First Look: Adobe Flash Media Encoder

Once you have entered your server URL (and optional backup URL), entered a stream name, and decided if you would like a local FLV copy of the stream to be saved, you are ready to start the broadcast. The huge green "Start" button cannot be missed.

Most webcasters will prefer to save a local copy in another format than FLV, which is not something that FME can currently do. This makes the local FLV copy next to useless unless the unedited video conforms exactly to your requirements, with no need to chop or trim it. Should you require post-processing, then FLV is less than ideal, to put it mildly, and the ability to save in, say, .avi, would have made my life a lot easier on several occasions.

System Requirements
The system requirements and release notes can be found here (PDF, 44k).

Price
FME is completely free. The end-user license agreement does, however, tie its use to Flash Media Server or FVSS. You may wonder why this is necessary; after all, the encoder is useless without a server. The answer lies with other emerging platforms such as Wowza Media Server and Red5, both of which could potentially be used in conjunction with FME.

Summary
FME is an easy to use encoding tool which does what it says on the box, so to speak: it enables even non-technical users to capture and broadcast live Flash Video streams in VP6 quality. While certain issues with the tool remain outstanding (and will undoubtedly be addressed in the future), it offers great value for the money (it's free, after all), and one must expect some teething problems with any 1.0 release.When held up against its alternative—Flix 8 Live, with its licensing fee of USD $999 per year—I would say that FME compares very well. But it's not only the price that counts. I personally find FME's user interface more fully featured and I didn't experience any more crashes than I did with Flix. Would I use it for any critical webcasting events? I'm not sure, and I'm not in the webcasting business, but FME is certainly worth a try. I will be using it for our future webcasts from the London Flash Platform User Group—a non-critical event—and if it performs reliably then it won't be long until I start recommending it to my clients, too.