Can't find a swf to flv converter which works!

[abdu]

I am having a hard time finding a swf to flv converter which works reliably. They either crash during the conversion, the output is grainy or the converter doesn't work properly. These are the ones I tried. Any others?

- E.M. Magic swf2avi

- Iwisoft SWF to Video converter

- AunSoft converter

I don't understand why Captivate 4 doesn't output directly to flv. flv is an Adobe format! Even Captivate 4's avi publisher crashes! I read somewhere the width and height need to be even which is not my case. Mine is 1024 x 761. Looking for a solid swf to flv converter.

[Guest]

Hi there,

The main reason that Captivate does not output to FLV is because your eLearning content would lose all its interactivity; for eLearning SWF is the best option.

As for a SWF to Video converter, have you had a look at SourceTec's

<a href="http://www.sothink.com/product/swftovideoconverter/index.htm"><strong>SWF to Video Converter</strong></a>

I have used this in the past and got acceptable results.

HTH

Best - Mark

<a href="http://macrofireball.blogspot.com/"><strong>Visit the macrofireball blog</strong></a>

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

In addition to what my fellow Adobe Community Expert Mark said, you should really consider submitting a Wish Form to ask for this capability to be added to Captivate. It does seem to be a popular question here that we see on a reasonably regular basis. So FLV output would be nice to have if you had a pure demonstration.

Link to the Wish Form is in my sig.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[abdu]

Right but Captivate has a demonstration mode which has no interactions. It makes no sense to NOT have flv export just because ONE of the modes has interactions! If you're in eLearning mode, just disable the flv export or notify the user they can't export to flv because it's not applicable.

I have spent HOURS trying to export my swf file, and it's my first one.. mind you, to flv and the convertors bomb in one fashion or another. Either these converters are unreliable or my swf file is too 'complicated' for them. It's just a movie capture of me clicking in the browser. The EM Magic, which seemed most promising,  was going fine during the conversion and after about 2 minutes it suddenly  went poof! Completely disappeared. I tried several times with same result. I sent my swf file to them so they can fix their software or tell me what to do.

I am going to try the converter you mentioned but if it doesn't work right, I am dumping Captivate and switching to Camtasia. I will reconsider when Captivate 5 comes out. People already complained from the lack of flv export and if version 5 doesn't have it, Adobe's Captivate team doesn't listen to customers. The only reason I don't use Camtasia is because it doesn't support eLearning and I wanted to be proficient in a single tool.

[abdu]

I tried Sothink's converter earlier. I don't see a flv format output.

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

Out of curiosity, why does the format have to be FLV? What do you feel you would be gaining by using FLV over SWF?

I do believe I've seen other reports that thought they would see a drastically reduced file size in FLV format and things would stream better. If memory serves, they found the FLV format was substantially larger than the SWF they were wanting to convert.

Oddly enough, I just tried exporting a Captivate 4 project to Flash CS3. Flash CS3 does not seem to offer an ablity to export to FLV either.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[abdu]

The plan was to use dotSub.com where you can add subtitles to your video. They couldn't handle the swf I uploaded. Captivate crashes when it exports to avi. I tried different avi encoders in Captivate but same problem. As I mentioned it looks like its an odd number height problem that someone posted in the forum. However Captivate exports to swf fine.  For some reason I thought flv was my only option but looks like I should be converting to avi using a third party converter. So I will ignore the flv requirement and try the efforts again.

[Captiv8r]

HI again

Wow, I don't get it. You want to export to a video format to add to a site that lets you "add subtitles". Why not use the Captions available in Captivate for that? I'm obviously missing something here.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[abdu]

I forgot to mention I am having someone do the subtitling for me. They don't have Captivate. They have to do it using a free online service or tool.

[woodbury07]

If I'm not late I can advise you to use SWF4Tube Converter!!! It's the best tool to convert swf to flv!!!!

GLucK