QuickTime vs. Flash Player: Mute Point? (Take 2)
It appears now that Flash Player 9 can play H.264 files, the question of producing multiple codec versions for online video narrows down to just H.264 and Microsoft formats.
When producing online video I prefer to use the H.264 settings because of the high quality over Fash. However I am always afraid that viewers with PCs will not want to download the QuickTime player, so I feel compelled to also put up a link for the Flash version. With the large penetration that Flash has, there is a high probability that the viewer already has the plug-in installed on their computer. Now, I can simply duplicate a H.264 compressed video, change the extension from .mp4 to .flv, upload to a video sharing site like blip.tv and now Flash 9 can see and play the higher quality H.264 file.
So here is the question: I have yet to test this (I need to remove QuickTime from my computer). I believe that the Flash 9 plug-in can play the .mp4 file directly. So if a viewer did not have QuickTime installed, but did have the Flash 9 plug-in installed, would you only need the .mp4 version of the file? If someone knows and can save me the trouble of testing this out I would be very much appreciative.
Don
When producing online video I prefer to use the H.264 settings because of the high quality over Fash. However I am always afraid that viewers with PCs will not want to download the QuickTime player, so I feel compelled to also put up a link for the Flash version. With the large penetration that Flash has, there is a high probability that the viewer already has the plug-in installed on their computer. Now, I can simply duplicate a H.264 compressed video, change the extension from .mp4 to .flv, upload to a video sharing site like blip.tv and now Flash 9 can see and play the higher quality H.264 file.
So here is the question: I have yet to test this (I need to remove QuickTime from my computer). I believe that the Flash 9 plug-in can play the .mp4 file directly. So if a viewer did not have QuickTime installed, but did have the Flash 9 plug-in installed, would you only need the .mp4 version of the file? If someone knows and can save me the trouble of testing this out I would be very much appreciative.
Don
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.4)
