The update to my original Adobe Press book on video and Flash is finally available in bookstores! The new edition has a different title too: Video with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Studio Techniques. I’ve updated this book to cover the Flash CS4 IDE, as well as adding important updates that weren’t released when the last edition went to print:

• AVC/H.264 encoding tips, including coverage of CABAC, B-frames, and Main/High profiles
• Discussion of my new Web Video Bitrate Starter application, which helps you get started with the right video and audio bitrate for your preferred video dimensions, frame rate, video codec, and audio codec.
• Updates to chapters covering real-time streaming (via RTMP) and Flash Media Server (FMS) 3.5 dynamic streaming

I also created a video encoding tutorial covering Flash-compatible output for DesignProVideo.com. If you’d rather learn by watching step-by-step how to create high quality video, or you want to augment the coverage of my book with more hands-on examples, then you’ll like this video training. But don’t take my word on it–just read this review on the forums at DesignProVideo.

Gotta get back to a client job–it’s a pretty sweet AIR app. More details when the product has been launched this summer.

While I’ve helped other people create HTML-based emails, I haven’t had to do it for myself. After a lot of tests on various email clients, I finally released my first newsletter to about 6500 e-mail addresses, collected from my registration database at FlashSupport.com, old mailing lists I use to run, and LinkedIn.com. You can view the mailing online. I used poMMo to manage the announcement mailing list. So far, it’s been a great tool with excellent administration features, including subscription management.

Fill out the subscription form if you’d like to receive future announcements.

Snow and I recorded over _6 hours_ of Flash CS4 training for the designprovideo.com site! Check the main page for the series here:

http://www.designprovideo.com/tutorial/flashcs4101

There are free downloads available as well. The NED Player that the video series uses is pretty nice too. Check it out! Here’s the table of contents:

Chapter 1: Part 1
Section 1: Interface Fundamentals
01. Introduction
02. Start Page
03. Preferences
04. Document Properties
05. File, Edit, View Menus, and Using Rulers
06. Using Snapping and Window Overview
07. Document Window: Stage, Pasteboard, and View Settings
08. Panels and Workspace Layouts
09. Customizing Workspace Layouts
10. The Timeline: Working with Layers
11. The Timeline: Working with Frames
12. Properties Panel
13. Tools Panel

Section 2: Introduction to Publishing and Managing Flash Movies
14. Section Overview
15. Quick Publish HTML and Flash Movie
16. Accessing the Publish Settings
17. Flash Settings: Player and Script Version
18. Flash Settings: Global Image and Sound Quality
19. Flash Settings: Global SWF Settings
20. HTML Settings: Template Options for Full Screen Mode
21. HTML Settings: Detect Flash Version
22. HTML Settings: Dimensions
23. Working with Test Movie
24. Using the Play Command
25. The Bandwidth Profiler: Frame-by-Frame and Streaming Graphs
26. The Bandwidth Profiler: Simulate Download
27. Employing Adobe

Michael Hurwicz wrote a well-balanced review of my Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Video Studio Techniques book on CreativeCOW.net. Check it out!

http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/taxplans/

Oops, I copied and pasted the wrong URL! That’s the difference between Obama and McCain’s tax plans. I meant this link:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hurwicz_michael/flash_cs3.php

I was asked by Sorenson to provide my quick tips for Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 for their November newsletter, and I just found the newsletter in my inbox! You can view the newsletter online to forward to a friend. Two out of five tips were included in this month’s newsletter, with the remaining three to be posted in the December newsletter:

1. DO determine a proper bitrate (or data rate) for your Flash Video content. Squeeze includes several presets for Flash Video to get your started. If you need a wide range of data rates for your deployment, encode several FLV files by applying multiple presets to the same source file.
2. DON’T be tempted to change the image quality setting in your compression preset(s), especially if you will be deploying your Flash Video with a streaming service provider such as Akamai, Limelight, or a Flash Media Server hosting company like Influxis.com. The image quality setting will override the bitrate value you’ve specified for the preset, or alter the frame rate if you elect to drop frames to maintain image quality. Neither of these outcomes is desirable.

I just lauched my latest tutorial on adding navigation cue points to Flash Video (FLV) files on Community MX:

http://www.communitymx.com/abstract.cfm?cid=E801B

In this tutorial, you learn how to use the updated Video Import wizard of Flash Pro 8 to add cue points to a video clip that you encode in the FLV format.

If you’re not a subscriber to Community MX, you can get an extended free trial* at:

http://www.communitymx.com/promo

*Note that any trial subscribers automatically become paid subscriptions after the trial period.

I’m maintaining a Flash Video FAQ on Community MX, at the following URL:

http://tinyurl.com/7dnrd

If you