I often hear complaints about a steep learning curve in developing FMS applications, and the lack of good sample code and simple administration utilities. Well, complain no more! Adobe has released a suite of free tools to help you get started and be more productive, announced on FMS Product Manager Kevin Towes’ blog. Here’s what you have to work with:

FLVCheck Tool: Let’s you verify that a video will run properly on FMS. Supports MP4 and FLV files.
FMSCheck Tool: Provides information about whether the server is running or not, its response time, and if any FMS core processes are not responding.
AS3 Dynamic Streaming Class: Enable mulitbitrate delivery easily in Flash CS4, Flex 3 or the Flex SDK.
FLVPlayback 2.5: The updated version of the FLVPlayback component for use in Flash CS4, with increased performance and quality for both video on demand files and live streams. Features “significant” bug fixes for streaming and support for Dynamic Streaming and DVR functionality with FMS 3.5. Only compatible with ActionScript 3.0. You can now use these classes in Flex 3 or the Flex SDK, in addition to Flash CS4.
F4V Post Processor: FMS 3.5 and later and Flash Media Live Encoder 3 can record content in MPEG-4 format using “fragments” or “moof atoms.” Some tools and players do not support this, and therefore will not be able to recognize these FMS-created files. This tool takes the information from all of the moof atoms and combines it into a single moove atom and outputs a new file. Use for prepping videos for editing in Premiere, HTTP delivery, or for playback in Adobe Media Player. Windows or Linux only.

You do need to register with Adobe.com (if you haven’t already) for access, but its free, as are all of the tools.

Yes, the day is finally here! Flash Media Server 3 and Flash Media Live Encoder 3.0 have been officially released.

Download Flash Media Server 3.5 (free developer version)

Download Flash Media Live Encoder 3.0 (FREE)

Flash Media Server 3.5 offers some powerful new features such as improved H.264 performance, “DVR” functionality, Dynamic Streaming, and HTTP delivery (Apache server built in). For more info, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/fms.

The licensing costs have stayed the same, at $4,500 for Flash Media Interactive Server and $999 for Flash Media Streaming Server. The Developer edition is still free, and allows 10 simultaneous connections (can be used for commercial deployments).

Flash Media Live Encoder has also been upgraded, with support for multiple bitrate encoding (to take advantage of Dynamic Streaming in FMS 3.5), an updated user interface, enhanced auto-adjust capabilities to accommodate fluctuation in your connection when encoding, and improved file and stream management including file “chunking”.

Big day for Flash media — happy downloading!

Adobe evangelist Serge Jespers has outlined some of the most common myths about deploying video on the Flash Platform. I’ve run into these arguments often, so thought I’d pass on the link.

http://www.webkitchen.be/2008/12/23/8-misconceptions-about-flash-video/

cheers, and happy christmas!
// Lisa

You may have noticed I’ve been pretty scarce for the past few weeks; as you may have guessed, Leela Grace has finally arrived. I went into labor on Wednesday, November 12th (good thing I decided not to attend FlashCodersNY that night!) and gave birth to “little” 8lb. 3oz. Leela at 4:33am. Everyone’s healthy (though sleep-deprived) and I plan to return to “active duty” early in 2009. I’ll try to keep up with comments and questions, but if it takes me a bit longer to reply, you’ll know why!

p.s. Yes, that is an Adobe t-shirt… finally found a use for all those Xtra large shirts, hehe.

YouTube’s Flash API are written in AS2, so if you have an AS3 project and want to use their players, it can get pretty tricky.

Matthew Richmond of The Chopping Block (and fellow FlashCodersNY member) has generously created and shared his ActionScript 3 wrapper for the YouTube chromeless player.

Matt has taken the time to not only give us an AS3 wrapper, but to write a comprehensive tutorial as well. Check it out:

http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/articles/youtube_as3_chromeless.html

Thanks, Matt!

Google has made a couple of big announcements in the past few days, all relating to new video features.

Gmail Video Chat
Today they announced that Gmail will now support a free, cross-platform “standards-based” voice and video chat. You need to install a custom plug-in, and the feature only works with Gmail in your browser.

The most interesting part to me is their use of H.264 encoding. We’ve been trying to get Flash to support that (or at least VP6) for some time now, but Adobe’s been reluctant to increase the size of the Flash Player to accommodate it.

More info: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/say-hello-to-gmail-voice-and-video-chat.html

YouTube Live
They are also working on live streaming on YouTube (possibly using a related plug-in?) This looks like it’ll be a service that competes with sites such as Justin.TV, Stickam, etc. The official launch is set for Nov. 22, so stay tuned for more info!
Post on AlleyInsider: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/youtube-plans-to-launch-live-streaming-november-22

The big news out of FOTB Brighton: they’re headed over the pond in 2009 to the warm and sunny beaches of Miami!

And I’ve had the honor of being asked to speak… It should be my big re-entry into the world after having this baby (any day now, they say….) so I’m really looking forward to it. John Davey knows how to put on a great conference, and I’m certain the US version will be no exception!

Check out the site, get in on the early-early-early bird ticket pricing when they go on sale in November. I’ll keep you posted about any details as the date gets closer. In the meantime, save the date: April 6-8, 2009.

This will likely be my last Flash411 episode for awhile, and it’s pretty meaty. I talk about the basic principles of encoding and show off the new video encoder that ships with Flash CS4 in this episode, which just posted this week:

[ For a full-size version, visit Adobe.TV ]

And if you’d like to download the encoded samples, you can find them here:
http://www.flashconnections.com/flash411/flash411_ep4_examples/

I’ve squeezed in a couple of more episodes of Flash 411 (the baby’s coming soon!)… Here’s episode 3, which posted last week:

[ For a full-size version, visit Adobe.TV ]

And if you’d like to download the examples, you can find them here:
http://www.flashconnections.com/flash411/flash411_ep3_examples/encore_playlist.zip
http://www.flashconnections.com/flash411/flash411_ep3_examples/flash%20video%20player.zip
http://www.flashconnections.com/flash411/flash411_ep3_examples/dreamweaver.zip

Kevin Towes announced yesterday that he’s opened up the beta for the next version of Flash Media Server, looking for some good torture-testing feedback.

This is a great chance to see what’s next for FMS, get a jump on the next version, and let your voice be heard.

Details and application form link on Kevin’s blog:
http://blogs.adobe.com/ktowes/2008/10/help_test_the_next_generation.html