I have finally solved my problem of Internet video delivery. DivX and XviD, et alii were too cumbersome to download and required a higher-than-average computer knowledge for downloading and installing the codec; BitTorrent was a pain in the ass, in terms of seeding and then keeping seeded an unpopular file (the same goes for eMule, eDonkey, etc.).

The solution? Flash Video, a brand-new progressive-download and streaming file format (.FLV), built around the ubiquitous Flash platform which everyone (starting from Windows 98 users) already has or is extremely likely to get to view a slew of other popular and ubiquitous flash content.

My file ended up at a nice 412x304px (about half of the original size), at 25fps, 768kbps video and 44.1Hz, 160kbps, stereo audio. Compressing the file down from a 1.26 GB DV-AVI file to a 38.2 MB .FLV file was a snap with the free Riva FLV Encoder, however, Macromedia also provides a number of proprietary conversion options, including a Dreamweaver plugin which generates the flash interface, adding nifty playback features, a native Flash video export utility and a special version of Sorenson Squeeze.

I see great uses for Flash Video and maybe I will tackle yet another interesting video project in the near future. In the meanwhile, I invite you to revisit Velocity in a brand-new format.