AVChat Software Product Blog

AVChat 2.1 and AVConference 1.1 are now fully compatible with the free open source Red5 media server. Absolutely all the features in both softwares are implemented in the new Red5 versions.

Red5 is a free, open source, Java based, alternative to Adobe’s Flash Media Server. Altough the server is in pre-alpha there are many production-ready applications that work on Red5 and many have chosen to use Red5 because its free and open source.

To install Red5 you need a dedicated server. You can not install Red5 on a shared hosting plan. Red5 is available for both Windows and Linux. You can find more info about it here:http://osflash.org/red5

Until now AVChat 2 and AVConference worked only with Adobe’s Flash Media Server.

To purchase AVChat 2 or AVConference on Red5 email us after the purchase and let us know you want the Red5 version.

If you have already purchased AVChat 2 or AVConference email us and we will send you the proper Red5 files for your licensed domain.

All tutorials and support material on the website will now be updated to include Red5 specific info.

We have listened to your requests and the new versions of our main software products include a lot of requested features:

Most important AVChat 2.1 features:

• all elements on all screens align (login,main screen,etc…) to center when resized
• gender option in login screen can be disabled
• all audio/video streams can be recorded in .flv files on the FMS server for logging/later viewing
• you can limit the admin features (disable ban, disable kick, disable viewing private PM’s)
• xml users and rooms list is generated on the web server
• plain text file with number of logged in users is generated on the web server

Full list of bug fixes and changes in the change log.

For more info on AVChat 2 you can check the AVChat 2.1 product page.

Most important AVConference 1.1 features:

• all elements on all screens align (login,main screen,etc…) to center when resized
• gender option in login screen can be disabled
• all audio/video streams can be recorded in .flv files on the FMS server for logging/later viewing
• you can limit the admin features (disable ban, disable kick, disable viewing private PM’s)
• xml users list is generated on the web server for each room
• plain text file with number of logged in users is generated on the web serve

Full list of bug fixes and changes in the change log.

For more info on AVConferece you can check the AVConference 1.1 product page.

Upgrade information for previous customers:

All previous customers of AVChat 2 or AVConference please contact us at contact@avchat.net and ask for the upgrade, you will receive the new versions for free within 24 hours.

We’ve got a lot of emails on these topics recently so we decided to clarify the issue here.

Adobe announced support for h.264 video in Flash Player in August 2007 in this press release.

Adobe announced Flash Media Server 3 and Flash Media Encoder 2 in September 2007 in this press release.

Prerecorded h.264 video

Right now the latest Flash Player Beta Update available on Adobe Labs only supports playing/decoding of prerecorded video files encoded with h.264 and delivered using progressive download.

To deliver prerecorded h.264 video files to Flash Player applications (video players, etc…) using streaming we need to wait for Flash Media Server 3 due to be released in Spring 2008.

Flash Media Server 2 can only stream prerecorded .flv files encoded with ON2′s VP6 or with Sorenson Spark.

Live h.264 video

FME2-> FMS3 ->Flash Player apps

To deliver live h.264 video to Flash Player Applications (live video players, AVChat, etc…) we need to wait for Flash Media Encoder 2 and Flash Media Server 3 to be released. At that time we will be able to push live h.264 video feeds from FME2 to Flash Player Apps via FMS3.

Flash Player apps-> FMS3 ->Flash Player apps

If Flash Player will ever support encoding live video with h.264, then we will be able to deliver live h.264 video feeds from Flash Player applications (video chat software, etc.) to Flash Player apps (video players, etc.) using FMS3 as a streaming server!

Right now Flash Player can only encode live video using the older Sorenson Spark (h.263) video codec.

Here you go guys:

AVChat 2 articles:

• Creating default rooms in AVChat 2.0 and dropping users directly into them

AVConference articles:

• Pushing better quality video into AVConference with the Flash Media Encoder

Articles that apply to both AVConference and AVChat 2:

• Making AVConference and AVChat 2 automatically resize and fill the browser window
• Making AVConference and AVChat 2 open up in pop up windows

You can find them all in the documentation & tutorials section of our website.

Today is a big day for us. After months of hard work:

AVChat 2 is ready:

AVChat 2 is the new version of our flagship software: AVChat. The interface has been entirely redesigned, and a lot of new features have been added.

Read more: Short intro Feature list Screenshots

AVConference is launched:

AVConference is a new software that is best suited for live events broadcasting, e-learning, video conferences, seminars, etc… . It supports file sharing, and can also be used in conjunction with the Flash Media Encoder to push better quality video to your users.

Read more:Short intro Feature list Screenshots

2 free flash applications:

Live Flash Video Profiler is an application that allows you to play in your browser with all the video quality settings available in Flash Player and view the results live

FMS Bandwidth Checker is a small flash application that tests your bandwidth and latency with a FMS server.

Drupal modules:

Both AVChat 2 and AVConference can now come wrapped up as Drupal 5.x and 4.7.x modules. Once you install the module in your website the users will have the same username in the site and in the chat and you can set several permissions in your Drupal admin interface based on user groups.