What is FLV?

What is FLV?

FLV is a "Flash Live Video" file. It is a format that is designed for web playback, offering high rates of compression. Several products output in FLV format, including Sorenson Squeeze (The term "movie" often refers to common Flash source files (.FLA) and deployed files (.SWF) and is not synonymous with "video").

The Flash Player browser plugin can play an FLV, but that FLV, must be either embedded in or linked to a SWF. That is, you can't just put the actual FLV on an HTML page. You can however reference the FLV file using action script and SWF

Flash Video (FLV) is a proprietary file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player (formerly known as Macromedia Flash Player) version 6, 7, 8, or 9. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Reuters.com, Yahoo! Video and MySpace. The BBC have recently begun using .flv based media on their news portal.
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 such as MPlayer, VLC media player, or any player which uses DirectShow filters (such as Media Player Classic, Windows Media Player, and Windows Media Center) when the ffdshow filter is installed.

FLV is the preferred file format for delivering video clips via Flash. It is a specialized file format that has been supported from version 7. FLV files cannot be played back directly but must be embedded in (or linked from) an SWF file. You create (or download) a "container" SWF file from which to play the FLV file. The most common approach is to use an SWF file that functions as a media player with screen and playback controls.
This FLV file format lets you import or export a static video stream with encoded audio and is ideal for use with communications applications, such as video conferencing or for files that contain screen share encoded data exported from the Flash Communication Server.