Macromedia FLV 1

Writable

video

Flash Video, introduced in 2002, is a container format used to deliver digital video content over the internet through Macromedia Flash Player 6 and newer. It includes two primary formats: FLV (the original format) and F4V (introduced later, based on the ISO base media file format). Video streams were commonly encoded with Sorenson Spark (a proprietary variant of the H.263 standard), the first codec supported in Flash Player. Later versions also supported On2 VP6 and H.264. Developed by Macromedia (later acquired by Adobe in 2005), Flash Video became the de facto standard for web-based video streaming in the early 2000s.

Identify it

Extensions	`.flv`
MIME types	`video/x-flv`
Signatures	`464c5601` at byte 0 (FLV 1)
PRONOM	`x-fmt/382`
Wikidata	`Q27967488`
Library of Congress	`fdd000131`

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Open it

FFmpegOpen sourcereads and writes · LGPL-2.1-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later
ExifToolOpen sourcereads · Artistic License / GNU General Public License, version 1.0 or later
GStreamerOpen sourcereads · GNU Library General Public License, version 2.0 or later
OpenPuffOpen sourcereads · GNU Lesser General Public License
PhotoRecOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
Q50938515Open sourcereads · GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0 or later
VLC media playerOpen sourcereads · GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later
xineOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
Any Video Converterwrites
ENVIreads and writes · proprietary license
Q207902reads and writes · proprietary license
Adobe Flashreads · proprietary license
EZ CD Audio Converterreads
FakeTubereads · end-user license agreement
LiVESreads
Movavi Video Editorreads · proprietary license
OvenMediaEnginereads
SpaceClaimreads
Veblrreads
YouTubereads · end-user license agreement
YouTube Appreads · end-user license agreement / proprietary license
YouTube Space Rioreads

Convert it

To	With	Fidelity	Command and losses
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 1.2.1	FFmpeg	Partial	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.flac` Audio track only: the video is dropped.
Waveform Audio	FFmpeg	Partial	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.wav` Audio track only: the video is dropped.
Matroska 1-4	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.mkv` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.mp3` Lossy audio only: the video is dropped.
MPEG-4 Part 14	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.mp4` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
Ogg	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.ogg` Lossy audio only: the video is dropped.
WebM	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.flv out.webm` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.

Sources

From Converters (FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Pandoc, LibreOffice), Just Solve the File Format Problem (File Formats Wiki), PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-24.

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