Mobile and Devices Developer Center

Authoring mobile video content for Flash Lite 2.x

Developing video projects for Flash Lite 2.0

The first thing to understand is that Flash Lite 2.0 does not play Flash video (FLV)—it plays device video. In other words, Flash Lite 2.0 provides the rectangle for the device to play the video and passes several rudimentary commands to the system in order to control playback of that video. From the end user's point of view, it appears that the video is being played by the Flash Lite Player, but in reality, the heavy lifting is being performed by the device. Because the video playback is device dependent, we'll need to pay close attention to the device's capability. You'll need to know which video formats and codecs are supported by the device. Does the device require 3gpp or 3gpp2 video? Will you need to target the H.264, H.263 as well as MPEG-4 codecs? These are all questions you'll need to ask yourself before you begin a mobile video project.

There are several organizations working on mobile video standards. The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) and ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance) are all participating in this process. If you take a close look at the membership of both 3GPP and 3GPP2, you'll notice that these organizations are divided down company and technology lines. In other words, Cingular and T-Mobile are involved in 3GPP and Verizon, Sprint and ALLTEL are members of 3GPP2.

These polarizing forces involved with mobile video standardization can greatly complicate the life of a content developer. When a Flash developer targets the desktop player (Adobe Flash Player 9), and decides to add video to their application, they do not need to know if there is a specific codec available on the target system. For a mobile developer, this is a critical first step when considering the use of video for Flash Lite 2.0 content on a handheld device.

If you are new to developing content for the mobile space, you will likely hear and read about many unrecognizable abbreviations like 3GPP2, CIF, QCIF, QVGA, etc. Just when you thought you knew all the abbreviations, along comes the mobile space with an entirely new set. The great news is that the mobile emulator also known as Adobe Device Central CS3 in Adobe Creative Suite 3 gives you a significant advantage when testing mobile devices and removes the need to investigate each and every device that you might target. Of course this does not eliminate the need to test your content on an actual device—just as Dreamweaver does not remove the need to test your CSS content in a web browser. But using Adobe Device Central CS3 provides Flash mobile developers with a significant productivity boost because it makes it possible to simulate your content's playback and test it with emulations of a wide variety of available devices (see Figure 1).

• View Larger (+)

Figure 1. Play simulations of your content and get specific details about devices with Adobe Device Central CS3

More device requirements

There are many other considerations beyond whether the device is capable of playing video. Device memory, processor performance, screen size, aspect ratio and orientation are a few of the factors that will affect your project in the pre-planning stage. You will need to consider the length of the video content as well, and decide whether you plan to stream the video or deliver it with your content as a package. If you evaluate the video's characteristics and decide that streaming is your best option, you'll need to target devices that support RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol). Not to be confused with RTMP, RTSP is a standard developed by the IETF. RTMP is the protocol used to stream Flash video. As far as memory and processor speed, I have had good luck streaming video to a Nokia 6682 with an ARM 9 processor running at 220 Mhz with 8MB of total memory and 2MB dedicated to Flash Lite Player.

Page 2 of 5

Previous Page

Next Page