flash actionscript: Can a FLV video w/ a frame size of 800x450 reliably play off of a CD-ROM? (It
has a simple voiceover audio track, and will be around 5 minutes long. The FLV
will be embedded in an 800x600 flash movie.)

Should be doable.

Depends on:
1. Performance of the playback computer.
2. The encoding compression selected for FLV also impacted by how much changes
in the video

The bottom line is you simply should test this. Use the Flash 8 encoder to
encode under best and worst two 5 minute digital video files.

Open Flash 8 pro, drop in the FLVPlayer component, publish, burn and test it.