If you recently came across an FLV file on your PC or someone sent you a file with this extension and you cannot open it, the following information will help you understand what an FLV file is and how to open it. The file extension FLV sometimes also appears as F4V extension and is a file which contains video that you can view online using Adobe Flash Player.
An FLV file can also be embedded in an SWF file which is a Shockwave Flash file used with Adobe Flash Player. FLV files are encoded using the same method as SWF files. Both types are designed to be used with Adobe Flash Player, which is software provided by Adobe used to view videos embedded in websites and on sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and many others.
How to Open FLV Files
The best way to open the file extension FLV is to double click on the file and see if your PC finds the default program which will automatically open it. If you cannot open the file this way, you may have no proper program to view it on your PC. In this case, it will be necessary to visit the Adobe website to obtain a version of Adobe Flash Player, preferably Flash Player 7 or higher. It is available for free to download. Once you install it, you will be required to update the program on a regular basis.
You can also opt to download the FLV converter for converting the FLV file extension to another format, such as WMV, MPEG, MP4 or other. There is a wide variety of FLV converters online, most of which are free to download and allow you to open FLV files using a program installed on your PC other than Adobe Flash Player.
If the FLV file is converted to WMV, then you can use the preinstalled Windows Media Player to open the FLV file. Typically Media Player is included in Windows operating system and can be used to view both video and audio files.
Additionally, there are a variety of other applications which will help you to open FLV files including RealPlayer, VLC Media Player, Apple QuickTime Player, Zune and many other programs. These are available for download from the Internet. However, if you happen to have one of them installed on your PC, then simply right click on the FLV file, then choose Open With, click Browse to the appropriate program, and open the FLV file.
