186 Chapter 9 UNdERSTANdING FlASH VIdEo Preprocessing for Video-sharing sites Hundreds of websites offer embeddable players based on Flash technology. For many, this is a key way to embed content on their website and share with others. In this case, you are using the hosting services of the video-sharing site as well as their embed- dable players. Although many take a role-the-dice approach, we believe in preprocessing clips before we upload. By taking matters into your own hands, you can get better-looking clips in the final player. You can also get around some of the file size limits that can impede the duration of the video. Let's take a look at two of the most popular services, YouTube and Facebook. The techniques discussed, however, can be applied to many other sites as well. YouTube Technical Specs Although YouTube can ingest many formats of video, it works best when you precompress your files. Uploading a Flash video file is one of YouTube's most preferred input formats. Here are a few technical specs to keep in mind: