Macromedia Flash Media Encoder - 2.5 User Guide

ADOBE® FLASH® MEDIA
ENCODER 2.5

USER GUIDE

© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Adobe® Flash® Media Encoder 2.5 User Guide for Windows®

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Contents

Chapter 1: Before you begin

About the Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Using Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Adobe.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

What’s new? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2: Getting started

Flash Media Encoder basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Encoding and streaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 3: Configuration and automation

Configuring encoding options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Automating startup tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Configuring Flash Media Server authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

iii

Chapter 4: Working with timecode

About timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Configuring Flash Media Encoder for timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Using ActionScript to get timecode information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 1: Before you begin

Before you begin working with Adobe® Flash® Media Encoder, take a few moments to read the following overview
of the Help and of the many resources that are available to users.

About the Help

Help The documentation is available in Help. To access it, select Help > Flash Media Encoder Help.

PDF version of Help To view all the Help topics in a single document, download the PDF from the Adobe Help

Resource Center at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fme_doc_en.

Command-line Help To show a list of all the command-line parameters and their usages, open a command prompt

in the Flash Media Encoder installation directory, and enter the following:

FMEcmd /h

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Using Help

The following topics describe how to use Help for Flash Media Encoder.

Browse Help topics

In the Navigation pane, do one of the following:

• To browse by topic, click the Contents tab.

• To browse alphabetically, click the Index tab.

Search Help topics

1 In the navigation pane, click the Search tab.

2 Type one or more words in the text box, and click the Search button.

Topics that match the search terms appear in the navigation pane, listed in order of relevance.

These tips can help you improve your search results in Help:

• If you search using a phrase, such as “output video,” put quotation marks around the phrase. The search returns

only those topics that contain all words in the phrase.

• Make sure that search terms are spelled correctly.

• If a search term doesn’t yield results, try using a synonym, such as “web” instead of “Internet.”

ADOBE FLASH MEDIA ENCODER 2.5

User Guide

Navigate Help

Navigate Help by doing any of the following:

• Expand items in the Contents tab until you reach the desired topic. To view a topic, click its title in the Contents

page.

• Click the Left or Right arrow keys in the Reading pane to go to the previous or next topic.

• Click Back on the toolbar to go to the last page you viewed.

• Click Forward to go to the page you viewed before clicking the Back button.

Resources

Flash Media Encoder product site This site, at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fme_main_en, provides information

about system requirements, contains links to release notes, and lets you download Flash Media Encoder.

Flash Media Encoder Forums This site, at www.adobe.com/go/fme_forum, provides forums for

Flash Media Encoder users to share information and ideas.

Flash Media Server Support Center This site, at www.adobe.com/go/flashmediaserver_support_en, provides Tech

Notes and the latest information about Adobe® Flash® Media Server.

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Flash Media Server Developer Center This site, at www.adobe.com/go/flashmediaserver_desdev_en, provides

articles, tips, and samples for creating Flash Media Server applications.

Flash Developer Center This site, at www.adobe.com/go/learn_flv_devnet_en, provides articles, tips, and samples

for working with video in Flash.

Feature Request/Bug Report Form This site, at www.adobe.com/go/wish, provides a form to request new features or

suggest modifications to existing features, including reports of bugs.

Adobe.com

The following general resources are available on the Adobe website:

Adobe Design Center Offers articles, tips, and tutorials in various formats, including video, Adobe PDF, and HTML.

The content is authored by industry experts, designers, and Adobe publishing partners, and new content is added
monthly. You’ll also find Adobe Studio Exchange, where users download and share thousands of free actions, plug­ins, and other content. Adobe Design Center is available in English, French, German, and Japanese. Visit Adobe
Design Center at www.adobe.com/designcenter.

Adobe Developer Center Provides samples, tutorials, articles, and community resources for developers who build

rich Internet applications, websites, mobile content, and other projects using Adobe products. The Developer Center
also contains resources for developers who develop plug-ins for Adobe products. Visit Adobe Developer Center at

www.adobe.com/go/developer.

Adobe Help Resource Center Includes complete in-product Help and PDF documentation, with updates and

additions as they become available. For some developer products, Help on the web is provided in LiveDocs format,
which enables users to add comments to topics. Visit the Adobe Help Resource Center at

www.adobe.com/go/documentation.

ADOBE FLASH MEDIA ENCODER 2.5

User Guide

Communities Features forums, blogs, and other avenues for users to share technologies, tools, and information.

Users can ask questions and find out how others are getting the most out of their software. User-to-user forums are
available in English, French, German, and Japanese; blogs are posted in a wide range of languages. To participate in
forums or blogs, visit www.adobe.com/communities.

What’s new?

Flash Media Encoder 2.5 includes new features for optimal media quality and encoding and streaming operations.

Support for H.264 Encode live media using the H.264 video codec, and stream it using Flash Media Server 3. Media

is saved as F4V files. F4V files can be viewed in Adobe® Media Player, Adobe® AIR™ applications, and
Adobe® Flash® Player 9.0 Update 3 or later.

