Testing the Movie

To test downloading performance:

1. Do one of the following:
   
   Choose CONTROL / TEST MOVIE.
   Flash displays the Output window to help you trouble-shoot problems in your ActionScript. You can use the Trace action to display comments in the Output window for help with debugging.
   
   Choose FILE / OPEN, and select a SWF file or test the current movie.
   If you test a scene or movie, Flash publishes the current selection as a SWF file using the settings in the Publish Settings dialog box. The SWF file opens in a new window and begins playing immediately.
   
   
2. In the Flash Player's Debug menu, choose a downloading speed to determine the downloading rate that Flash simulates: 14.4 Kbps, 28.8 Kbps, 56 Kbps. To enter your own settings, choose Customize.
   
   
3. In the Flash Player, choose VIEW / BANDWIDTH PROFILER to display a graph of the downloading performance:
   The left side of the profiler displays information on the movie, its settings, and state. The Movie section indicates the dimensions, frame rate, size in KB and bytes, duration, and preloaded frames by number of seconds.
   The right section of the profiler shows the Timeline header and graph. In the graph, each bar represents an individual frame of the movie. The size of the bar corresponds to that frame's size in bytes. The lower red line beneath the Timeline header indicates whether a given frame streams in real-time with the current modem speed set in the Control menu. If a bar extends above the red line, the movie must wait for that frame to load.
   
   
4. Choose VIEW / SHOW STREAMING to turn the streaming bar off or on.
   The streaming bar indicates the number of frames loaded along with the frame currently playing.
   
   
5. Click a bar on the graph to display settings for the corresponding frame in the left window and stop the movie.
   
   
6. Adjust the view of the graph as desired:
   Choose VIEW / STREAMING GRAPH to display which frames will cause pauses.
   This default view displays alternating light and dark gray blocks representing each frame. The side of each block indicates its relative byte size. The first frame stores a symbol's contents, so is often larger than other frames.
   Choose VIEW / FRAME BY FRAME GRAPH to display the size of each frame.
   This view helps you see which frames are contributing to streaming delays. If any frame block extends above the red line in the graph, then the Flash Player halts playback until the entire frame downloads.