How to watch an FLV video file on your computer

A .flv file is an Adobe Flash file that are becoming less common as many sites move to HTML5. However, if you have saved or download a file as .flv file, you need a player that supports the format. Below are a few suggestions.

Media players capable of playing FLV files

VLC media player

The VLC (VideoLAN Client) media player is our recommendation for watching .flv files. It is free, supports the format after the program is installed, and works for Windows, macOS X, and Linux users.

Windows Media Player

Microsoft's Windows Media Player can also play FLV (FLash Video) files with the right codec. Downloading and installing the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) provides the necessary codec to play FLV files, and other codecs you may need in the future.