Automatic frame dropping To ensure optimal performance even under suboptimal network conditions,

Flash Media Encoder 2.5 automatically drops frames from the RTMP buffer while streaming to Flash Media Server,
as needed.

3

Chapter 2: Getting started

Adobe Flash Media Encoder is a software program for capturing, encoding, and streaming audio and video to
Flash Media Server or the Adobe Flash Video Streaming Service.

Flash Media Encoder is designed for technical audio/video producers who seek a convenient and simplified
workflow. It provides a unified interface to audio and video capture devices, basic editing tools, fine control over
encoding parameters, and live broadcast using Flash Media Server or Flash Video Streaming Service providers.
Flash Media Encoder can also be run from a command-line interface, making it possible to set up continuously
running encoding sessions and integrate them with existing automated systems.

For more information about Flash Media Encoder and related products and services, see the following sites:

Flash Media Encoder www.adobe.com/go/learn_fme_main_en

Flash Media Server www.adobe.com/go/fms

Flash Media Solution Provider Program www.adobe.com/go/fmsp

Flash Video Streaming Service www.adobe.com/go/fvss

4

Flash Media Encoder basics

The following sections describe the basic operations to get you started with Flash Media Encoder.

About GUI and command-line modes

You can run Flash Media Encoder from the graphical user interface (GUI) or from the command line. Some opera­tions are available in only one of the two modes, and some are available in both modes.

Start the Flash Media Encoder GUI

❖ Do any one of the following:

• Select Start > All Programs > Adobe > Flash Media Encoder 2.5

• From a command prompt in your Flash Media Encoder installation directory (typically C:\Program

Files\Adobe\Flash Media Encoder 2.5), enter the following:

FMEcmd /g [/p [path\]profile.xml] [/ap userID:password] [/ab userID:password]

The /g parameter starts Flash Media Encoder in GUI mode. For information on the optional /p, /ap, and /ab
parameters, see “Start Flash Media Encoder in command-line mode” on page 6.

ADOBE FLASH MEDIA ENCODER 2.5

User Guide

About the Flash Media Encoder GUI

The Flash Media Encoder GUI includes a menu, a preview of input and output video, and a control panel where you
can configure encoding options, view and configure encoding logs, and start and stop encoding sessions.

5

A. Menus B. Previews C. Control panel D. Control buttons

Previewing video and audio

The Preview panel in the Flash Media Encoder GUI includes the following:

• An audio level meter, indicating input audio volume, and a mute button

• An Input display of the video currently being captured

• An Output display, which reflects current video encoding settings

Note: Before encoding starts, the Output display reflects only crop and resize settings.

By default, the Preview panel is active and appears at actual output size.

Show or hide input video, output video, and audio

❖ Select or deselect the following Preview options:

• Input Video

• Output Video

• Audio

ADOBE FLASH MEDIA ENCODER 2.5

Mute or unmute the audio

❖ Click the speaker icon below the audio level meter.

Adjust the zoom level

❖ Select a percentage from the pop-up menu on the upper right of either the Input or Output preview.

Note: Zoom level does not affect encoding or the stream that viewers see.

Show or hide the control panel

❖ Click the triangle next to the Encoding Options tab.

Start Flash Media Encoder in command-line mode

❖ From a command prompt in your Flash Media Encoder installation directory, enter the following:

FMEcmd [/p [path\]profile.xml] [/l [path\]log_file] [/ap userID:password]

[/ab userID:password] [/t dd:hh:mm] [/r]

Parameter Description

User Guide

6

/p (Optional) Specifies the path and filename of an XML profile to use. If you do not use this parameter, Flash Media Encoder uses

/l (Optional) Specifies the path and filename of an encoding log file. The settings in the log file overrid e the settings specified in

/ap (Required if the primary server requires authentication) Specifies an authenticating user ID and password for the primary

/ab (Required if the backup server requires authentication) Specifies an authenticating user ID and password for the backup

/t (Optional) Instructs Flash Media Encoder to restart after the specified time interval. For more information, see “Scheduling

/r (Optional) Registers the encoding session to restart at an operating system relaunch after a system closure or crash. For more

the default profile, startup.xml. For more information, see “Saving encoding profiles” on page 17.

the currently loaded profile. For more information, see “Using the Encoding Log” on page 7.

server. Because the password is shown in plain text, take care when entering your password.

server. Because the password is shown in plain text, take care when entering your password.

automated maintenance restarts” on page 19.

information, see “Configuring Flash Media Encoder to launch at system startup” on page 20.

Flash Media Encoder launches without displaying the GUI and immediately starts an encoding session.

Encoding and streaming

The following sections describe how to start and stop encoding video, and how to configure an encoding session log.

Start and stop encoding from the GUI

1 Click the Start button in the Flash Media Encoder window.

Note: If both the Stream To Flash Media Server and Save To File options in the Encoding Options tabbed panel are
deselected, the Start button is unavailable.

2 If an authentication dialog box appears, enter your user ID and password.

3 To stop encoding, click Stop.