Specify advanced encoding settings

To specify advanced encoding options, select the Video tab.

Select a video codec to encode your content with from the Video Codec pop-up menu. If you are authoring for Flash Player 6 or 7, choose the Sorenson Spark codec; if you are authoring for Flash Player 8 or later, choose the On2 VP6 codec.

Select a frame rate.

By default, Flash Video Encoder uses the same frame rate as the source video. Adobe® recommends using the default frame rate unless you are experienced with video encoding, and have a specific application that requires modifying the source video’s frame rate. To alter the frame rate, understand how modifying the frame rate affects the video quality.

Note: To embed video clips in the SWF file, the frame rate of the video clip must be the same as that used by the SWF file. To encode video using the same frame rate as the FLA file, use the Video settings in the Video Import wizard.

Select the keyframe placement for the video. Keyframes are video frames that contain complete data. For example, if you specify a keyframe interval of 30, Flash Video Encoder encodes a complete frame every 30 frames in the video clip. For frames between keyframe intervals, Flash stores only the data that changes from the preceding frame.

By default, Flash Video Encoder places a keyframe every two seconds of playback time. For example, if the video you’re encoding has a frame rate of 30 fps, a keyframe is inserted every 60 frames. In general, the default keyframe value provides a reasonable level of control when seeking within a video clip. To select a custom keyframe placement value, be aware that the smaller the keyframe interval, the larger the file size.

Specify the quality of the video from the Quality pop-up menu.

The quality setting determines the data rate (or bit rate) of the encoded video. The higher the data rate, the better the quality of the encoded video clip. To specify a quality setting, do one of the following:

Select a preset quality setting to automatically select a Data Rate value.
Select Custom and enter a value, in kilobits per second, in the Maximum Data Rate text field.

Note: If you find that the preset quality settings do not work with your source footage, try specifying a custom maximum data rate.

To resize the video clip, do the following:

Select the Resize video check box.
(Optional) To keep the aspect ratio the same as the original video clip, select the Maintain Aspect Ratio check box.

Note: If you resize a video clip’s frame size, and do not select the Maintain Aspect Ratio check box, the video might become distorted.
Specify values for Width and Height. You can specify a frame size in pixels or as a percentage of the original image size.

Do one of the following:

To move to the next panel of the Video Import wizard, click Next.
To further modify the video’s encoding settings, select either the Cue Point or the Crop and Resize tab.