What is a FLV file?

FLV — Flash Video

What is it?

FLV is the video format of Flash, the plugin that kept online video alive for a decade. It was the format behind YouTube and Dailymotion in their early years.

Lightweight and built for streaming, it let playback start before the download finished — something we take for granted now, but it was a revolution at the time.

History & origin

Macromedia introduced FLV in 2002, and Adobe inherited it when it acquired Flash. Between 2005 and 2010, the vast majority of video on the web passed through this format.

The arrival of HTML5's video tag, followed by the final discontinuation of Flash in late 2020, made it completely obsolete. No browser can play it anymore.

Why it is useful

Its lightness and suitability for streaming were its strengths back in the day.

None of that remains today, except that it still exists in old archives.

Limits & drawbacks

The format is dead: no browser, no phone, no TV can play it anymore.

Its quality is far below that of current formats at an equivalent file size.

Practical tips

If you still have FLV files, convert them to MP4 without delay: it's the only way to make sure you'll still be able to watch them in five years.

Conversion preserves the original quality — it won't improve it, but it will save your archives from oblivion.

Convert your FLV in seconds, on our secure servers in France.

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