What Is FLV Video Format

FLV and F4V are two different video file formats known as Flash Video, which was originally developed by Macromedia, and now a container file format applied to deliver video on the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6-11.

The Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same way as they are within SWF files. The latter F4V file format is based on the ISO base media file format and is supported starting with Flash Player 9 update 3. Both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and currently developed by Adobe Systems.

FLV format has quickly established itself as the format of choice for embedded video on the web. Notable users of this Flash Video format include YouTube, Hulu, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Metacafe, Reuters, and many other news providers.

You may be interested in converting AVI video to FLV for uploading online or other purposes.

▶ Supported Media Types in FLV File Format:

Video: On2 VP6, Sorenson Spark (Sorenson H.263), Screen video, H.264
Audio: MP3, ADPCM, Linear PCM, Nellymoser, Speex, AAC, G.711 (reserved for internal use)

▶ Supported Media Types in F4V Video Format:

Video: H.264
Images (still frame of video data): GIF, PNG, JPEG
Audio: AAC, HE-AAC, MP3

Flash Video (FLV and F4V) files usually contain material encoded with codecs following the Sorenson Spark or VP6 video compression formats. The most recent public releases of Flash Player also support H.264 video and AAC audio. Flash Video is viewable on most operating systems, via the widely available Adobe Flash Player and web browser plugin, or one of several third-party programs.

Flash Video FLV files contain video bit streams which are a proprietary variant of the H.263 video standard, under the name of Sorenson Spark. Sorenson Spark is an older codec for FLV files but it is also a widely available and compatible one, because it was the first video codec supported in Flash Player. It is the required video compression format for Flash Player 6 and 7.

Flash Player 8 and newer revisions also support the playback of On2 True-Motion VP6 video bit streams. On2 VP6 is the preferred video compression format for use with Flash Player 8 and higher. On2 VP6 can provide a higher visual quality than Sorenson Spark, especially when using lower bit rates. On the other hand it is computationally more complex and therefore will not run as well on certain older system configurations.

And audio in Flash video files is usually encoded as MP3. However, audio in Flash Video FLV files recorded from the user's microphone. FLV files also support uncompressed ADPCM format audio. From the version 9, Flash Player support AAC audio format.

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About the Author

Brent Archer@BrentArcher7

Brent Archer is an experienced editor who loves all things related to social. He has spent more than a decade writing instructional contents related to social media, streaming services and video related topics all over the internet for Digiarty. Outside the social, he is addicted to Google I/O, Apple WWDC and other tech news to keep him informed.