Format

Macromedia FLV

Summary

Name

Macromedia FLV

Version

1

Identifiers

• MIME: video/x-flv
• PUID: x-fmt/382

Format type

Video

Description

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.

File extensions

flv

Source

Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives

Relationships

Has priority over

• MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3

Internal signatures

Changelog

• Updated in V120

  Release date

  25 February 2025

  Macromedia FLV 1: New description added as part of PRONOM Research Week 2024. Submitted by J. Paul Getty Trust.

• Updated in V94

  Release date

  17 September 2018

  Macromedia FLV 1: Given priority over MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3 fmt/134 due to rare clash condition.