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Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–11. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different video file formats known as Flash Video: FLV and F4V. The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same manner as they are within SWF files. The latter F4V file format is based on the ISO base media file format and is starting with Flash Player 9 update 3.^[1][2] Both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and currently developed by Adobe Systems. FLV was originally developed by Macromedia.

Flash Video has been accepted as the default online video format by many sites. Notable users of it include YouTube, Hulu, VEVO, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other news providers.

The standards documentation for BBC Online states that the BBC now preferentially accepts Flash videos for submission, to the disadvantage of other formats previously in use on its sites^[3] such as RealVideo or WMV.

Flash Video FLV files usually contain material encoded with codecs following the Sorenson Spark or VP6 video compression formats. The most recent public releases of Flash Player (collaboration between Adobe Systems and MainConcept) also support H.264 video and HE-AAC audio.^[4] All of these compression formats are currently restricted by patents.

Flash Video is viewable on most operating systems via the Adobe Flash Player and web browser plugin or one of several third-party programs. Apple's iOS devices do not support the Flash Player plugin and so require other delivery methods such as provided by the Adobe Flash Media Server.^[5]

History[link]

Support for video in SWF file format was added in Flash Player 6, released in 2002. In 2003, Flash Player 7 added direct support for FLV file format. Because of restrictions in the FLV file format, Adobe Systems has created in 2007 new file formats listed below, based on the ISO base media file format (MPEG-4 Part 12). Flash Player does not check the extension of the file, but rather looks inside the file to detect which format it is.^[6][7] The new file formats are completely different from the older FLV file format. For example, F4V does not support Screen video, Sorenson Spark, VP6 video compression formats and ADPCM, Nellymoser audio compression formats.^[1][7] Authors of Flash Player strongly encourage everyone to embrace the new standard file format F4V (ISO base media file format). There are functional limits with the FLV structure when streaming H.264 or AAC which could not be overcome without a redesign of the file format. This is one reason why Adobe Systems is moving away from the traditional FLV file structure.^[7]

SWF files published for Flash Player 6 and later versions are able to exchange audio, video, and data over RTMP connections with the Adobe Flash Media Server. One way to feed data to Flash Media Server is from files in the FLV file format. Starting with SWF files created for Flash Player 7, Flash Player can play FLV file format directly (MIME type video/x-flv). Starting with SWF files created for Flash Player 9 Update 3, Flash Player can also play the new F4V file format.^[1]

• Use of the H.264 and AAC compression formats in the FLV file format has some limitations and authors of Flash Player strongly encourage everyone to embrace the new standard F4V file format.^[7]

Encoding[link]

Commonly, Flash Video FLV files contain video bit streams which are a proprietary variant of the H.263 video standard,^[12] under the name of Sorenson Spark (FourCC FLV1).^[13][14] Sorenson Spark is an older codec for FLV files but it is also a widely available and compatible one, because it was the first video codec supported in Flash Player.^[15] It is the required video compression format for Flash Player 6 and 7.^[16][17] Flash Player 8 and newer revisions also support the playback of On2 TrueMotion VP6 video bit streams (FourCC VP6F or FLV4). On2 VP6 is the preferred video compression format for use with Flash Player 8 and higher.^[8][13] On2 VP6 can provide a higher visual quality than Sorenson Spark, especially when using lower bit rates. On the other hand it is computationally more complex and therefore will not run as well on certain older system configurations.^[16][18]

The Flash Video FLV file format supports two versions of a so called 'screenshare' (Screen video) codec which is an encoding format designed for screencasts. Both these formats are bitmap tile based, can be lossy by reducing color depths and are compressed using zlib. The second version is only playable in Flash Player 8 and newer.

Audio in Flash Video files is usually encoded as MP3. However, audio in Flash Video FLV files recorded from the user's microphone use the proprietary Nellymoser Asao Codec.^[9] (Flash Player 10 released in 2008 also supports the open source Speex codec.^[19]) FLV files also support uncompressed audio or ADPCM format audio. Recent versions of Flash Player 9 support AAC (HE-AAC/AAC SBR, AAC Main Profile, and AAC-LC).^[10]

Support for encoding Flash Video files is provided by an encoding tool included with Adobe's Flash Professional and Creative Suite products, On2's Flix encoding tools, Sorenson Squeeze, FFmpeg and other third party tools.

