Adobe’s long awaited update to the FLV streaming video format, now called F4V, has finally come to fruition. It is true that F4V was supported as of version 9.0.r115 of the Flash player, but options were extremely limited as far as how to encode a video in that format. Included with each version of Creative Suite 4 (and Flash CS4 if purchased separately) is what Adobe is referring to as “Adobe Media Encoder CS4″. This is a substantial upgrade to the original “Flash Video Encoder” that has been around since Flash 8 was released, and includes a number of enhancements and major bug fixes. The most notable of these is the ability to encode to the new F4V format, which uses the H.264 video codec. This means that we can stream our videos in HD using a native Adobe Flash video format. Word on the street is that Flash Media Server 3 will get a significant upgrade any day now to support streaming of F4V files. It is unknown at this time whether or not this upgrade will actually be referred to as FMS4.

To get started with the F4V format, simply open the Flash Media Encoder CS4 program, and click “Add”. Now select a video file. Select the first arrow icon under “Format”.

The file that I selected was a .MOV file. However, assuming I want to use the F4V file format, I need to have “FLV | F4V” selected. Next, click the arrow icon under “Preset”, and choose “Edit Export Settings…” After selecting the Edit Export Settings option, a new window is brought up with a wide array of settings to customize the encoding. This is where we really see the enhancements that have been made with the new encoder. Now select the “video” tab in the middle of the window. Selecting the Video tab reveals a number of customization options.

After you’ve finished customizing the encoding options, select “OK” and then “Start Queue”. Your video will now start encoding with the options you selected. It is worth noting that you can save your customizations as a preset for easy access later.

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