To import a video clip, you can use the File > Import or File > Import into Library menu commands. The first command imports the video into the Library and then adds an instance of it to the Stage. The latter imports the video clip into the Library without placing it on the Stage.

When you import a QuickTime movie, you need to choose to have the video embedded in the Macromedia Flash document, or imported as a linked file.

Choose Embed Video in Macromedia Flash Document to have the video play back in the Flash Player. Choose Link to external video file if you want to add Flash content to the QuickTime movie, which will only be playable in QuickTime Player.

You only have this option when importing QuickTime movies. This dialog box won't appear when you import a video in any other format.

 
Supported video formats
If you have QuickTime (Windows or Macintosh) or Windows Media Player (Windows, only) installed, Macromedia Flash MX can import video clips in a variety of formats including AVI, MPEG, DV and MOV. For a full list of supported formats, see the Using Flash manual.

Additional video import formats may be supported, depending on which video "codecs" are installed on your system. A codec is a compression/decompression algorithm that controls how multimedia files are compressed and decompressed during import and export. Not all video codecs are compatible with Macromedia Flash MX. For known issues with particular video and audio codecs, see the Macromedia Flash MX Release Notes.

In some cases, Flash may be able to import the video but not the audio in a file. For example, audio is not supported in MPG/MPEG files imported with QuickTime 4.

You can also import Flash Video (FLV) files, which is a digital video file that's been compressed in the native video format for Macromedia Flash MX. You can export FLVs from Macromedia Flash MX (see Video object properties), or create them with Sorenson Squeeze, a third-party compression application. See Additional information about Sorenson Spark.