Building streaming video players in Flash with Open Source Media Framework

Additional Requirements

Flash Media Development Server 3.5

• Download

Note: You must have a Flash Media Server installation or account you can use to fully recreate and use the files in this course:

• Windows or Linux: Download the free development server for Windows or Linux (linked to above) and read Installing Adobe Flash Media Server 3.5 in the online documentation. Or lease hosted Flash Media Server accounts for development purposes from Influxis.
• Mac OS: Lease hosted Flash Media Server accounts for development purposes from Influxis.

OSMF Sprint 7 (included in course files)

Note: This article assumes that you have Sprint 7 installed. If you are using a different version, please work with Sprint 7 for purposes of these tutorials. The Sprint 7 SWC is included in the course files; you can find out more about Sprint 7 on the OSMF download page.

The following lessons cover all the basic functionality and concepts required to build streaming video players and dynamic streaming video players in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional using the Open Source Media Framework. The OSMF is Adobe's community-centered approach to standardizing the way that media players—in particular, video players—are built on the Adobe Flash Platform. Although still in prelease, the OSMF encompasses media playback functionality, playlists, branding, advertising, and other monetization aspects, and represents a powerful and comprehensive attempt to standardize a huge portion of the work currently executed in Adobe Flash.

Over the course of five lessons, you'll learn the essential code involved and integrate that code into the video player that I demonstrated in my companion course, Building progressive video players in Flash with the Adobe Open Source Media Framework—which you should follow if you are interested in building progressive video players.

Lessons for building streaming video players in Flash

In these lessons, you'll start with the basics and work your way up to a dynamic streaming video player, using the project built in the previous course in this series, using the OSMF and Flash. Have fun! (Total course duration: 35 min.)

Introduction: Brief overview of the OSMF and installing the SWC

The Open Source Media Framework is useful for both its functionality and its role in standardizing the development of multimedia experiences on the Flash Platform. This section briefly explains the goals and purpose of the OSMF and concludes with a walkthrough of configuring Flash CS4 to work with the OSMF classes. (Running time: 2:45)

Lesson 1: Upgrading from Sprint 5 to Sprint 7

OSMF is in prerelease, which means that it can still change—and it has in the six weeks since publishing my companion course. As you'll see, just two minor changes prevent the project from the previous course from compiling with the Sprint 7 version of OSMF. So, in this lesson, I explain those changes and get the player running again. (Running time: 6:05)

Lesson 2: Basic streaming in OSMF

Once you know how to play a video progressively with OSMF, learning how to stream a video is ridiculously, laughably easy. In this lesson, I cover the two options available in ActionScript 3 to stream videos with OSMF. (Running time: 5:58)

Lesson 3: Implementing basic streaming in your project

Now that you know how to stream, you'll implement that code in your project to have it stream a video over an RTMP connection from Flash Media Server. (Running time: 2:44)

Lesson 4: Dynamic streaming in OSMF

Multi-bitrate streaming occurs when you specify multiple versions of the same video, encoded at different bitrates, so you can deliver the optimal quality to viewers depending on their bandwidth. Dynamic streaming occurs when you do so on an ongoing basis, so if the viewer's bandwidth changes, you can change videos in midstream. In this lesson, you'll learn the code required to implement dynamic streaming with OSMF. (Running time: 7:50)

Lesson 5: Implementing dynamic streaming in your project

In this final lesson, you complete your video player by implementing the code you learned in the prior section into your project file to convert your streaming video player into a dynamic streaming video player. (Running time: 9:29)

Where to go from here

For more information about the OMSF, visit the Open Sourse Media Framework website. To learn more about working with video players, explore the sample projects and templates in the Video Technology Center. To learn more about working with Flash Media Server, check out the Flash Media Server Developer Center.