Media type support[link]

Supported media types in FLV file format:^[1]

• Video: On2 VP6, Sorenson Spark (Sorenson H.263), Screen video, H.264
• Audio: MP3, ADPCM, Linear PCM, Nellymoser, Speex, AAC, G.711 (reserved for internal use)

Supported media types in F4V file format:^[1]

• Video: H.264
• Images (still frame of video data): GIF, PNG, JPEG
• Audio: AAC, HE-AAC, MP3

FLV converters[link]

An FLV converter is a type of video conversion software that is used for turning videos from different formats into FLV. Below is a list of popular free video converters which supports conversion to FLV.

• SUPER (freeware)
• Free Studio (freeware)
• Freemake Video Converter (freeware)
• Format Factory (freeware)
• HandBrake Video Converter (GPL-licensed free software)

These programs run under Windows7/Vista/XP. HandBrake also under Mac OS X and Linux.

FLV File Structure[link]

Header[link]

FLV files start with a standard header which is shown below:^[20]

Tags[link]

Followed the header, the file is split into packets called FLV tags which are delineated by 11-byte headers and 4-byte footers. The first byte of the tag denotes the packet type as follows:

• 0 × 12 – Metadata packet
• 0 × 08 – Audio packet
• 0 × 09 – Video packet

FLV Tag Structure

Following that, we find 3 bytes denoting length, 3 denoting the timestamp and 4 denoting the stream id. There is a direct relation between the fields encountered in an FLV Tag and those found in a RTMP packet, as for example the FLV Packet Type field uses the same numeric values as the RTMP Chunk Type field (ex. 0 × 08 for audio and 0 × 09 for video). FLV tags are thus converted into RTMP packets when the file is streamed through a Flash Media Server or equivalent RTMP Server. Each tag ends with 4 bytes denoting the total length of the packet which is the length found in the header plus 11 bytes for the header. Between the tag header and footer is found the compressed media data that will eventually be passed to the codec.

The first packet encountered is usually a metadata packet which contains information such as

• width/height – as an integer
• duration
• framerate
• keyframes – an array with the positions of p-frames, needed when random access is sought.

When streamed using an Actionscript built player, the metadata values above are passed as arguments on the onMetaData callback function.

FLV players[link]

An FLV player is a type of media player that is used for playing Flash video from PC as well as from Internet websites. An FLV player can be used standalone, without the need of the Adobe Flash authoring or developmental tools. It can also be embedded in the website using Flash component or embeddable version of FLV player.

Flash Player[link]

The Adobe Flash Player is a multimedia and application player originally developed by Macromedia and acquired by Adobe Systems. It plays SWF files, which can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, Adobe Flex, or a number of other Adobe Systems and 3rd party tools. It has support for a scripting language called ActionScript, which can be used to display Flash Video from an SWF file. Because the Flash Player runs as a browser plug-in, it is possible to embed Flash Video in web pages and view the video within a web browser.

Flash Player 9 Update 3, released on 3 December 2007,^[21] also includes support for the new Flash Video file format F4V and H.264 video standard (also known as MPEG-4 part 10, or AVC) which is even more computationally demanding, but offers significantly better quality/bitrate ratio.^[22] Specifically, Flash Player now supports video compressed in H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), audio compressed using AAC (MPEG-4 Part 3), the F4V, MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), M4V, M4A, 3GP and MOV multimedia container formats, 3GPP Timed Text specification (MPEG-4 Part 17) which is a standardized subtitle format and partial parsing support for the 'ilst' atom which is the ID3 equivalent iTunes uses to store metadata. MPEG-4 Part 2 video (e.g. created with DivX or Xvid) is not supported.^[6] In an interview with BBC News, the main programmer of Flash Jonathan Gay said that the company had wanted to use H.264 when video support was originally added to Flash, but had been deterred by the patent licensing fees of around $5million (£3.5million) per year.^[23]

