Chosing the right FLV Media Player - Flowplayer vs JW FLV Media Player

Now that you've created a video in a format that over 97% of all computer users can view, it's time to make the player for that video. When you use a program like ON2 Flix or Sorenson Squeeze, that program creates a file in a .flv format. See my previous post for more information about chosing a video format.

In order for computers to play this on the web, you need to get a wrapper for that .flv file called a .swf (shockwave flash)

I need to prefice this entry by telling you that I am by no means an expert at html, web design or even graphic design. There are people out there that do this for a living and know way more then I do, however like the true independent filmmaker, I try to do as much myself as I can.

I have limited knowledge of dreamweaver and html. Javascript scares me and I know when to call an expert. My journey of creating these files for our film lead me to three places.

The first was with the .swf players that came with dreamweaver. I was able to figure out relatively easily how to embed a movie and load all the proper files on to our web server. There are two problems with the players that come with dreamweaver.



To see the original video click here.


The first as you can see is the volume control. It's default is in the middle so depending on the computer, the volume is too low. Initially I had to crank up the volume in the original video which seems to be a backwards way of doing this.

The second problem is that you can't view the video on full screen.

I've seen players on the web with volume controls that are defaulted in the high position as well as players that allow for full screen access so I looked for these.

The two that I have had some experience with is flowplayer













& JW FLV Media Player

Summing up the differences, Flowplayer allows you to do a lot more things that are useful including things like adding google analytics, have the option to embed your video with the code generated for others to post you video to their site, e-mail to a friend, etc.

JW FLV Player is super easy to set up and with the setup wizard that they have on their site, almost anyone with basic html skills can get this player going.JW FLV Media Player Setup Wizard

By simplying filling in a form, the code is automatically generated for you and you can just copy that code into the appropriate part of you web site and you are done. Setting up this player took only a matter of minutes and you are set with a player that is slick, allows fullscreen and is relatively inexpensive.

Both players are free to try but if you are going to make money from it (which is our goal right), they require a commercial license, flowplayer is $75 for one website, JW FLV Media Player is 20 Euros (about $27.86 at the time of this writing).

I chose JW FLV Player for Slow Down and Fast because it was the easiest and cheapest to set up. I wanted to get our video up for fullscreen watching and I wanted the player to disappear once the video started playing for a couple of seconds. JW FLV Media Player does both of these.

I'm sure Flowplayer is a great player but he extra money that is needed to buy a commercial license didn't seem worth all the extra work and time for this particular project.

Until then,

Happy Promotion
Adam
Blind Lyle Films

See the film I'm promoting now for only $3.99 and support my journey. The more success I have, the more I can share!