Cross-platform flv (new great flash movie format) PLAYER. 


THIS ZIP (zip via this link) WILL GET YOU EVERYTHING.
Included: The flv player itself ( N2videoPlayer.swf ); 
a html page that runs it ( N2videoPlayer.html ); a page 
that opens a special resizing html page so that the 
FLV Player runs in a small undecorated, "floating" browser 
window (opener.htm opens specN2videoPlayer.html in its 
own undecorated window and the specN2videoPlayer.html resizes 
itself); and wswf2.htm illustrates embedding the FLV Player, left 
aligned, so it sits on a web page with text wrapping around it 
(on the right), just like a left-aligned jpeg.  (Do not be 'put off' by 
the gobbly-gook I typed instead of words surrounding the Player in 
this sample web page - replace that with your own words!) Also, I have  
included the raw N2videoPlayer.fla file so you can open it in Flash MX 2004 or 
higher and alter it to your desires (but be careful, it is easy to break). 
A major feature of this FLV Player is that you can run movie after movie 
in it, in the same space on a web page (no need to open a Player for each 
movie !) Using it is self-explanatory:  Type the name of the flv file, that 
is the same folder as the Player swf file, into the top Input textbox 
(e.g.: something.flv ) and Click the Play Button. There is also a 
PAUSE/UNPAUSE Button.  Click here for a copy of these directions

At the present time I have only one flv movie in my web site folder. It is 
Movieh.flv.  When any of the web pages running the Player are open in 
your browser (pages from my web site), go ahead and type Movieh.flv in the 
Input textbox and Click the Play Button.  Test the PAUSE/UNPAUSE Button. 
(For very slow connections, press pause and wait a while before continuing 
 to Play the movie, because this allows more to download - that's good to know.) 

If you would like a flv Player that is twice as big in each dimension, width and height: 
CLICK HERE for the videoPlayer2.zip

Final Notes: (1) If the PAUSE/UNPAUSE BUTTON IN THE SEPARATE-WINDOW 
version gets cut off, change the code onload="this.window.resizeTo(350,390);" in 
the body tag of specN2videoPlayer.html so the second parameter is 420 instead of 
390.  (Make this change by opening specN2videoPlayer.html in Notepad or SimpleText 
and Save after making change.  Upload the changed version of this page to your site.  
This change was made in my specN2videoPlayer.html, the page opened BY 
opener.htm (which is a link above). )  (2) If your school has a web page building 
interface, for building your own web pages semi-automatically, some interfaces make 
it difficult to add code to the head of a web page.   **** Solution ****: 
All the script from the first script tag and last tag, shown in the head of opener.htm , 
can be put in body of a page, right after the first body tag (include both start and end  
script tags).  You must still be in some sort of code view of your web page to add this 
script code and you must also add the code for the special link to your own opener 
web page (put that link wherever you like).  The special code in the web page that 
opener.htm opens (i.e., specN2videoPlayer.html) is all in the first body tag and the rest 
of the code is in the body, so you should be able to produce one of these web pages 
for yourself, even with the sort of interface, I have seen (and just described).  (3) In the 
code which embeds the swf Player on that page, you may have to change the address 
of the swf file (in both of the 2 locations it appears) IF your web pages and swf files 
DO NOT get put in the same folder on the web server; swf files often get put in the 
same folder as images, and thus would have an address similar to any image on your 
web pages - and in that case the swf address would be like the address for a jpeg.

Converting Movies to the Great Auto-Streaming FLV Format, for use with the 
efficient quick-loading, quick-running FLV Player (described above):


You can convert any mov, avi, etc., etc., etc. to flv simply by uploading your movie 
to http://youtube.com or to http://video.google.com (or http://myspace.com ). Within a day or so 
THEY will convert it to a great auto-streaming flv which will run in my PLAYER .  Rather than 
hunting in your browser's Temporary Internet Files folder for the flv , you can easily install 
a convenience script(s) in FireFox 1.5 to download viewed flv's WITH A SIMPLE BUTTON 
CLICK from video.google.com and from youtube.com ...  (Note: The button looks different for 
google vs youtube, if you use the 2 different scripts described below).  [Also read the note  
in the green box, at the bottom of this red box - since you can now replace the 2 scripts with 1 !
BUT, be sure to get GreaseMonkey in any case!; so, read on.]

The following links have to do with an add-on to Firefox that will allow you to install scripts to 
download flv files from http://video.google.com and from http://youtube.com automatically,
just by clicking a NEW button (once the firefox extension is installed and once you have, 
after that, loaded the 2 special short scripts).

Update your FireFox to the new 1.5 version and these links will get you the script adder-on-er 
and the 2 scripts needed.

http://www.joshkinberg.com/blog/archives/2005/11/greased_google.php (read green box first)
http://diveintogreasemonkey.org/install/greasemonkey.html
http://diveintogreasemonkey.org/toc/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/748/ <- may be newer/better(?) than older addon available on 
other pages and the add-on is installed just by going to this link.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP AHEAD AT THIS POINT AND READ THE GREEN BOX.

The following will greatly facilitate getting free videos from google and youtube for use with my 
player.

THE SPECIFICS OF THE PROCEDURE TO ADD THE ADD-ON EXTENSION AND 
SCRIPTS TO YOUR FIREFOX BROWSER (this should also be possible with a Mac, since 
everything is cross-platform):

I did all this on my windows xp machine and all works like a charm. Steps:

* update FireFox to 1.5 

* go to the last site in the list (the one with the note) and get the add-on and install it
   (close and restart FireFox) (I used the addons.mozilla.org link above to get this.)

* [read the note in the green box below, before reading on .. OR ... : ]
   download links on Google Video and YouTube scripts from 
   http://www.joshkinberg.com/blog/archives/2005/11/greased_google.php Look for
   links:

       Google Video Getter
       YouTube To Me

       To install these scripts ...

* After downloading the 2 scripts, put them in some convenient folder 

* Do a File -> Open File to Browse to the first script using your FireFox browser 
and, once there, Do a Tools -> Install Script

[Repeat this with the second script]

That's it.  Go to http://youtube.com or http://video.google.com and view a video.  After viewing 
it, click on a new button to download the FLV video you just viewed.  They run in my Player.

NEWS, SEPT, 2006:  There is now a single add-on that works to download flv files from 
Google, YouTube, myspace and perhaps other places.  (I tested it on those three sites and it 
works well; plus it is very well-reviewed.)  The link to get this add-on is via mozilla.org itself: 
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3006/ .  I recommend this, esp. since Temp. Internet Folders 
and files are getting a bit more inconvenient to find.  NOTE: The script, once installed, runs 
from the Tools menu, unlike the other 2 scripts described!!

NOTE ALSO: A free tool for converting avi's to flv's is described above, in the Display Utility section.