Desktop-based[link]

Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Unix-based

• Adobe Media Player (freeware) (no longer published or supported by Adobe)
• Media Player Classic (free software)
• MPlayer (free software)
• RealPlayer (freeware)
• VLC media player (free software)
• Winamp (freeware)

Mac OS devices can play flash videos in QuickTime with the help of additional software (such as the open source Perian component.)
IrfanView (freeware)'s plugins package supports FLV if the IE version of Flash Player is installed; and, unlike some of the above listed players, it is small and has neither advertisements, nor registration (for home use), nor license-legalese.

PDA-based and smartphone-based[link]

Windows Mobile, PalmOS-based

• The Core Pocket Media Player (open source software)

The iPhone and Android devices can play flash videos with the help of additional software (such as the Skyfire web browser application.) Versions of Android above 2.1 support flash unlike Apple's iOS.

Delivery options[link]

Flash Video files can be delivered in several different ways:

• As a standalone .FLV file. Although Flash Video files are normally delivered using a Flash player for control, the .FLV file itself is only playable with an FLV player. There are several third party players available.
• Embedded in an SWF file using the Flash authoring tool (supported in Flash Player 6 and later). The entire file must be transferred before playback can begin. Changing the video requires rebuilding the SWF file.
• Progressive download via HTTP (supported in Flash Player 7 and later). This method uses ActionScript to include an externally hosted Flash Video file client-side for playback. Progressive download has several advantages, including buffering, use of generic HTTP servers, and the ability to reuse a single SWF player for multiple Flash Video sources. Flash Player 8 includes support for random access within video files using the partial download functionality of HTTP, sometimes this is referred to as streaming. However, unlike streaming using RTMP, HTTP "streaming" does not support real-time broadcasting. Streaming via HTTP requires a custom player and the injection of specific Flash Video metadata containing the exact starting position in bytes and timecode of each keyframe. Using this specific information, a custom Flash Video player can request any part of the Flash Video file starting at a specified keyframe. For example, Google Video, Youtube, and Bitgravity support progressive downloading and can seek to any part of the video before buffering is complete. The server-side part of this "HTTP pseudo-streaming" method is fairly simple to implement, for example in PHP, as an Apache module, or using lighttpd.
• Streamed via RTMP to the Flash Player using the Flash Media Server (formerly called Flash Communication Server), VCS, ElectroServer, Helix Universal Server, Wowza Media Server, WebORB for .NET, WebORB for Java, erlyvideo (in erlang), or the open source Red5 server. As of April 2008, there are stream recorders available for this protocol, re-encoding screencast software excluded.
• Flash Media Server 4.5 allows Flash video streaming to iPhones and iPads. It achieves this by delivering the content in an MPEG-2 stream using the HTTP Live Streaming format.^[24]

Flash video recording[link]

It is possible to record online flash videos using stream recorders and screen video capture software. The former gives lossless results, while the latter allows recording any video even when anti-leeching measures are used.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

	Information technology portal
	Internet portal

• Local Shared Object
• SWFObject

References[link]

External links[link]

• Flash Developer Center – Flash Video Articles
• Flash Video (FLV) File Format Specification (adobe.com)
• List of codecs supported by Adobe Flash Player versions from 6 to 9 (adobe.com)
• Macromedia Flash FLV Video File Format (Library of Congress)

Grandmaster Flash
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Saddler
Born	(1958-01-01) January 1, 1958 (age 54)
Origin	South Bronx, New York
Genres	Hip hop, old school hip hop, funk
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Sugar Hill Records, Enjoy Records, Elektra Records
Associated acts	Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five The Sugarhill Gang

Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados), better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ—one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing.

He has been credited with the invention of the first crossfade by sourcing parts from a junkyard in the Bronx. It was initially an On/Off toggle switch from an old microphone that he transformed into a left/right switch which allowed him to switch from one turntable to another; switch from record one to record two.

