What's a .flv file and how do I play it?

[Aniej]

Can someone tell me what's a .flv file and how to either make it into a .mov file and playable in quicktime or simply to make it playable. I got a cool little application called download helper, but everything it saves for me is in .flv and I have no clue what to do?
thanks

[Kane.Elson]

It's a flash video file. VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ plays it and many other programs do aswell .

[Aniej]

thanks, I will check it out. How would I convert it into a different type of media file so that it could be more easily distributed and watched by people like myself who have no idea what a .flv file is, or didn't until now?

[Kane.Elson]

Off the top of my head you have
iSquint (http://www.isquint.org/) - flv to mp4

Mplayer Encoder (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html) flv to lots of stuff but it is command line so you need to know what you are doing a bit more
Example being "mencoder input.flv -ofps 15 -vf scale=300:-2 -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4v2:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64 -o output.avi"

Sorry I'm not more help I haven't had a need to convert them

[tehybrid]

i like ffmpegx. It will convert most anything to most anything. Many formats are supported like all the mp4s, including 3GP, XviDivx, and h.26* as well as flash and vcd

[cecildk9999]

I really like iSquint for making conversions to .mp4 from the .flv format. I've been using it to convert files downloaded from TouTube. :D

[tehybrid]

I really like iSquint for making conversions to .mp4 from the .flv format. I've been using it to convert files downloaded from TouTube. :D

If you use safari, you can make the process easier with Podtube or Tubesock, they both download the Youtube file and put it in iPod (mp4) format.

[dolphin842]

I've had VLC give me some grief in the past when playing back .flv files. The Perian (http://perian.org/) plugin for QuickTime, however, has handled every flash movie I've thrown at it. Perian's also good in that you can use flash video in the iLife apps.

I used to use ffmpegX for converting .flv to mpeg4, but with Perian there's no real need unless you're putting stuff on your iPod or things like that.

[gelatin]

It's a flash video file. VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ plays it and many other programs do aswell .

ive got an flv that doesnt play in vlc,id rather not convert it

nvm i upgraded vlc

[todd2000]

I've had VLC give me some grief in the past when playing back .flv files. The Perian (http://perian.org/) plugin for QuickTime, however, has handled every flash movie I've thrown at it. Perian's also good in that you can use flash video in the iLife apps.

I used to use ffmpegX for converting .flv to mpeg4, but with Perian there's no real need unless you're putting stuff on your iPod or things like that.

I second that, contrary to what everyone says, I have never been able to get VLC to play a .FLV file. I recently discovered Perian, and it plays they perfectly in Quicktime. It also plays many other formats as well.

[aj98]

I second that, contrary to what everyone says, I have never been able to get VLC to play a .FLV file. I recently discovered Perian, and it plays they perfectly in Quicktime. It also plays many other formats as well.

VLC is picky about where the .flv file is located.

I believe the player and the .flv file must be in the same folder.
If I recall correctly, it's not, it won't play.