More than just a programming guide, this book takes you step by step through the process of gathering and preparing content, asking the right questions, determining the scope of the project and writing the project proposal. The authors cull from their professional experience of running their own digital media company to explain the special considerations in deploying Flash video applications, presenting ideas for solutions as well as tips for avoiding the most common pitfalls.

Flash Video for Professionals: Expert Techniques for Integrating Video on the Web gives Flash professionals the know-how to integrate Flash video seamlessly.

The book provides a framework and the professional solutions to make custom Flash video more accessible to those with intermediate programming skills. But it’s not just a programming guide. This book provides a step-by-step workflow and guides the reader through:

• understanding client needs and setting expectations

• obtaining source video and optimizing for web-based playback

• creating a site or web application that incorporates video

• creating and skinning a player with Flash

• publishing a site (including a discussion of hosting requirements)

• exploring serving options (streaming vs. progressive download)

• enabling the client to update their site with automated tools.

The book takes the developer through the process of gathering and preparing content, asking the right questions, determining the scope of the project and writing the project proposal. Authors Lisa Larson and Renee Costantini cull from their professional experience of running their own digital media company to explain in detail the special considerations in deploying Flash video applications, with ideas for solutions as well as avoiding the most common pitfalls.

Readers will explore real-world requirements and torture-tested methods needed to deploy the finished application to the web, as well as the intricacies of setting up a work environment, best practices and application design, and ActionScript. Detailed code examples are provided to drive home concepts. The book covers the most recent ActionScript language, with special attention given to bridging between versions. Flash Media Server 2 is discussed, along with filter effects, webcams and data sharing. This book is a must-have for the professional Flash developer or designer who needs to expand their skill set to include interactive video delivery.

The Missing Link (for Flash Vidheads)
This book is a much-needed resource and road map to creating all kinds of Flash video for the web. Authors Larson and Constantini begin with a chapter on project archaeology and conclude with a chapter on live video. In between, they cover all the nooks and crannies from encoding, the big picture of Object Oriented Programming, dynamic playlists.....in others words: Flash Video from soup to nuts. Coming from a traditional non-web video background in editing and graphics, this book is quite simply the book I’d been hoping would appear once I began to dabble in Flash development. Up to this point, most Flash books usually have a standard chapter or two about video. This book is the whole enchilada and delivers a fantastic "forest for the trees" perspective on planning, creating and deploying Flash video websites. The text is very well-articulated on subject matter that is quite complex. Whether you’re an advanced specialist ready to dip right into the Action Script and get your own Flash video ball rolling or you need a quick primer in order to talk the talk with a Flash colleague, this book is your pixel-perfect friend. From a technical standpoint, there is a lot here, but one can browse very easily for quick solutions. From a creative standpoint, there are many inspiring examples and recipes to apply everything from a simple YouTube interface to a more ambitious video wall a la Nam Jun Paik to a website. Ultimately, I enjoyed the book mostly in how it challenged me to approach Flash video as its own art and craft, however new. From cue points to video skins to custom players; the sky’s the limit. Let this book be your breath of fresh FLV air.

And now I know the why
A lot of books focus on telling you what to do. This is great as it enables you to get the job done.

Far too often people who write technical manuals think that is all the learner requires in order to retain knowledge.

Thank goodness this book doesn’t stop there. It tells you WHY things should be done this way in addition to the HOW. I’ve found this process much more reliable as a means to transmit information in a sticky format.

I’ve been working with Flash video for years and have found through trial and error how to get videos to work properly.

This book finally explains in plain english things like keyframes, interlacing for web, exactly how the new CODEC works.

Ultimately, every new thing this book taught me was set in cement by the logical explanation of the why.

This is a must
Very good book that covers all from the beginig to the deploying to better deploy your video content. I am pleased to have gotten this book

Not for everybody...
As promised, this book offers a lot of food of thought, and provides an excellent framework for creating a professional-quality online video player. That said, it’s not the book I was hoping it would be: The authors obviously favor their particular approach and there is little, if any, discussion of other possible approaches.

Regardless, the authors have created a strong alternative to the built-in FLVPlayback components of CS3, and if you DO adopt their methodology and "think as they think," you’ll be in excellent shape. It just seems you have to drink ALL the Kool-Aid if you expect to get anything out of the book.

Cures Any Intimidation
This is a very excellent book. It cures any intimidation someone might have dealing with video in flash. The chapters were very easy to understand, and the samples were very fun to do. This book does really well at showing the potential and creativity of working with video in flash.

GOOD CONCEPTS MINUS THE TYPOS
I recenttly purchased this book. The methods of implementation for the codes and classes are very helpful. The structures and tips are clear and introduce high-level design concepts. The one thing that I feel should be noted is that this first edition has errors in the codes listed as examples in the book. I had to download their sample files from Sybex to get the functional code, which works fine. The code from the book produced compile time errors. Amongst the most notable ones: Codes do not show which Classes need to be imported in AS3, and typos that can be hard to catch for students unfamiliar with AS2 and AS3. It’s a good start and I think the second edition should catch these errors.

A Book for Streaming Video Professionals
As video prolieferates on the Web, developers who want to add Flash video to their resume are going to need this book. It is definitely for intermediate to advanced users, but that’s exactly what’s needed for all of the nuances that go into Flash video. So if you’re a newbie in either Flash or video, you might want to pump some intellectual iron before jumping in at this level.

The materials covered range from project planning to using bitmaps to create special effects and everything in between. One of my favorite gems in this book (in addition to all of the great graphics) is Jim Kremens contribution of a hand-built player using a Model View Controller design. It is a delight to behold and kicks up everyone’s skills a notch or two. Also, it gives the reader and excellent player for customized player design. The examples are written in both ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0 so that in this period of transition between the two versions, you not only pick up techniques for writing Flash Media Server code but some ActionScript 3.0 to boot.

So if you’re looking to start doing Flash video professionally, this is going to be an important step to take. Besides, it’s clear and well-written; so that always helps. If you like this stuff like I do, you’ll have a lot of fun as well.

excellent
Very good. Covers entire process from encoding to deployment. Covers development process and best practices. Offers clear explanations that are niether opaque to a novice nor overly-simple to experienced developers. Also covers oop, as well as samples in both AS2.0 and AS3.0. There has been a need for a book like this for about two years.

Flash Video
This book walks you through all phases of deploying Flash Video - from project planning and post-production to integration in your website. There’s a good mix of theory and practice.

Theory would include determining targeting your audience by determining which video features your clients would want (Like what version of the Flash Player you want to support), best practices when encoding your video(Like what bitrate to select for a user’s connection speed), and choosing between streaming and progressive.

Practice would include detailed step-by-step instructions on how to set up your player (like what specific code you need to put in Flash to add a playlist), and step-by-step instructions on how to use FMS2 if your trying to do streaming (like how to upload a file, how to set up your player for streaming).

Overall this book is a comprehensive look at Flash Video in both the planning and decision making realm, as well as the hands-on "roll up your sleeves" process of following through and doing it. It’s also up to date and will give you a good working knowledge of what’s going on in the Flash Video world.