Before this time DJs, like the first of them all, DJ Kool Herc, and then Afrika Bambaataa, would have to break up the party to pick up the needle and re-drop it on the record, or a new record; until Flash invented a new way to link one record to the other with the cross-fader. After this invention he went from being called Flash to Grandmaster Flash, having made a huge impact on the culture, he was repaid with this honorific name.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first hip hop/rap artists to be so honored.^[1]

Biography[link]

Joseph Saddler's family migrated to the United States from Barbados, in the Caribbean, and he grew up in The Bronx, New York. He attended Samuel Gompers High School, a public vocational school, where he learned how to repair electronic equipment.^[2] Saddler's parents played an important role in his interest in music. His parents came from Barbados and his father was a big fan of Caribbean and black American records. As a child, Saddler was fascinated by his father's record collection. In an interview, he reflected: "My father was a very heavy record collector. He still thinks that he has the stronger collection. I used to open his closets and just watch all the records he had. I used to get into trouble for touching his records, but I'd go right back and bother them."^[3] Saddler's early interest in DJing came from this fascination with his father's record collection as well as his mother's desire for him to educate himself in electronics.^[4] After high school, he became involved in the earliest New York DJ scene, attending parties set up by early luminaries.

He is also a nephew to the late Former Feather Weight Champion of the World Sandy Saddler.^[5]

Innovations[link]

Grandmaster Flash carefully studied the DJing styles and techniques of earlier DJs, particularly Pete Jones, Kool Herc, and Grandmaster Flowers.^[6] As a teenager, he began experimenting with DJ gear in his bedroom, eventually developing and mastering three innovations that are still considered standard DJing techniques today.

• Backspin Technique ("Quick-Mix Theory") a.k.a. Early New York party DJs came to understand that short drum breaks were popular with party audiences. Aiming to isolate these breaks and extend them for longer durations, Grandmaster Flash learned that by using duplicate copies of the same record, he could play the break on one record while searching for the same fragment of music on the other (using his headphones). When the break finished on one turntable, he used his mixer to switch quickly to the other turntable, where the same beat was queued up and ready to play. Using the backspin technique, the same short phrase of music could be looped indefinitely.
• Punch Phrasing ("Clock Theory"): This technique involved isolating very short segments of music, typically horn hits, and rhythmically punching them over the sustained beat using the mixer.
• Scratching: Although the invention of record scratching is generally credited to Grand Wizzard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash perfected the technique and brought it to new audiences. Scratching, along with punch phrasing, exhibited a unique performative aspect of party DJing: instead of passively spinning records, he manipulated them to create new music.^[7]

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five[link]

Grandmaster Flash played parties and collaborated with rappers such as Kurtis Blow and Lovebug Starski. In the mid 1970s, he formed his own group. The original lineup consisted of Cowboy (Keith Wiggins), Melle Mel (Melvin Glover) and Kid(d) Creole (Nathaniel Glover), and the ensemble went by the name "Grandmaster Flash & the 3 MCs". Two other rappers briefly joined, but they were replaced more permanently by Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams, previously in the Funky Four) and Scorpio (Eddie Morris, a.k.a. Mr. Ness) to make Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Quickly gaining recognition for their skillful raps, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five pioneered MCing and freestyle battles. Some of the staple phrases in MCing have their origins in the early shows and recordings of the group. In 1977, the new group began performing regularly at Disco Fever in the Bronx, one of the first times a hip-hop group was given a weekly gig at a well-known venue.^[8] In fact, it is claimed that Cowboy created the term "Hip hop" while teasing a friend who had just joined the U.S. Army by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers.^[9]

