If the .flv extension is not documented, then it's likely my fault for overlooking it. This shouldn't be a problem with Strobe. For FLVPlayback, these values are pass-through, so the stream names listed in the SMIL file are as they would be passed to NetStream. This is why MP4 files need the prefix. FMS assumes the file type is FLV unless otherwise stated as MP4 or MP3 or ID3. The parser in FLVPlayback doesn't make assumptions based on the extension. Strobe may have that ability however.

Hi Stefan,

How do you use an SMIL file when you aren't using the FLVPlayback component?

I am just using straight AS3 to play back an FLV on my webserver (progressive download) and it works fine. The code goes something like this ...

var videoURL:String = "http://www.mysite.com/video.flv";
var netConnection:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
netConnection.connect(null);
var netStream:NetStream = new NetStream(netConnection);
var video:Video = new Video();
video.attachNetStream(netStream);
netStream.play(videoURL);
addChild(video);

However, once the file is uploaded to a streaming server (I'm using the streaming company Groovy Gecko) they tell me to link to an SMIL file, not directly to an FLV file. Then my code breaks. If I put the path the to SMIL in to a regular FLVPlayback component, then it works.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Adrian

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for your speedy response.

That's really annoying. I've built a perfectly working bespoke video player with all the graphics in. And as soon as the FLV is hosted on an FMS server, it breaks. Arse!

If I view the SMIL file in Firefox I can see the XML. I've tried copying and pasting the 'base' and 'src' attributes out of the SMIL and hardcoding them in to my AS3 code but it still doesn't want to work. So that would imply that even if I parse the SMIL XML file at run time it wouldn't work either.

The thought of ditching what I have done and starting again by skinning the FLVPlayback component fills me with dread!

Frustratedly,

Adrian

Ok, I've has some success.

I've got it to work by loading in the SMIL file using URLLoader and URLRequest. Then when the COMPLETE event is triggered I can parse the XML and grab the 'base' and 'src' attributes and store then in variables.

I then set up the new NetConnection like so ...

netConnection = new NetConnection();
netConnection.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, onNetConnection_NET_STATUS);
netConnection.addEventListener(AsyncErrorEvent.ASYNC_ERROR, onNetConnection_ASYNC_ERROR);
netConnection.connect(base);

The NET_STATUS handler looks like this ...

function onNetConnection_NET_STATUS(event:NetStatusEvent):void {
trace(event.info.code);
switch (event.info.code) {
case "NetConnection.Connect.Rejected":
trace("Rejected by server. Reason is "+event.info.description);
break;
case "NetConnection.Connect.Success":
connectedHandler();
break;
}
}

And then the 'connectedHandler' looks like this ...

function connectedHandler():void {
trace("connectedHandler()");
netStream = new NetStream(netConnection);
netStream.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, onNetStream_NET_STATUS);
netStream.addEventListener(AsyncErrorEvent.ASYNC_ERROR, onNetStream_ASYNC_ERROR);
   
var video:Video = new Video();
video.width = 512;
video.height = 288;
video.x = 0;
video.y = 30;
video.attachNetStream(netStream);
addChild(video);

netStream.play(src);
}

The part that I was missing was 'netConnection.connect(base)'

Thanks,

Adrian

Admittedly this is annoying and I'd love to find a way to get rid of it. That's a lot to say for the guy who made this behavior - but we're completely handcuffed by the amount of former 'magic' that FMS baked in for FLVs - no file type, no extensions and then we're thrust into a world with 4+ types to play, and mp4s can have any extension. Next version of a media server, everything needs an extension - no magic please. It's still annoying though, no doubt