ACTIONSCRIPT 3 Developer’s Guide en

ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 DEVELOPER’S GUIDE
Working with video
External vs embedded video
Flash Player 9 and later, Adobe AIR 1.0 and later
Using external video files provides certain capabilities that are not available when you use imported video:
Longer video clips can be used in your application without slowing down playback. External video files use cached
memory, which means that large files are stored in small pieces and accessed dynamically. For this reason, external
F4V and FLV files require less memory than embedded video files.
An external video file can have a different frame rate than the SWF file in which it plays. For example, you can set
the SWF file frame rate to 30 frames per second (fps) and the video frame rate to 21 fps. This setting gives you better
control of the video than embedded video, to ensure smooth video playback. It also allows you to play video files at
different frame rates without the need to alter existing SWF file content.
With external video files, playback of the SWF content is not interrupted while the video file is loading. Imported
video files can sometimes interrupt document playback to perform certain functions, such as accessing a CD-ROM
drive. Video files can perform functions independently of the SWF content, without interrupting playback.
Captioning video content is easier with external FLV files because you can access the video metadata using event
handlers.
Understanding the Video class
Flash Player 9 and later, Adobe AIR 1.0 and later
The Video class enables you to display live streaming video in an application without embedding it in your SWF file.
You can capture and play live video using the Camera.getCamera() method. You can also use the Video class to play
back video files over HTTP or from the local file system. There are several different ways to use Video in your projects:
Load a video file dynamically using the NetConnection and NetStream classes and display the video in a Video
object.
Capture input from the user’s camera. For more information, see “Working with cameras” on page 520.
Use the FLVPlayback component.
Use the VideoDisplay control.
Note: Instances of a Video object on the Stage are instances of the Video class.
Even though the Video class is in the flash.media package, it inherits from the flash.display.DisplayObject class.
Therefore, all display object functionality, such as matrix transformations and filters, also applies to Video instances.
For more information see “Manipulating display objects” on page 173, “Working with geometry” on page 209, and
“Filtering display objects” on page 267.
Last updated 6/6/2012
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