Thread: SWF...

Anyone know how to convert this piece of shit format to something that I can edit? mpeg streamclip doesn't work. Adobe Media encoder won't even open the fucking files. I'm 2 seconds from smashing my fucking monitor.

I think we just use a scan converter and record it as an .avi in realtime.

Edit: the Google also comes up with this freeware: http://www.avi-swf-convert.com/

I'm on a mac. There are plenty of free utilities for Windows. My main beef is Adobe media encoder, the fuckers that create the format, can't open it's own file.

Nevermind, just realized After Effects isn't a piece of shit and can import these stupid fucking things.

FUUUCCCKKKKK. It overlays the first frame 50%opacity over the whole clip and doesn't export audio. Premiere imports it without audio. Seriously Adobe, go fuck yourself.

Forget adobe media encoder and just do a straight export......click 'reveal in timeline' <Haven't tried it but it should work.


I opened one up in After Effects and it looks fine. No audio on the clip I have though.

Originally Posted by kidwoo

Forget adobe media encoder and just do a straight export......click 'reveal in timeline' <Haven't tried it but it should work.


I opened one up in After Effects and it looks fine. No audio on the clip I have though.

Nope, they all import without audio. Even in the bin it says it doesn't have audio. Playing it in Flash I have audio. Any other program I don't.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense because if you can play it on your computer, you have every codec etc. that AE and Premiere should have access to..........

When I downloaded MPEG streamclip for instance, I only had to use it once, and then every adobe app I have could open and edit directly all the files that I would have had to convert. Once your computer can see and play a format, the editing apps can too because they use the same tools.

Just thinking outloud here....... That's a PC though. Seems silly that the mac versions wouldn't be setup the same. I don't know how adobe sets up the infrastructure on a mac, but on a PC, it will check your entire computer for added codecs. Once it has them, it can play and edit just like every other format.

If you're still beating your head against this when I get off work, I could give you my ftp address and see if I can get anything out of the file.

Seriously, it makes ZERO sense. And this is widely documented I found out. All these apps strip the audio and there is no way to open it in flash and export it in any other formats. I need to buy a different application (not made by Adobe) in order to save it in any format. It's completely fucked. I have this question posed on 3 different forums and not one person has come up with a solution.

I've got some apps that should be able to decompile it and put together another output.

SWF is weird because it's already a flattened delivery file with separate assets (kind of like 'DVD' formats: .VOB, titles and all the other shit that as a whole make a 'DVD' output. When pulling it into AE, it's only seeing and utilizing a few of those assets (dropping the audio for instance). I might be able to separate the assets, treat them independently and then recompile them as something else if you don't figure out something else. You don't have the original FLA file do you?

The "Sr. Content and Community Lead" Just told me it can't be done. They are openly admitting it.

It is a known issue that audio is not retained with SWF files when importing them in to Premiere Pro, and that is called out here in Help:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiere...a568-8000.html

Keep in mind that SWF files are an output format and are not at all suited to be a format for acquisition.

Keep fucking that chicken Adobe. And frankly the attitude to someone who spent $2600 on their suite and it won't allow you to do something so simple is infuriating. Ohh, just buy something else because our POS NLE can't even handle our own files.

What in the mother fuck? Even a dedicated app to do this strips the audio.

Solved it for free. I ended up screen capturing the video in quicktime and pluged my audio in into my audio out and recorded the audio with GarageBand as an instrument. Then I muxed the 2 together and dealt with what I needed to. Good thing quality isn't an issue with these 5 clips...

4 hours for what should of equated to 5 minutes of work trimming 5 clips.

EDIT - And I'm an idiot because I forgot I could have done the audio in quicktime as well. Damnit I'm so frustrated I can't even think straight.

Originally Posted by systemoverblow'd

Good thing quality isn't an issue with these 5 clips...

.... Damnit I'm so frustrated I can't even think straight.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine getting great quality out of that...

Handbrake?

I used a program called SWFdecompiler for mac to make changes to some sites that had been abandoned by the original designers. It ripped the SWF back into an editable FLA document. From there you should be able to strip out the AVI but it looks like there's a trial limit now... Pretty sure it won't be hard for you to get around though.... and if you're worried about the quality.

http://www.sothink.com/product/flash...imitations.htm