So, if you are just getting started publishing video online, just getting started with Flash, or you’re an old hand at it and just want to keep up with the latest video features, I want to pick your brain.

I want this e-book to be the most useful and comprehensive resource on the planet for publishing video in Flash. To do that, I have to be sure it answers all of YOUR questions. So tell me what they are! Complete this quick 9-question survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FYV6HLT

It’s a short survey, but there is some room for your comments if you have specific recurring stumbling blocks that you want me to cover. But, sorry, I can’t help with those issues with your mother.

Thanks for your input,
// Lisa

It goes over the basics of NetConnections, NetStreams and Streams, and how to work with metadata.

You can find it on page 62 of the February issue. Download the PDF for free!

http://tr.im/r8Ah

Yes, this is pretty easy to implement, but is a bit nitpicky. Here’s how you do it.

Just add the URLs of the timed text files to the XML data for each video, like so:
<vid desc=”Popeye for President, Title and Credits”
src=”videos/Popeye_forPresiden256K_flash_popeye.mp4″
thumb=”thumbs/Popeye_forPresiden768K.jpg”
ttURL=”myTTfile.xml” />

Then, in the initMediaPlayer function, you’d just add it as an additional attribute (ttURL) in the ‘for’ loop so it can be loaded for each video as it’s clicked, like this:
tileList.addItem({label:item.attribute(“desc”).toXMLString(),
data:item.attribute(“src”).toXMLString(),
ttURL:item.attribute(“ttURL”).toXMLString(),
source:thumb});

Add these three new lines of code at the end of the initVideoPlayer function:
myVid.autoRewind = true;
myVidCaptioning.source = tileList.selectedItem.ttURL;
myVidCaptioning.flvPlayback = myVid;

And finally, replace the listListener event handler with the following:
function listListener(event:Event):void {
myVid.stop();
myVidCaptioning.source = event.target.selectedItem.ttURL;
myVidCaptioning.showCaptions = false;
myVidCaptioning.showCaptions = true;
myVid.autoPlay = true;
myVid.play(event.target.selectedItem.data);
}
The trick here is to hide then show the captions, so you clear out the data from the previously-selected video. It’s a bother, but this should take care of it.
Then, go into your FLA and drop an FLVCaptioning component onto the Stage, and give it an instance name of myVidCaptioning. Publish, and watch (and read) your videos.

Hope this helps… if you have any trouble…

… download the example code here (video files omitted; you can grab them from the original tutorial files or change the XML to point to your own).

Another option, of course, is to insert embedded cuepoints into your video files for your captions, then use the onCuePoint event handler and display them in a dynamic text box. This is a more custom approach, but the timed text file approach above conforms more to usability standards. Your call.