flv files and swf files, do they stream off the web?

Question

Have have a question about FLV files, do FLV files stream when you post them on the web? I am linking to a number of FLV files on the web and want to have seamless view of the videos.

SWF files seem to stream ok--

E.g.: https://drchrono.com/site%5Fmedia/uploaded%5Fmedia/training%5Fvideos/getting%5Fstarted.swf

I don't want people to have to download who FLV files before playing them, that is always a pain.

Answer 1

FLV files would not be recognized by your browser as a viewable mime type so they would be downloaded. You would need a SWF file that reads your FLV and plays it.

Answer 2

Yes and no. They are not fully streaming, like something one would get from a streaming media server (eg--windows media or real or adobe streaming server). The user is downloading a file and eventually the whole file will be downloaded. That said, FLV files behave like streaming video as flash is capable of doing some buffering and the format itself is frame-based, allowing one to start playing the file before downloading all of it.

I should note most modern video formats (eg--windows media & quicktime) work this way as well.

Answer 3

Download the free Flex SDK and build a simple FLV player with it. Compile the AS file using the mxmlc. The livedocs example of the Video class is a good place to get started.