Daryl, Some other people like will give you different and probably better answers about why people use anything other than Flash, and views about quality/downloadability versus streaming, etc.
I'll stick to the Flash version / compatibility thing because I happen to have the numbers to hand. It's true that most people have *A* version of Flash - but it's a question of what version and how techie your audience are. Adobe say 98% of computers have Flash player. Something like 90-95% worldwide have Flash 7, which is what YouTube plays on, but it uses an old compression format and isn't very good quality. So a lot of people might like to provide a higher quality (say Quicktime) alternative if streaming with Flash 7. Flash 8 and the new Flash 9 offer *much* better quality, but far fewer people in the general population have them. Flash 9 has only 56% penetration in 'Mature Markets' (rich countries). That's less than Quicktime or Windows Media Player or even Real. See: http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/ version_penetration.html and http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/ (These are optimistic, and I think they've made a mistake in their Emerging Markets Flash 9 figure) To use a Blip.tv video, a lot of people will have to download an updated player - and even though it's only a couple of meg, it's too much for many non techie people. I'm amazed how many of my family and friends (in their 30s!) call me up and say "It tells me I need Flash 9 player, so I couldn't see it." or "You'll have to install it next time you're round". The phone call has involved more time and effort than clicking the link to install Flash 9, but they don't know that. They're used to clicking a YouTube link and seeing the video, no effort. Giving all the formats means you widen the options for your audience. Just one reason to do this is so that they can set an aggregator such as iTunes to download high quality QT files and use them in things like iPods. I watch most vlogs on an iPod at the moment, travelling between clients on the tube and bus. (No doubt I'll soon get mugged.) It's possible to convert a flv file to iPod and transfer it, but too much hassle. This way, they just come in automatically. By using a program like VisualHub, you can do multiple format conversions, upload them to Blip (who let you upload multiple versions) and give your audience the choice. Then, if you see some formats are not getting enough hits to justify the effort, stop providing them. Rupert Rupert http://www.fatgirlinohio.org http://www.crowdabout.us/fatgirlinohio/myshow/ On 15 Mar 2007, at 13:19, Daryl Urig wrote: Thanks for all of your responces since I originally posted this question. I guess my real question was why not use flash to publish a video using a .swf file? I thought 80 - 90% of the computers had the flash plug in in their browser to play a swf file. Would this not be easier than having to save your video file in so many different versions so everyone can play what you post, in one post? Daryl [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
