Macromedia Flash Video Kit review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 15 Nov 2004

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Nik Rawlinson

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Despite the name, this extension has been written to work inside Dreamweaver, not Flash.

It's installed through the extension manager and adds a new line to Dreamweaver's Media menu, allowing you to drop streaming video files on your pages in just three clicks. The files must be Flash-encoded; if you don't already have it installed, the bundled Sorenson Squeeze Lite will do the job for you.

If your server can handle it, you can store the files on your own web space. We tried this with a consumer hosting service and it had no problems playing back a 12MB movie without pausing to rebuffer, unlike most QuickTime or Windows Media files. However, this gobbles up your bandwidth quickly, so a better option if you have a capped account is to sign up with a Flash Video streaming service, which costs $99 (around £55) each month for a 10GB limited transfer.

The player skins stretch to accommodate the full size of your video without distorting. The larger versions of each include progress bars and volume controls beside the regular transport buttons, all of which look highly professional.

While Macromedia claims 98 per cent coverage for the Flash Player, the number who can see your Flash Video streams will be lower since they run only Player 6 and above. Moreover, you cannot author your content in any version but Dreamweaver MX 2004. This won't be a problem if you're just about to buy Studio MX 2004 Professional (not Standard), as Flash Video will be bundled, but if you're a user already you'll have to pay an extra £59 to upgrade.

Pricing complaints aside, Flash Video is the easiest way to embed streaming content in your pages in a tidy, professional manner and, as such, is highly recommended.

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