Ka of Isis: A remedy for mute Flash FLA movies

Sound in FLV movies stops after a few seconds

6 September, 2010 | Filed under “Flash”

I have stumbled upon the problem on several occasions and I never seem to be able to memorize the solution. As such, this article is more of a note to self. A reference for days to come.

A good case in point are flv movies ripped from YouTube. They have a tendency to resist importing into Flash (or more precisely: be referenced as streaming movies from an swf parent file). Adobe Media Encoder chokes on its own media file type – at least in Flash CS3 and CS4 – necessitating a detour via QuickTime Pro with the Perian collection of components to aid in a long-winded conversion process via the mov format and once again through the Media Encoder for proper, well, encoding.

This is not the end of the story, however. When in QuickTime, check the sample rate of the audio. If it is 22.050 kHz (or anything other than 44.100 kHz), the sound in the final flv movie may die a few seconds into the movie (with the video running ahead unaffected).

Lesson to be learned: Encode audio in flv movies for Flash with a sample rate of 44.100 kHz.

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