1. Prepare Your Video for the WEC Flash Player/Presentation Extension

In order to be able to play your video in the WEC Flash Player  or Presentation extensions, you will need to do some special encoding to your video file. Because the WEC Flash Player/Presentation extensions use a video format called FLV, you will likely need special software apart from your video editing software. If your video editing software does not support export to a format called "FLV" or "Flash Video" then you will need to pick up a software package that will allow you to do this conversion. Here are some examples, in order of "affordability"

Riva FLV Encoder 2.0 - visit website

Free!
This free program is a little bit finicky about what file formats it will convert. To make sure it will convert your file, check on their website to make sure your codec is supported (hint - if you're using Windows Movie Maker 9 or Windows Media Encoder 9 to create your files, this option will not work for you).

Flix Standard 8 for Flash by On2Technologies - visit website

$39
A full-featured program that will convert almost any file imagineable into an FLV format. The user interface is not as pretty as some other programs we've used, but it gets the job done without all the "frills."

Flash MX2004 (and higher versions) - visit website

$250 educational/nonprofit; $700 full
While we don't recommend shelling out this much money for a single program, if you need to get it anyway for Flash production, this will do the trick.

Sorenson Squeeze 4.3 for Flash - visit website

$250 full
Sorenson provides the nicest interface for converting files to the FLV format. If you look around, you may be able to find the 4.0 version for $120.

Once you have the proper software, it's just a matter of loading the video you want to convert, and entering compression settings. Here is an example of settings that WEC uses with Sorenson Squeeze:

Low Bandwidth
Audio Codec: Fraunhofer MP3
Data Rate: 8 KBits/Sec
Sample Rate 11025
Channels: Mono
Video Codec: Sorenson Spark Pro
Method: Sorenson 2-Pass VBR
Data Rate: 20 KBits/Sec
Frame: 160 by 120
Frame Rate: 10 Frames/Sec
Total: 31 KBits/Sec

High Bandwidth
Audio Codec: Fraunhofer MP3
Data Rate: 32 KBits/Sec
Sample Rate 22050
Channels: Mono
Video Codec: Sorenson Spark Pro
Method: Sorenson 2-Pass VBR
Data Rate: 224 KBits/Sec
Frame: 320 by 240
Frame Rate: 14.98 Frames/Sec
Total: 31 Kbits/Sec

A Note: As of the time of this writing Flash MX2004+ uses the Sorenson Spark utility to convert video to FLV format, so the settings above will be similar.

If you are not comforable setting all of the individual settings for your video, most of the above programs have "presets" that will get you pretty close. For Low Bandwidth, you will usually want to click a preset for "dial-up" or "email" distribution. For High Bandwidth, you can select a preset for "DSL/Cable modem", "ISDN", or "T1". Sometimes, the program will even be so generic as to call the presets "High bandwidth" and "Low bandwidth." You may have to try different presets to get the one that works best for your purposes.