4 Replies Latest reply: Nov 12, 2006 9:04 AM by RayOrr RSS

    Failed to load FLV error message +

    dbthumb Community Member
      Three questions, first is easy: Is there a way to look at FLV files before making a video player? Second: I'm trying to make multiple demos within a Flash doc. The video skin has been put and linked to a FLV file on my HD on a certain frame. When I test the movie, the button goes to the right frame, but there is no video player. Also, when I try to import video, during creating a video player, I get a "Failed to load" FLV message. I've been dragging the video player from the library and using the wizard to link to the FLA file. Right? Wrong? Or, am I just plain stupid? Thanks for any help.
        • 1. Re: Failed to load FLV error message +
          RayOrr Community Member
          1. Here is a stand alone FLV player to play flv files without using Flash Authoring: http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/article/flv-player-updated

          2. If I understand correctly what you are trying to do with multiple movies played from a single SWF: assume yo uhave 2 flv movies, my_movie1 and my_movie2. In your main timeline, create a key frame on two frames - name one frame "movie1" and the other "movie2". Then drag the FLVPlayback component to the stage and place it on frame called "movie1" and again on frame named "movie2". Select each player and add an instance name, like myPlayer1 and myPlayer2. For each player, select a skin in the FLVPlayback component Parameters.

          Add an action layer and on each of these movie frames add a stop(); action so that the main playhead stops while the movies play. Without the stop() action the playhead will move through and you will never see the player skin.

          You create 2 buttons labeled movie1 and movie2. Select each button and add action script "on (release) ... _root.gotoAndPlay..." the frames "movie1" and "movie2" as appropriate.

          3. Finally, click on the "contentPath" for the FLVPlayback instance you added to the frame "movie1" and then click the find icon. When the window pops up, navigate to the "my_movie1.flv" on your HD. Do the same for the FLVPlayback instance on the second frame "movie2".

          These steps allow you to manually create a the player and configure it to play your videos.

          If you use the Import Video Wizard, it will walk you through most of these same steps (slightly different order) and place the FLVPlayback instance on the frame you had active when you started the wizard. You do not need to drag a player from the library as the wizard will create one for you. Simply click on the frame and layer where you want the video to play and launch the Import Video wizard. The wizard does not add the AS however, so you must do this manually.

          I just completed a couple of projects where I had to do this several times, so your question was timely.

          • 2. Re: Failed to load FLV error message +
            dbthumb Community Member
            Ray, you just made my day. Thanks for the info. You're a gentleman and a SCHOLAR!
            • 3. Re: Failed to load FLV error message +
              dbthumb Community Member
              Ray, I just completed your instructions and everything seems right. I did 5 players on 5 different frames, labled, linked etc...still, when I test the movie, the buttons go to the right frames except there is no player, not even a blank player skin...nothing.
              I have the video files and skins on another HD on my computer, they are not on the system HD. Would that affect playback? Also, I think I read somewhere in Flash help that the path on Macs running OSX 10+ need to have ":" instead of "/" between folder paths in order for the path to work. Do you know if that's true? Even if I could get a blank skin to show up, I'd feel like I've accomplished SOMETHING! If you or anyone else reading this has any other advise, I sure could use it. Maybe someone from Adobe/MacromediaFLASH might read this and offer some help? Thanks again.
              • 4. Re: Failed to load FLV error message +
                RayOrr Community Member
                Sorry for the delayed response, but I thought you were through with this thread so I didn't check it - :)

                If you use a FLVPLayback with a predefined skin from the drop-down list in the Component Parameters (like ClearExternalAll.swf), then when you publish the movie Flash 8 will create your "movie.swf" and in the same folder it will place a copy of the skin you selected (ClearExternalAll.swf). Flash will then expect the skin swf to be located in the same folder with your movie.swf file.

                I have not been able to figure out how to make it look for the skin in a different location on the server (or on the desktop). It may be possible, but I stopped trying once I learned to always place them in the same folder.

                It may work to enter a name of a variable, like "skin", by selecting the "Custom Skin URL" at the bottom of the drop-down list, then enter the variable name as the URL. Then you might be able to use FlashVars to pass the variable from the HTML page to the movie.swf file. This would let you declare the location of the variable "skin" within the HTML and hence locate it anywhere you like. But, unless you have a particular need for this I would make life simple and just place the skin swf in the same folder with the movie.swf file.

                If you get more ambitious and decide to use the "CustomUI" components to create the playback controls, then these controls simply get embedded with the movie.swf file and you do not see a separate skin swf.

                Confused yet?

                As for the Mac OSX naming conventions, I only know that Mac uses the forward slash (/) where Windows uses the back slash (\) for file naming. However, once the file is published to your server then the HTML conventions are used. I don't know what restrictions are used when referencing files on a Mac OSX server. Perhaps this is where the colon is used?