www.mediacollege.com | Support Forum
MC Media Player

Using SWF Files with MC Media Player

There are two ways to use SWF files with the media player:

  1. Using the Info Screen in SWF mode.
  2. Playing SWF files in the main screen (in the playlist or as a dfile).

In either case it is useful to useful to be aware that you are playing one SWF file inside another — the MC Media Player file is the "parent", your file is the "child". This is important because there are some issues and limitations when doing this in Flash.

SWF Video Clips

I strongly recommend against using the SWF format for video. It does not work well, and Adobe also recommends against it. Use FLV or one of the H.264 formats instead (mp4, mov).

Pixel Size

Info Screen files should be 210x160 pixels. Files to be played in the main screen should be 480x288 pixels.

Note regarding Info Screen files: If you have elements in the file which lie outside the stage, they may be visible when played in the player. This is because the stage size of the Info File (210x160) is ignored now that it is being played inside a larger file. The solution is to create a mask layer in the SWF file which is 210x160 pixels.

Frame Rate (Playback Speed)

All SWF files will play in the player at 12 frames per second. This is because a child movie always take on the frame rate of it's parent movie. The media player is set to 12fps because this is the Flash default and the most commonly-used frame rate.

If you find that your files are playing at the wrong speed, you need to remake them at 12fps.

Looping, Pausing, Linking, etc

There are many options for developing linked, looping and/or interactive SWF files. This sort of thing is recommended for advanced users only, but here are a few tips for making your own SWF files:

Back to MC Media Player main page