Video playback

As high-bandwidth media, delivering video on mobile devices usually requires choosing between image quality and speed/availability. Also important is to know the video capabilities of the underlying device. You can check the video capabilities for individual devices from Device Specifications at Forum Nokia or from the Video tab in Adobe Device Central.

Figure: Nokia N70 video support

Video formats in Flash Lite

Mobile devices use their own video formats that are somewhat uncommon in desktop environment: 3GP (Third Generation Partnership Project) and MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14).

For converting video files to mobile-compliant 3GP format, you can download Nokia Multimedia Converter from Forum Nokia.

From Flash Lite 3.0 onwards, Flash native FLV (Flash Video) format is also supported. You can encode video files into FLV format by using the Flash Video Encoder included in Adobe Flash CS3 Professional or the Adobe Media Encoder included in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional.

Figure: Converting video to 3GP

Even though MP4 video files enjoy some prominence outside mobile environment, they are usually encoded with too high bandwidth to be practical with mobile devices. For encoding them into more bandwidth-effective format, or for converting other video files into MP4, you can use software such as MediaCoder. MediaCoder also supports encoding 3GP files in higher resolution than 176x144px, which is the maximum allowed by Nokia Multimedia Converter.

Note: Adobe Premiere can encode video directly into 3GP format.

Handling video in Flash Lite

When the Flash Lite Player encounters a video for playback, it calls the native video player, but the video is played within the confines of Flash Lite content in a predefined window with a specific height, width, and coordinates. Alpha blends, rotations, and similar advanced features are not supported, and you can only control the video with the following instructions:

  • play()

  • stop()

  • pause()

  • resume()

  • close()

Video files can be played back from a variety of locations:

  • A video file included in the Flash Lite SWF file timeline

  • Local device video file

  • External device video through HTTP connection

  • Streaming video through RTSP connection

  • Flash Media Server (in Flash Lite 3.0)

For a use case on creating a video player application, see section Playing a video file in Flash Lite.

For more information about Flash Lite video support, see the following documents at the Adobe Developer Connection:

© Nokia 2009.