Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips

For whatever reason, Flash movies have always played significantly slower on a Mac than Windows. I've heard all types of explanations, but it doesn't really matter why. The fact is that the same SWF will play back slower on a Mac. That being said, the Flash 7 player does a much better job of bringing both platforms to an equal speed than any previous player.

So what can you do about this? Unfortunately, not much. I would recommend setting all your movies to play back at 15fps. This will make sure that on a Mac, you'll at least get 12fps. The results are just too unpredictable, so I would also suggest testing every movie you intend to publish on a Mac before actually launching it. That's the only way to really be sure. At least Macromedia acknowledges the speed difference. Does that make you feel better? Yeah, me neither.