Video On the Web

I'm looking into getting the 'flv' format to work for the video blog[s] I run. It seems that more and more sites are using flash to put video on the net, because everyone has flash, so it gets over the perennial 'which format should I use' problem.

The main drawback is that all your .avi or .mov clips need to be converted to the .flv format, but that's a small price to pay for everyone being able to see it, without a big fuss.
Flash MX (works well with all older codecs) and Studio 8 (supposedly works well with up to date and commercial codecs) have a video encoder bundled with their software, but I'm using the Riva Encoder, freeware, to achieve the same thing. Riva, as it's freeware, doesn't work with commercial codecs either, but the answer to that is to compress with a simpler (older) codec, and then let Riva do the rest of the compression.

For the player, I'm using the excellent Jeroen Wijering Flash Player, which is free from his site.

Other good news on video on the web is that the BBC is screening all their world cup matches live online to UK residents. Top one BBC!