Working with linked video files in Flash CS5

Question

Hi,
I'm working on a project that involves making decisions that affect how a short film plays out.
The basic idea is link some video files to the flash file (don't embed because it loses a lot of quality) and have buttons appear at the end of each clip that will link to another place on the timeline where another video clip will play. Pretty simple.
However one problem I have encountered is the only way I can make the buttons appear after the video is finished, is by dragging out the single frame of video on the timeline to whatever length in seconds it is multiplied by the number of frames per second.
This is very tedious and not very effective despite solving the problem.
Is there some way to maintain each linked clip in a single frame and only move to the next frame (which contains the relative buttons) after the video is finished?
Of course if there is an even more effective way to do this please let me know as well.
Thanks,
Aaron

Answer 1

What you really want have is this:
Instead of using the timeline you should use Code to organize your application.
So you will have only one frame and only one scene and only one flvComponent.
import fl.video.FLVPlayback;
import fl.video.VideoEvent;
//Assuming you have 9 Videosegments to choose from
var videoNr:uint = 9;
// the buttons to navigate to the segments
for (var i:uint=0; i<videoNr;i++){
   var currentButton:String = "btn_"+i;
  this[currentButton].addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, playSegement);
// the array to store the names of the videosegments
var videoArray:Array = new Array();
for (var i:uint=0; i<videoNr;i++){
  var currentVideo:String = "video_"+i+".flv";
  videoArray.push(currentVideo);
//hide the buttons whenever the video plays and vice versa
flvPlayer.addEventListener(VideoEvent.PLAYING_STATE_ENTERED, hideButtons);
flvPlayer.addEventListener(VideoEvent.STOPPED_STATE_ENTERED, showButtons);
flvPlayer.fullScreenTakeOver = false;
function hideButtons(e:VideoEvent):void{
for (var i:uint=0; i<videoNr;i++){
   var currentButton:String = "btn_"+i;
  this.getChildByName(currentButton).visible = false;
function showButtons(e:VideoEvent):void{
for (var i:uint=0; i<videoNr;i++){
   var currentButton:String = "btn_"+i;
  this.getChildByName(currentButton).visible = false;
// or make a switch clause where you define which buttons are visible after which segment
//switch(i){
//only 1 and 2 are visible after Segmenet 0 has played
//case 0: this.getChildByName("btn_1").visible = true;this.getChildByName("btn_2").visible = true;break;
//only 3 and 4 are visible after Segment 1 has played
//case 1:  this.getChildByName("btn_3").visible = true;this.getChildByName("btn_4").visible = true;break;
//function to choose from the videos
function playSegment(e:MouseEvent):void{
  var whichButton:String = e.currentTarget.name.substr(4,1);
  //gives the IndexNr of the Video that should play
  flvPlayer.source = videoArray[uint(whichButton)];
  flvPlayer.autoplay = true;
// you want the actual video to stop on the last frame
   flvPlayer.autorewind = false;