Help with creating effective flash videos

[jdd]

I recently puchased BB Flashback, taking advantage of the great DC discount.  I then created an swf of a software demo for my company website but it turned out to be a whopping 15 MEG.

Obviously this will take too much time for impatient viewers (like me) to wait for.

I was wondering if it is possible to set up a screecast to play a large file on a website without having the visitor's flash player download the file, or does the visitor always need a player on their machine that downloads the flash?

For example, I noticed that the nice new Locate and KeePass mini-reviews load very quickly on DC and appear to be playing "on" the DC website.  How big are these files?

Thanks,
jdd

[mouser]

i think they are about 3-4mb.

there are some tricks to making small files:
make sure you arent trying to make a movie of a 1600x1200 screen is a big one.  capturing an 800x600 movie can make a big difference.

i would also highly recommend splitting up any demo more than a few minutes into multiple demos.

make sure you also play with quality options when building an swf.

[jdd]

So...i assume that means that the website visitor IS in effect downloading the files as opposed to the files playing on the website?  Or is that a dumb question?

[kimmchii]

you can stream the flash file if you like, no need to download first, like what we see in youtube, ie.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6hNJvjt2BgU&search=germany%202006%20wc

there is an "Embed" code, paste that on your website and it will stream from youtube.

http://youtube.com/t/help_share

[jdd]

Great!  If I plan to play it as a streaming video do I need to do anything special when I record the screencast?

[jdd]

ok...I did a little searching on the web and I get the impression a large file would need to be pushed on a "streaming server" vs "HTTP streaming". 

I don't want to chop the file into smaller sizes if I can avoid it.

Does anyone know if any of the so-called streaming SOFTWARE is a reasonable alternative to a streaming server? 

Any comments on providing the video by 'progressive downloading' or how this is done?

I work for a small, low budget company and I would expect not more than ten people (more likely one or two) viewing the video at any given time.

[Rover]

are you looking for Windows streaming server or Linux?  Linux servers are availble...not sure about Winders...
Google?

[jdd]

I'm not looking for a server, per se.  We currently have our website hosted on a server and I think it's Windows based but I'm not sure.