why has flash become the player of choice for streaming video?

[her34]

what about it makes it popular to use by so many websites?

 

[xtknight]

Flash is light-weight, cross-platform, and most people already have it on their PCs. Using Flash video (flv) ensures anyone with Flash can view the video.

 

[Lonyo]

^^ What he said.

 

[simms]

It's fast, compatible, it's hard to steal (from the owner side of things), many people have it.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Flash is light-weight, cross-platform, and most people already have it on their PCs. Using Flash video (flv) ensures anyone with Flash can view the video.

:beer:

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Flash is light-weight, cross-platform, and most people already have it on their PCs. Using Flash video (flv) ensures anyone with Flash can view the video.

5 years ago I knew Flash would become the language and interface of choice for Internet and multimedia applications. I think it has a lot more to offer than Java.

 

[JLGatsby]

Because Realplayer is so 1998 and Windows Media Files are problematic.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
5 years ago I knew Flash would become the language and interface of choice for Internet and multimedia applications. I think it has a lot more to offer than Java.

Java is slow as hell...

 

[Eli]

I don't know, but it sucks.

Edit: I agree with the above statements, just never really cared for Flash..

 

[fleshconsumed]

Well, it might work for videos, but for everything else it sucks.

In short because it's pretty and it's bling. Guess what do technically inept managers look for when making company wide decisions?

And who said flash leightweight? Mwuhahahahahaha.... I've seen IBM flash ad that brought celeron 2.4GHz to its knees - 100% CPU load, and before you say 2.4 celery sucks, maybe it does, but one single 320x320 pixels flash ad completely choking it? That's a WTF of its own.

 

[T9D]

I wish they would ban that damn flash apps. I hate it. Usually cant stop it or fast forward or have any options. And way way to many adverstisements use it and you have no control over it. You get a bunch of them on a website and it bogs down to nothing and locks up. Flash :thumbsdown:

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: tk109
I wish they would ban that damn flash apps. I hate it. Usually cant stop it or fast forward or have any options. And way way to many adverstisements use it and you have no control over it. You get a bunch of them on a website and it bogs down to nothing and locks up. Flash :thumbsdown:

1/10

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

No more right clicky... save.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Flash is light-weight, cross-platform, and most people already have it on their PCs. Using Flash video (flv) ensures anyone with Flash can view the video.

Also, companies have more control over the player since they develop it themselves. There are endless options they have to create their own player instead of relying on someone else's.

 

[Syringer]

How are the videos put into flash? Is it simply a matter of importing an avi/mpg/etc. into Flash, and then saving it was a .swf?

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: Syringer
How are the videos put into flash? Is it simply a matter of importing an avi/mpg/etc. into Flash, and then saving it was a .swf?

You have to encode or transcode it just like any other video.

 

[Killerme33]

You can fast foward or rewind a video before it's 100% loaded. Also hard to download it.

 

[Geekbabe]

I totally LOATH flash based sites.

 

[indamixx99]

Same w/ people who whore their Myspaces out w/ flash based photo albums...

 

[sandorski]

I like Flash and (OMG!) RealPlayer! Both allow pause while Downloading the Video, something WMP seems to usually not allow and totally sucks with my limited bandwidth. RealPlayer used to suck monkey balls, but seems quite good these days.

 

[ForumMaster]

cause the plugin is light, fast, and many people have it.

as for saving it, while it's true that you can't right click save, you can usually just find the file in the cache. there are also plenty of programs that will capture a flash file.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
I totally LOATH flash based sites.

Yes but as an add-on it rocks.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: SagaLore
5 years ago I knew Flash would become the language and interface of choice for Internet and multimedia applications. I think it has a lot more to offer than Java.

Java is slow as hell...

Flash and Java are completely different types of products

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: InlineFive

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
I totally LOATH flash based sites.

Yes but as an add-on it rocks.

I agree, 100% flash is too much, a little sprinkling here and there FTW.

 

[Valhalla1]

I love it because it just works on firefox. My biggest pet peeve on the internet is having to open up IE for some stupid WMP streaming video