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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Playing Flash Video (FLV) files

Playing Flash Video (FLV) files
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rytc
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Jul 16, 2004, 02:01 AM
 
Hi all, I have a couple of .flv files that were used for streaming over the net. I want to be able to play them on my OS X machine. For windows I have found an app called FLVPlayer which allows you to play the files, but haven't been able to find something similar on OS X. I don't have access to Flash to play the files with, converting them to .swf or .mov files (using Flash on another computer) results in loss of audio sync and huge quality degradation of the video. If I knew more about Flash integration with web pages I'm sure I could work out how to do this using something like http://fodor.liane.net/ FlashAV player, I have managed to get that to play around 30 secs of the file but it all seems like a lot of work to do something that FLV player on windows makes very simple. Surely there's a similar app for OS X?

Thanks all

Oh and VLC, mPlayer, QT, RealONE, SAFlashPlayer do not play the .flv files either.

Ry
     
Synotic
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Jul 16, 2004, 05:22 AM
 
This might be a dumb question, but have you tried installing Flash player?
     
rytc  (op)
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Jul 16, 2004, 09:14 PM
 
Originally posted by Synotic:
This might be a dumb question, but have you tried installing Flash player?

Yes I have that installed, I can play FLV files when they are streamed through a browser that's not the problem, the issue is when you have a .flv file there appears to be no way to play the file without writing a webpage to do so (on OS X at least, in windows FLVPlayer http://www.snapfiles.com/get/flvplayer.html does a very nice job of this)

I just wonder why Macromedia crippled the player such that only streamed .flv files and not local ones are played.

From FLV's info:
FLV Player allows Flash developers to playback .flv files without the need to load them from a server. Just select the file or drag/drop it onto the player to view it. Standard playback controls included. The program can be optionally associated with .flv files, so you can just double-click them to play.
     
rytc  (op)
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Jul 6, 2006, 02:51 PM
 
Long time in the coming but finally there seems to be an OS X solution http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/mo...763&vid=257933
     
sghms
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Jul 6, 2006, 05:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by rytc
Hi all, I have a couple of .flv files that were used for streaming over the net. I want to be able to play them on my OS X machine. For windows I have found an app called FLVPlayer which allows you to play the files, but haven't been able to find something similar on OS X. I don't have access to Flash to play the files with, converting them to .swf or .mov files (using Flash on another computer) results in loss of audio sync and huge quality degradation of the video. If I knew more about Flash integration with web pages I'm sure I could work out how to do this using something like http://fodor.liane.net/ FlashAV player, I have managed to get that to play around 30 secs of the file but it all seems like a lot of work to do something that FLV player on windows makes very simple. Surely there's a similar app for OS X?

Thanks all

Oh and VLC, mPlayer, QT, RealONE, SAFlashPlayer do not play the .flv files either.

Ry

If you download isquint (google it), you can then convert the .flv file to a mp4 file which will play in any player and allow u to resize,rewind and forward etc


PS If the flv file cant be converted intially, try to convert it in isquint having ticked the h264 codec and then it will convert with no issue.
2 Ghz Stealthbook
2Gb RAM
OS X.4.x
     
rytc  (op)
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Jul 6, 2006, 05:48 PM
 
Thanks for the iSquint pointer - I also saw this but found it doesn't support Flash Video 8 - FLV Viewer seems to play it but some video is cut off.
     
kapsula
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Jul 13, 2006, 05:54 AM
 
Originally Posted by rytc
Hi all, I have a couple of .flv files that were used for streaming over the net. I want to be able to play them on my OS X machine. For windows I have found an app called FLVPlayer which allows you to play the files, but haven't been able to find something similar on OS X. I don't have access to Flash to play the files with, converting them to .swf or .mov files (using Flash on another computer) results in loss of audio sync and huge quality degradation of the video. If I knew more about Flash integration with web pages I'm sure I could work out how to do this using something like http://fodor.liane.net/ FlashAV player, I have managed to get that to play around 30 secs of the file but it all seems like a lot of work to do something that FLV player on windows makes very simple. Surely there's a similar app for OS X?

Thanks all

Oh and VLC, mPlayer, QT, RealONE, SAFlashPlayer do not play the .flv files either.

Ry
I also had the same problem, but then I change Flash player on, if I not mistake, GV FP. hope, I help)
also u can look convertor on this website, if sghms was correct and it is the way to solve ur problem

luck
     
TheIceMan
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Jul 13, 2006, 09:30 AM
 
MPlayer 1.0pre8final will play FLV files. The other "MPlayer" will NOT.
     
rytc  (op)
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Jul 16, 2006, 06:24 PM
 
Thanks for the feedback - Flash Player appears to be a Windows app so is not so much use for me as I can already play them on Windows, but thanks for the suggestion. The new version of MPlayer can indeed play back the audio but doesn't seem to be able to handle Flash Video 8 - just seems funny that 2 years after my first post there's still no solution for what is a pretty common format these days.

Cheers Ry
     
   
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