What is a flv file? What is Flash Video and how to open a flv file

Senior Technology Writer

Someone sent you a email FLV file and you don't know how to open it? Maybe you found an FLV file on your computer and were wondering what it was? Windows may tell you that you cannot open it, or in the worst case, you may encounter a corresponding error message associated with the FLV file.

Before you can open an FLV file, you need to find out what kind of file the FLV file extension is.

Tip: Incorrect FLV file association errors can be a symptom of other underlying issues within your Windows operating system. These invalid entries can also produce associated symptoms such as slow Windows startups, computer freezes, and other PC performance issues. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you scan your Windows registry for invalid file associations and other issues related to a fragmented registry.

Answer:

FLV files are Video files, which are predominantly associated with Flash Video File(Adobe Systems Incorporated).

Additional types of files may also use the FLV file extension. If you are aware of any other file formats that use the FLV file extension, please contact us so we can update our information accordingly.

How to open your FLV file:

The fastest and easy way Opening your FLV file means double-clicking on it. IN in this case Windows system she will choose the necessary program to open your FLV file.

In case your FLV file does not open, it is very likely that the necessary software is not installed on your PC. application program to view or edit files with FLV extensions.

If your PC opens the FLV file, but it's the wrong application, you'll need to change your file association settings. Windows registry. In other words, Windows associates FLV file extensions with the wrong program.

Install optional products - FileViewPro (Solvusoft) | | | |

FLV Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME):

• mime video/x-flv

FLV File Analysis Tool™

Not sure what type the FLV file is? Do you want to get precise information about a file, its creator and how it can be opened?

Now you can instantly get all necessary information about the FLV file!

Revolutionary FLV File Analysis Tool™ scans, analyzes and reports detailed information about the FLV file. Our patent-pending algorithm will quickly analyze the file and provide detailed information within seconds in a clear, easy-to-read format.†

In just a few seconds, you'll know exactly what type of FLV file you have, the application associated with the file, the name of the user who created the file, the file's protection status, and other useful information.

To begin your free file analysis, simply drag and drop your FLV file inside the dotted line below, or click "Browse My Computer" and select your file. The FLV file analysis report will be shown below, right in the browser window.

Drag and drop the FLV file here to start analysis

View my computer »

Please also check my file for viruses

Your file is being analyzed... please wait.

FLV file opens special programs. To open this format, download one of the proposed programs.

How to open FLV file

FLV (Flash Video File) is a format created for transmitting online video. The extension is used by such large video hosting sites as:

• YouTube;
• VKontakte;
• Google, etc.

The FLV extension significantly compresses content and belongs to the category of video formats, or media containers. The format can be opened on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux or Android platforms.
The FLV format was created by the developers of Macromedia. In 2007, Adobe Systems became the owner of the patent. FLV codecs are proprietary.

Programs for opening flv extension

An FLV file can be opened with both special FLV players and universal players that support other extensions.
The most popular software for Flash viewing Videos are:

1. Windows (all versions):
   • FLV Player
   • The KMPlayer
   • VLC media player
   • Winamp
   • Media Player Classic
   • Light Alloy
   • WindowsPlayer
   • RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud
   • Adobe Flash Player(browser plugin)
2. Linux:
   • VLC media player
   • RealPlayer Cloud
3. Mac OS X:
   • VLC media player
   • Adobe Flash Player
   • Eltima Elmedia Player
   • RealPlayer Cloud
4. Android:
   • BIT LABS Simple MP4 Video Player

From the moment you install the player, FLV files become associated with this player: this allows you to open the video by double-clicking.

Some players (Media Player, etc.) open FLV only after installing additional video codecs.

Conversion

Both online converters and third-party software are suitable for converting files with the FLV extension. To the most popular programs for this purpose include:

• Freemake Video Converter:
  MP4, MP3, AVI, WMV, MKV, etc.
• FormatFactory:
  MP3, FLAC, OGG, 3GP, MP4, AVI, etc.
• Free FLV Converter:
  AVI, MP4, MKV, MP3, etc.
• Any Video Converter:
  AVI, MP4, MKV, MP3, etc.
• Free Studio Manager:
  AVIMP4, VOB, MOV, DVD, DAT, H263, etc.
• WinX Video Converter:
  AVI, MP4, AVC, MOV, HD YouTube, etc.
• Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate:
  MPG, MP4, MOV, AVI, etc.

