Regarding Standards & Codecs

[essaeyu]

Hi,

I have following queries related to Flash/Flash Media Server:

a) The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) has come up with different
standards and protocols for videoconferencing e.g. H.323, H.320 etc. Of these,
H.323 is the standard for videoconferencing over TCP/IP networks. If I develop
a videoconferencing / multimedia chat application using Flash Media Server,
which of the ITU standards if any will it conform to, if any? If not, has
Macromedia developed its own standard?

b) Which video codec does the latest Flash video use? Is it ?Spark codec? by
Sorenson or VP6 codec by On2?

c) Which audio codec does flash use?

Many Thanks,

essaeyu

[Melvin_Draco]

a) I don't know.

b) Both. The previous version of FLV uses "Spark Codec" and the last one "VP6
codec by On2". You can provide video encoded with the Sorenson Spark codec
to clients with Flash Player 7 and video encoded with the On2 VP6 codec to
clients with Flash Player 8.

c) Flash Player 6 and later also includes a built-in Speech codec,
specifically added for streaming live audio. The Speech codec is the only audio
codec available for live streaming audio from the Flash Player.

[JarredN]

I am under the impression that by default, FMS2 will use the Sorenson codec for
captured/recorded video in its .flv files. I am trying to instead capture
video through FMS2 using the On2 codec. How/where can I change this
configuration setting? I went through all of the .xml configuration files in
the "conf" subdirectory under the FMS2 installation folder. To my
disappointment, I was unable to find any setting to do this.

Can someone help? Thanks!

[Fynet B&T]

Unfortunatly you won't be able to encode live On2 video with FMS alone. The
only product able to do it is On2 Live SDK, because on2 is propietary from this
company. You can encode on-demand video with on2, but for live video you need
this additional product.

[JayCharles]

Something to keep in mind... FMS doesn't encode or decode anything. When a live
stream is recorded through the Flashplayer client, it's the client that does
the encoding... using Sorenson Spark for video and Nellymoser Asao for audio.

The video is easy enough to convert to other standards... it's the audio that
will cause you problems. The Asao codec is proprietary, practically
undistributed, and is currently available only from Nellymoser.

Neither fo these codecs conform to any of the ITU standards.