What is an FLV file?
Flash Video
- Developed By
- Adobe Systems
- Initial Release
- 2002
- MIME Type
- video/x-flv
The FLV (Flash Video) format is a container file format defined by Adobe Systems for delivering synchronized audio and video over the internet via the Adobe Flash Player. It supports various codecs, historically Sorenson Spark and VP6, and later H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) and AAC audio. FLV files were the dominant standard for web-based streaming video (YouTube, Hulu) during the 2000s, utilizing the RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) for transmission before being superseded by HTML5 standards.
How to open an FLV file
Since the End-of-Life (EOL) of Adobe Flash Player in 2020, browsers no longer support FLV natively. To play local FLV files, users must utilize third-party media players that maintain legacy codec support, such as VLC Media Player, MPC-HC, or MPV. For editing or conversion, tools like OBS Studio and HandBrake utilize the FFmpeg library to decode and process the container.