How to: Convert Video to Flash Format (FLV)
May 16, 2011 0Converting Video to Flash Format (FLV)
So, you’ve got your video content. You want to get it up and streaming. How? Follow these steps to convert it to Flash format:
To convert video files to FLV format you will need a conversion application referred to as a converter or encoder. Converters are fairly easy to use — you import a file, choose from some preset options (and customize the settings, if required), then export to Flash video (FLV).
There are many converters/encoders available — some free, some cheap, some expensive. A quick Google search will return many encoders/converters for FLV. Some popular choices are shown below:
- Adobe/Macromedia Flash: The official Flash authoring program comes bundled with a utility called Flash 8 Video Encoder. (Tutorial Here)
- Sorenson Squeeze: A powerful and versatile conversion application.
- ffmpeg: A command line tool for converting many different video formats to other video formats, including FLV.
- If your converter or encoder supports multi-pass encoding, we recommend you do so – this will improve the quality of the final product.
- If you don’t want to convert video yourself, you can contact us for a quote. (Please tell us what format your file(s) are in and their size.)
Example usage for ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -y -i "example.avi" -vcodec flv -s 480×360 -b 500k -r 10 -pass 1 -ar 22050 -ab 128k -f flv example.flv
Where -vcodec is the codec to use, -s is the size, -b is the bitrate, -r is the frame rate, -pass is the pass number, -ar is audio sampling frequency, -ab is audio bitrate -f is the output format.
Full documentation can be found here.
Tips: