bringing it into flash.... if you are using flash then you can call or embed an avi file etc.... are you embedding a video in flash or you want a stand alone link that calls a media player on the users machine?

[griffen]

I realised that I could import the movie directly into a Flash movie and therefore maintain a greater compatibility with users. My only problem is does a flash movie have any streaming like with quicktime where a portion is downloaded and then the movie starts playing? How do I detect the users bandwidth?

Thanks.

[nousername]

use javascript to detect the bandwidth.... http://twebman.lunarpages.com/js/BandwidthRedirect.htm

there are applications that will convert a swf to video such as http://www.flashants.com/root/swf2video.shtml

sorenson compression will allow you to choose options such as streaming etc... but it is a stand alone application that is pricey... (it's the one i use but a client paid for it) http://www.sorenson.com/application_custom/en/store/catalog.php#cswf

[nousername]

and a flash movie *CAN* be streamed but it is dependent on a lot of factors... use your bandwidth profiler and see where the big frames are and try to reduce them...