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were signed to Bobby Robinson's Enjoy Records and in 1979 released their first single, "Superrappin'." The following year they signed to Sugar Hill Records and began touring and releasing numerous singles. The seminal "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel", released in 1981, is a 7-minute solo showcase of Grandmaster Flash's virtuosic turntable skills, combining elements of Blondie's "Rapture," Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache," Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," Chic's "Good Times," and the group's own "Freedom." It is also the first documented appearance of record scratching on a record. That year, the group opened for The Clash and were poorly received by an audience unaccustomed to the new style.^[10] The group's most significant hit was "The Message" (1982), which was produced by in-house Sugar Hill producer Clifton "Jiggs" Chase and featured session musician Duke Bootee. Unlike earlier rap tunes, "The Message" featured a grim narrative about inner city violence, drugs, and poverty. In 2002, its first year of archival, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, the first hip hop recording ever to receive this honor. Critics praised the song's social awareness, calling the chorus "a slow chant seething with desperation and fury."^[11] Other than Melle Mel, however, no members of the group actually appear in the song. Rahiem lip-synced Duke Bootee's vocal in the music video. The same year, Grandmaster Flash appeared in the movie "Wild Style" and sued Sugar Hill over the non-payment of royalties. Tensions mounted as "The Message" gained in popularity, eventually leading to a rupture between Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash. Soon the group disintegrated entirely. Grandmaster Flash, Kid Creole, and Rahiem left Sugar Hill, signed with Elektra Records, and continued on as simply "Grandmaster Flash", while Melle Mel and the others continued on as "Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five".

Although frequently credited on the records, Grandmaster Flash doesn't actually appear on "The Message," "Freedom," or many of the other Furious Five songs.^[7] Although Grandmaster Flash provided the central element of the group's sound when performing live (in addition to giving the group its name), there was little room for his turntablism in early singles driven by the grooves of live session musicians. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five reformed in 1987 for a charity concert, and in 1988 they released a new album. The group reunited again in 1994, although Cowboy died in 1989.

Today, Grandmaster Flash is the owner of a clothing line, "G.Phyre."^[12] In 2008 he released a memoir, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats.^[13] He hosts a weekly show on Sirius Satellite Radio (Friday Night Fire with Grandmaster Flash)^[14] and was presented with the BET "I Am Hip Hop Icon" award in 2006.^[15]

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were the first hip-hop/rap group inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007 by Jay-Z.^[16] In 2008, he remixed the single "Into the Galaxy" by the Australian group, Midnight Juggernauts.^[17]

It has been said that "his pioneering mixing skills transformed the turntable into a true 'instrument', and his ability to get a crowd moving has made his DJ sets legendary." ^[18]

Grandmaster Flash appears in the video game DJ Hero as a playable character along with original mixes created for the game.^[19]

On his last album, The Bridge, appears the Spanish hip hop group Violadores del Verso.

Grandmaster Flash is currently working on his 12th album, set for release this spring.^[20]

Awards[link]

Grammys

• 2012 Hall of Fame for Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five single “The Message.”

Urban Music Awards

• 2009, Lifetime Achievement Award

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

• 2007, Inductee

BET Hip Hop Awards

• 2006, I Am Hip Hop Icon Award

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

• 1979 - Superappin' (Enjoy 6001) Side A - Superappin'; Side B - Superappin' Theme
• 1980 - Freedom (Sugar Hill SH-549) Side A - vocal; Side B - instrumental
• 1981 - The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (Sugar Hill SH-557)
• 1981 - Scorpio (Sugar Hill SH 118) Side A - vocal; Side B - instrumental
• 1982 - Flash To The Beat (Sugar Hill SH 574)
• 1984 - Jesse (Sugar Hill SH 133) Side A - vocal; Side B - instrumental
• 1984 - We Don't Work For Free (Sugar Hill SH 136) Side A - vocal; Side B - instrumental
• 1988 - Gold (edit) (Elektra EKR 70)
• 1996 - If U Wanna Party (feat. Carl Murray) (JAM 1002-8)

^{[21] [22]}

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (May 2012)

• Grandmaster Flash Official Page
• Official website of 2009 album The Bridge
• Grandmaster Flash on Myspace
• Grandmaster Flash Biography
• Grandmaster Cuts Faster
• Grandmaster Flash interview from Chaos Control Digizine
• Davey D of Hard Knock Radio Interviews Grandmaster Flash
• Grandmaster Flash interview on Fresh Air
• Grandmaster Flash interview April 2009
• Interview
• Article
• Pop Matters: interview
• Brian S Redd Interview
• DJ Tutor Interview