Flash compatible video file exportable Flash plugin Video Exporter (included with Adobe Flash) or any other program that supports FLV files. Contains a short table of contents, alternating audio, video, and metadata packets. Audio and video data are stored in a similar format used standard files Flash (

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.9
- Updated codecs
- Fixed hardware decoding with new video card drivers

Program update
- Added support for new file types (.avcs, .heifs, .heif, .avci, etc.)
- Added support for AV1 codec
- Updated codecs
- Bugs fixed

Program update
- Updated codecs
- Bugs fixed

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.6
- Now the sound on the laptop is even louder! - new volume increase algorithm
- Codec update

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.5
- Codec update
- Fixed a crash when opening damaged files

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.2
- H.265 and VP9 decoders updates
- Fixed player crash with some versions of NVIDIA drivers

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.1.1
- Resolved conflict with some antiviruses (Error 412)

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.1
- Optimization of video codecs. Radical reduction in resource consumption on some systems.
- Optimization of memory consumption for NVIDIA video cards
- Fixes in displaying 10-bit video
- Fixed DXVA hardening on some video cards

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.0.2
- Fixed a bug that caused an error on AMD video cards.

New version of WindowsPlayer 3.0
- Added HTS-HD hardware decoder
- Optimization of WEBM and HEVC hardware decoders
- Fixed incorrect display time when playing Blu-ray streams
- Faster rewinding on files with broken indexes

WindowsPlayer Update
- Updated audio codecs Opus, ATRAC, Nellymoser and others
- Opus support for audio tracks in videos
- Optimized 4K video decoding H.265 and VP9
- Added HEVC support Main10
- improved playlist playback

WindowsPlayer 2.9.4 update
- Fixed an annoying bug with muting sound
- Fixed incorrect operation with NVIDIA and AMD video processors
- Many minor corrections based on your feedback
- Support URL types: rtspu, rtspm, rtspt and rtsph for RTSP protocol

New version of WindowsPlayer 2.9
- Playing 4K video now requires 2 times less resources!
- Removed flickering when resizing windows
- Fixed image restoration after screen Windows locks
- Support for multimedia keys and Windows MCE remotes
- Fixed switching audio tracks
- Prevent pressing pause when rewinding
- Fixes and improvements in playing Internet streams
- Full support hardware acceleration WEBM format

Windows Player 2.8
- Added support for 3GA files
- The selected program language is saved
- Fixed video output when DirectX acceleration is not available
- Removed the window at startup when DirectX acceleration is not available

New version of WindowsPlayer 2.7
- Work on improving the player engine

WindowsPlayer version 2.6
- Improved startup time on Windows XP
- HQ does not turn off spontaneously
- Support for "icyx://" streams
- Audio tracks in ATRAC3+ format
- Accelerated DXVA2 decoding by Intel video cards
- Accelerated decoding high resolutions on AMD video cards
- Added support for video codec Duck TrueMotion 1/2

WindowsPlayer version 2.5
- The most correct tracking of new versions.

WindowsPlayer version 2.4
- Even more formats to play video and audio formats
- When you click on the timeline, you can see a screenshot of the current frame for quick viewing

WindowsPlayer version 2.3
- Added video playback in H.265 (HEVC) format with hardware decoding support
- Added hardware decoding of VP9 video format
- Accelerated detection of streams in a video file
- Fixed DV decoding from some video cameras

WindowsPlayer version 2.2
- Added Apple support intermediate codec
- Added support for DivX codec version 7
- Added support for HDV, AVCHD video formats
- Added support for M4A audio format
- Accelerated hardware decoding on AMD video cards
- Accelerated 4K video playback
- Opening a file from the previous playback position has been accelerated
- Fixed file association
- Bugs fixed

FLV format, the better to watch videos in FLV format

Videos in FLV format are best viewed in WindowsPlayer. There is virtually no load on the processor, the high performance of the program makes it possible to calmly watch movies and videos from FLV format files, while the video will be smooth and without unnecessary twitching.

Search great player to view flv format? Then pay attention to WindowsPlayer. No more codecs or installation of separate programs; use a universal modern player to play movies. Download videos with any extension and don't worry about whether you can open the file or not. Convenient program For the flv format, WindowsPlayer installs quickly and does not require any additional codecs.

How and with what to open a FLV file?

Playing FLV in WindowsPlayer Video Player

The most important thing about the FLV format

Sound of flv files, most often translated into mp3 format, in some cases other standards are used. Such files are very easily opened by browser-based Adobe Flash Player or universal WindowsPlayer, but when launching a video directly on a computer, difficulties arise... Many users, having downloaded a file of this format, are wondering how to open the video. In fact, to open a file of this format, you only need a player with a large library of formats. Most often this problem occurs in Windows users XP, because the "seven" already has a good player installed.

So let's return to our problem. So, to open the video we need either a converter or a player. Since the conversion takes considerable time, it is more advisable to download the player. Download the free video player WindowsPlayer. After you have installed it, you will need to right-click on the desired FLV file, click "Open with...", then "Select program.." and select WindowsPlayer. If this player does not appear in the list, then click browse in the program selection menu to open, open the folder in which you installed and open the file windowsplayer.exe

History of the FLV format

For the first time, the technology for transmitting video as quickly and efficiently as possible was used with the advent of the YouTube service. When users upload videos to the site different formats- be it avi or mp4, the service automatically encodes files into the FLV format that is optimal for playback on a Flash player.

