A FLV Player is a digital media player that supports the .FLV file. FLV files are known as Flash files, these files are proprietary streaming audio/video files created by Macromedia (now known as Adobe). Flash files are extremely popular on the web and make up the majority of streaming videos found on sites such as You Tube, Google Video, Myspace, etc.

How to Play a FLV File

FLV files are extremely popular on the web, with millions of Flash files available. Flash files can be created for many purposes including, movies, banner ads, instructional videos, Internet animations, etc. In order to view Flash files, you will need a Flash player. There are two types of Flash players available, they include the web based Flash player and the PC based Flash player. Here is some information on each:

Web Based Flash Players

For the vast majority of end users (90% +), Flash files are viewed using a Flash player browser plug- in. Since most computer users either use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and/or Safari, practically all of these browsers (recent releases) include the Adobe Flash Player browser plug- in.

The Flash Player browser plug- in is considered to be a web based player. Viewing streaming videos online is seamless. When you visit a web page that includes an embedded Flash video file, a player with a video screen along with controls to control the player will be visible. In most cases, in order to access the video, you will need to either press play or click on the player’s screen twice. If you are unable to view the Flash player or if you have difficulty watching Flash videos, you may have an outdated version of the Flash player browser plug in. You can visit Adobe.com to download the most recent version. Downloading this plug-in is free.

PC Based Flash Players

Besides viewing Flash files via a browser plug- in, FLV files can also be downloaded and viewed on an assortment of media players. Flash files are usually comprised of an audio MP3 bit stream and a video bit stream comprised of the H.263 video standard. To encode Flash, most PC based Flash players use FFmpeg libraries. Some of the more popular PC based Flash players include VLC player, Windows Media Player, Real Player and MPlayer among many others. For the most part, these media players are free to download and extremely simple to use.