2 videos...1 set of controls

Question

I'm sort of a new user to Flash and what I'm looking to do is
run 2 seperate videos at the same time with both videos being
controlled by one set of buttons. So for instance, when I hit the
play button it would start both videos playing at the same time and
then if I hit the stop button both videos would stop at the same
point. I figure that this could be done using ActionScript but
everything I've tried hasn't worked at all. Any ideas?

Answer 1

ManitobaMan,
> I know Beausejour, I've been there a few times,
> nice place.
It's a small place, for sure.
Been over 20 years since I lived
there, but I do have fond memories.
> I'm born and raised in Winnipeg myself.
That was always The Big City to me.
> Anyways, thanks for helping me out with this.
Sure thing.
> I was using the FLVPlayback Component to try to
> make things work but really whatever will work best
> because I've got the video in .flv format and in .wmv
> format as well.
If you want to play an external video file, you'll have to
use the FLV
version. Flash imports quite a few different video file
formats for
internal playback, but that means the weight of the SWF
itself will be
affected by the embedded video. Personally, I prefer a tiny
SWF that
progressively downloads an FLV ... quicker experience overall
for the user.
Nothing wrong with the FLVPlayback Component, but keep a few
things in
mind: a) this particular Component requires Flash Player 8,
which may or
may not bother you; b) this Component stands on its own
(which is the point
of Components, of course) -- that is, its buttons are already
"wired up," so
while it *may* be possible to re-wire them for two different
videos, my
hunch is that it's easier to develop your own buttons
altogether.
> I did notice that when I played both videos at once, one
> video was choppy and the audio was cutting in and out.
> I don't know if that's because my PC isn't good enough
> for that or that having 2 FLVPlayback Components is
> too draining on the software.
Ehh, could be either. A lot depends on the size of your
videos, too, as
well as framerate, bitrate, and so on. Generally speaking,
the larger of
any facet, the harder your computer must work to display the
video.
> I'm mainly concerned with just figuring out how to get 2
> videos going with one set of controls.
Here's a general, all purpose approach to Components and all
objects in
Flash: just about everything in ActionScript can be referred
to as an
object. Objects are defined by their namesake classes. For
example, movie
clips are defined by the MovieClip class; dynamic and input
text fields are
defined by the TextField class; FLVPlayback instances are
defined by the
FLVPlayback class, and so on. This also applies to non-visual
objects like
strings, dates, arrays -- the whole kaboodle.
Classes are essentially an Owner's Manual for the object in
question.
Things the object can do are called methods; things the
object reacts to are
called events; characteristics the object has are called
properties. You'll
see one or more of these categories in practically every
class entry.
See this article for additional information along these
lines ...
http://www.quip.net/blog/2006/flash/actionscript-20/ojects-building-blocks
... now, for better or worse, not all classes are organized
the same way in
the documentation. FLVPlayback is one of those. The class
entry for this
object is located in the Components Language Reference and
doesn't list
methods, events, and properties on one convenient page.
Search the documentation on the phrase "Method summary for
the
FLVPlayback class" and you'll find the methods page. Among
these methods --
remember, these are things the object can *do* -- are
FLVPlayback.play(),
FLVPlayback.pause(), and more.
All you really need to do is drag two instance of the
FLVPlayback
Component to the Stage, set the contentPath parameter of each
instance to an
external FLV and give each instance an instance name via the
Property
inspector. Once each has a unique name, you simple "call each
by name," so
to speak, and tell it what to do.
You could create a button of your own -- just an ordinary
button symbol
(which happens to be defined by the Button class) -- and wire
up the button
to invoke the FLVPlayback.play() method of each instance ...
myButton.onRelease = function() {
myVideo1.play();
myVideo2.play();
It's that simple. Of course, both of those FLVPlayback
instances will
have their own play/pause buttons, which may get confusing.
For this
reason, I would recommend you simply use a Video object as
described in this
article here ...
http://www.quip.net/blog/2006/flash/how-to-load-external-video
Video objects (defined by the Video class) are fed by a
combination of
NetConnetion and NetStream class instances. It's a bit more
involved than
using the FLVPlayback class, but you'll see that it
ultimately comes down to
naming your instance and invoking the relevant method (or
event, or
property) of the object.
I realize this may seem intimidating if you haven't done
much
programming, but read through the above articles (not very
long, apiece) and
see what you can accomplish. If you have additional
questions, bring 'em
here and I'll be happy to continue helping you.
David
stiller (at) quip (dot) net
Dev essays:
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."