When playing a separate FLV file, you usually have to use additional installed codecs, because standard players such as Windows Media Player or Winamp do not play them. Therefore, if you want to watch FLV, then you should install, for example, K-Lite Codec Pack. It's best not to encode Flash videos to other formats as the quality may deteriorate.

For playing FLV video, for example, WindowsPlayer may be suitable. I downloaded one sloth video and played it using this player. The standard resolution of FLV video is 640x360 and 320x240, although there are different options. As you can see in the screenshots, the quality is not too high, but quite visible at a resolution of 320x240. Of course, it's not HD), but you can watch it.

Video image quality FLV

If we compare FLV in terms of capabilities with other video formats, then of course it will be inferior to the same mp4, which reproduces HD quality. Also FLV doesn't play DVD players, that is, write to a flash drive or to a DVD for viewing on home theater- useless, and the quality is not at all for this purpose. FLV is perfect for a computer as a lightweight household format that does not take up too much space on the hard drive and allows you to watch videos of acceptable quality.

That's it! You are convinced that it is not so difficult to open this notorious flv format in the player

When faced with the question of how to open flv, you should understand the reasons for its occurrence and the principle of storing data in objects that have this extension. The development of Internet technologies and the growth in the volume of video content on the Internet have led to the need for a data format that allows the task of compactly storing data and receiving and transmitting it. This format was supposed to allow for significant compression of audio and video data; provide streaming playback and store metadata describing the technology for playback/modification.

Adobe, the developer of the flash format and technology, accomplished this by creating a file type - a media container, which received the flv extension. An Adobe media container consists of several objects in one file: video, sound, description of codecs, etc.

Exaggerated flv file can be described as follows: the container contains soundtrack and video sequence, and the codecs for playback are described in the container metadata area. I repeat, codecs and their type are only described, but not contained! This is caused by the need to ensure a minimum file size and the presence of the necessary codec is mandatory, so as not to think about how to open the flv container.

Note: In my personal opinion, best collection audio and video codecs, today, is the K-Lite Codec Pack (at the time of writing, there was available version 9.7 packages). The package includes all the most popular and common codecs. In addition, it contains media player Player Classic is perhaps the most acceptable option for opening flv files. Both the set of codecs and the MPC player itself are absolutely free and do not require registration to download and use.

Despite the fact that, mainly, files of this type are used for online broadcasts of streaming video on the network; it is possible to store these files locally and play them offline. Below I will talk about the flv format, how to open it for playback and edit.

The main “supplier” of streaming video on the Internet is now YouTube (video storage service) and all social networks (VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, Odnoklassniki, etc.). All these Internet services allow you to watch videos, but do not allow you to download the flv container. How to open and how to save to hard drive video clip of interest?

Everything is quite simple. Since the streaming video format involves the transfer (stream) of data for playback to the user’s side, our browser will receive and play this information. Every browser has a cache. This is the name for the area of ​​temporary storage of data without the need to re-download it from the Internet. He may be in RAM or on your local hard drive. It is from the “cache” that we will get the video we are looking for, and everyone will choose for themselves how to open flv.

Consider, for example, the Google Chrome browser. When playing a video in the same Odnoklassniki, you can easily download it in flv format. To do this, in the list of clips on the video of interest, you need to right-click and select “View element code”. A service window will open at the bottom. In it we are interested in the “Networks” tab (right upper part service window).

After pressing the play button, a file with an arbitrary name will appear in it and flv extension. On it, again, you need to press the right mouse button - “Save as...”. Ready! Video from social networks will be in that place hard drive, which you pointed to. You can also specify a different name for it there, since the service file name may contain a meaningless set of characters.

In conclusion, it is worth adding that the flv format can easily be converted to any other video format. To convert flv to avi or mp4, you can use any of the video converters, of which there are a great many on the Internet.

The most common video format in global network is FLV. It is used on such well-known sites as Rutub and YouTube; all videos on these resources have this exact format. It often happens that after downloading a video of this type, the question arises: how to open flv? A message about the absence of a codec or a sign with a numbered error appears in the player window. This outcome of events is highly probable, provided that you use old version media player with outdated codecs.

Playing FLV with a third-party player

To open a file in FLV format, you will need to download a profiled player that plays files in this format. The most common of these applications is FLV Player. It can be quickly and freely downloaded on the Internet (fortunately, it weighs little and belongs to the group of freely distributed software). KMP player may also be suitable. By installing one of these programs, your computer will be able to open FLV files.

Opening FLV in Windows Media Player

You can also download codecs for the built-in Windows Player, for example, K-Lite Codec Pack Full, v6.3 and older. When installing a codec, you should check the box where a list of codecs that can be installed will be offered. Put a checkmark next to FLV, you're done! You can also select all the checkboxes, this will expand the system’s ability to easily open a lot of other video and audio formats. Now you know how to open a flv file and you can do it in any situation.