FLV file format (.flv)
Flash video. Still required by some legacy players.
Last updated
What is an FLV file?
In short: An FLV file (.flv) is a video file in the FLV format. FLV was built to stream video inside the Flash plugin, and for most of the 2000s it was how video worked on the web. It can be converted to MP4, MOV or GIF for free in a web browser with iHateFiles, without uploading it.
Created by Macromedia in 2002 for Flash Player, and the format YouTube launched on.
FLV was built to stream video inside the Flash plugin, and for most of the 2000s it was how video worked on the web. Flash was discontinued at the end of 2020, which left FLV as a format with a great deal of archived content and almost nothing that plays it.
What FLV is good at
- Small files for its era
- Enormous amounts of archived web video still in it
- Simple, well documented structure
Where FLV falls short
- Nothing plays it natively any more
- Capped at older codecs and modest quality
- The plugin it depended on no longer exists
When to use FLV
Convert FLV to MP4. It is an archival format now, not a working one.
How to open a FLV file
VLC and dedicated converters. No browser, no phone, no TV.
| Windows | VLC. Nothing built into Windows opens FLV since Flash was removed. |
|---|---|
| macOS | VLC or IINA. |
| Linux | VLC and mpv both read it. |
| Phone | VLC only. |
| In a browser | No browser plays FLV. Flash was removed from every browser at the end of 2020. |
The thing that usually goes wrong
If you have FLV files they are probably old downloads worth rescuing, and converting them to MP4 is the way to keep them watchable.
Questions
What is a FLV file?
Flash video. Still required by some legacy players. Files use the .flv extension.
How do I open a FLV file?
Most video software opens FLV directly. If yours does not, convert it here to something more common. It takes a few seconds and nothing is uploaded.
Can I convert FLV for free?
Yes. Every conversion here is free and unlimited, because your own device does the work rather than a server we have to pay for.
Is FLV lossless?
That depends on the codec inside the container rather than the container itself. Everything written here is re-encoded, so expect one generation of loss.