Ultimate Guide: Best Free Software for Watching FLV/F4V Videos with VLC-Like Features

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Best VLC Flash Player to Play FLV F4V Videos Online & Offline

Written by Kaylee Wood | Last updated: April 30, 2020

Flash Videos are never rare as hosting sites like YouTube, Hulu and Vevo are using this for streaming videos. So, popular open-source flash video player VLC add supports for FLV (Flash) files playback to help you play animation, music video and video game flash files online and offline easily.

What Is Flash Video?

Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content over the Internet. Put simply, the streaming media like animations, sounds or games on some websites to attract users’ attention are in Flash Video format. And the downloaded media in file extension .flv, .f4v, .f4p, .f4a, or .f4b is also a Flash Video. Commonly, FLV and F4V are the mostly used formats for Flash Videos, and thus we call a FLV player or a F4V player as a flash video player. Worth mentioning, Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files.

Why We Need VLC Flash Player to Play FLV F4V Flash Videos?

Though its number is decreasing, some sites still support Flash Video. Besides, there are still many people choosing to download flash videos on computer to watch offline. So, a flash player is still imperative for this not outdated format.

Adobe Flash Player is the native player to open flash media files, however, it is not that compatible when playing flash videos locally stored on computer. Therefore, VLC flash video player is here to offer help when you need to view offline F4V FLV videos or play online streaming flash videos with browser like Firefox or Chrome.

How to Play Flash Videos with Flash Video Player VLC Media Player?

Offline F4V FLV flash video playback: There is no difference between flash video playback and other media playing. Simply drag and drop your flash videos to VLC or right click on the flash media to “Open with VLC”. Direct and simple.

Online Flash Video playback: To play online flash media files from YouTube, Vevo or Hulu, VLC flash video player offers VLC web plugin for you to access all the flash contents from the Internet. To realize that, you need to check all the Web plugins of VLC flash player during the installation. After installing the plugin and restarting your system, you are able to watch the flash videos directly on the web browsers. If you do not want the plugin, you can also directly copy the URL of the flash video you want to play and click on VLC “Media” > “Open Network Stream” > Paste the URL and click on Play to play the flash video without occupying any disk.

VLC Flash Player not Playing Flash Videos? How to Solve?

After testing various flash videos including FLV, F4V and SWF, we’ve found that it is impossible to play SWF files in so-called flash video player VLC even in its latest version. It is a pity but you have no choice but turn to a flash video player VLC alternative if you want to play SWF flash videos smoothly.

Luckily, free flash video player 5KPlayer can make up for the imperfection of VLC flash player. Be it F4V, FLV or SWF video, 5KPlayer digest it easily.