15-Minute Reviews :: AVS Video to Flash v1.2.1.48
Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is AVS Video to Flash version 1.2.1.48 by Online Media Technologies – An application to convert various video formats to Flash video format.
Software Description
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Convert your favorite video files and DVD movies to the flash format and place them to your web page.
The page will be created for you as well.”
Quick Pros
- Easy-to-use one-page layout
- 6 Flash overlay templates included
- Ability to set auto-loop and auto-start, as well as crop and image watermark
- Service is quite quick – Quicker with preview off, and good quality
Quick Cons
- Interface isn’t as friendly or nice as other AVS titles
- No batch or trimming functionality
- Help file not included – Separate download
Expansion
The application is extremely straightforward in interface. The entire application is placed into a single window. The main window has a preview pane taking up a good portion of the window in the bottom left corner. The remainder of the screen is filled with the settings, including source/destination, conversion settings profile (Which is customizable), as well as further options as well. The interface doesn’t seem as polished as other AVS tools reviewed previously, but it is not too bad either.
While the application does seem rather minimalistic, the application does have some useful features. First, there is the overlay controls – If you chose to use the Create SWF Player and HTML page setting, you have the choice between 6 different built-in overlays – Some of them are actually quite interesting. There is no information on adding your own however, but if you do browse to the Skins folder inside the install folder, it is just a matter of figuring out the BMP files used to auto-build the overlay (There even seems to be more themes either in the works or simply taken out for the Giveaway – In the html folder there appears to be 14 named themes there). There is a few other options included as well such as loop video, auto-start, crop video and add an image watermark (the last one is short on most options except positioning).
I found that the conversion process is quite quick; To convert and scale down a 2-minute 15.6MB file took about 32 seconds; If you disable the preview functionality, it actually drops down to 25 seconds. The resulting quality is relative to what the bitrates are and nothing seeming out of the ordinary for defects either.
This application does seem to be missing a few things however. The file-at-a-time capability is a bit awkward, especially for those of you who may upload frequently. There is also no trim feature (A feature that I look for myself for camcorder use so I’m not using multiple conversions,) which forces you to do some preprocessing of your videos in many cases before you hit this application. Finally, as with all AVS titles I’ve tested so far, the help file is not included – It is always a separate download.
Final Verdict
Overall, while the application does feel not as polished of an interface and a few oversights on included features, the application does do well for what it does do. For free, if you are looking for a video to Flash converter, this might be an option for you if you want to tinker with their skinning system – I do recommend looking around however, since there are freeware alternatives such as Riva VX and many more out there. As for paying $29 for this title, I couldn’t bring myself to pay that for this title; However, if you look at the AVS 4 You website registration page, you will see that $29 will get you a 1-year subscription to all of the AVS titles ($69 for lifetime – Up $10) which contains a large collection of tools (Many of which are good quality). At this price, it would be worth it.
Posted by BladedThoth on Friday, February 01, 2008
