FLV vs. SWF

[kac]

I used CS 4 to produce two versions of a 4 min. video, one FLV and one SWF-- to get a comparable level of quality, the FLV file size was much larger, nearly 3x as much. Can you tell me if I am correct in assuming:

1. as a flv, it is a progressive download, meaning the file plays while it's being downloaded-- so the larger file should not take any longer than the SWF to load and begin playing.

2. even though the swf is a smaller file, it must actually download the entire file before beginning play.

3. the flv will eat-up more bandwidth to play through because it's a larger file size. This can be a concern when it comes to $ if I have a whole series of flvs-- if the files are x3 larger, it will cost 3x more in bandwidth.

Thanks

[brooks]

If you have high motion content flv will actually result in smaller file sizes than swf.

Swf output can be of lossless quality whereas flv is lossy (compressed).

Swf is limited to 16,000 frames for a single timeline which means longer videos or higher framerates may not be possible.

Flv is framerate independent and designed to provide true video capabilities to Flash.

Both swf and flv files are progressive and do not require the entire file to be downloaded in order to begin playback.

Larger files do result in increased bandwidth usage.


Hope that helps,