MP3 in Flash
Flash with video and sound at this point is still a little foreign to me. However, I thought I would mention putting an MP3 into Flash after reading a discussion on the Flashnewbie mailing list.
The Flash manual (as quoted by Helen Triolo) suggests that you can load an MP3 into your swf and set it to streaming.
//code from Helen
loadSound (Sound.loadSound method)
public loadSound(url:String, isStreaming:Boolean) : Void
//Loads an MP3 file into a Sound object. You can use the isStreaming
parameter to indicate whether the sound is an event or a streaming sound.
//Event sounds are completely loaded before they play. They are managed by
the ActionScript Sound class and respond to all methods and properties
of this class.
//Streaming sounds play while they are downloading. Playback begins when
sufficient data has been received to start the decompressor.
Jason Merrill, another list member, argued however that even though this method was documented as being streaming audio it was not true streaming audio. It was actually a progressive download. Meaning that audio was not played as it was downloaded. But rather it was loaded and then played. He noted that to in fact stream audio from Flash you needed a Flash media server in place. (The Flash media server is expensive and cost prohibitive to most designers/developers.)