Convert MOV to FLV QuickTime Movie ↔ Flash Video Free Online Secure
Your MOV is opened here in your browser and its picture and sound are moved into an FLV container. When FLV accepts what was inside — which it usually does — nothing is re-encoded, so nothing is lost and it takes seconds.
Convert your file
Drop a MOV here, or choose one.
Your file never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
Nothing uploaded
Where these formats come from
AVI is Microsoft's container from 1992, built when video was something you played from a CD-ROM. MOV is Apple's, a year older, and it was so well designed that the MP4 format the whole world now uses was built directly on it. FLV was Macromedia's, later Adobe's: it carried almost all internet video for a decade and disappeared with Flash at the end of 2020. The word that matters here is container. None of these three is a way of compressing video; each is a box that holds video compressed by something else, alongside the sound and the subtitles. That distinction explains most of the surprises on this page.
Where you meet them
AVI survives in old camera footage, in archives and in software that was written in the nineties and never replaced. MOV comes out of iPhones and Macs and is the working format of a great deal of video editing. FLV is almost entirely a legacy: files downloaded or recorded before 2020 that nothing modern will open. Converting between them is usually about making an old recording playable again, or handing a file to a program that insists on one particular box.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a container and a codec?
The container is the box — AVI, MOV, MP4 — and the codec is how the pictures inside were compressed — H.264, MPEG-4, and others. A file called .avi tells you almost nothing about what is inside it. This is why one AVI plays and another does not, although both have the same extension: the player understands the box but not the codec within. It is also why converting between containers is sometimes instant and sometimes slow — in the first case only the box is being changed.
Why won't my old FLV files play any more?
Because the software that played them was Flash, and Flash was switched off at the end of 2020 and removed from every browser. The files themselves are intact; what has gone is the thing that knew how to open them. Converting to a modern container is the way to get them back, and it is worth doing before the tools that still understand FLV become scarce as well.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why anyone still needs to convert MOV to FLV
FLV is the format of Flash video. For about a decade, between the mid-2000s and the middle of the 2010s, almost every video on the web was an FLV file played inside a Flash player, and a great many websites, courseware packages, kiosks and embedded players were built around it. Flash itself has been retired and browsers no longer run it, yet the files and the systems that expect them did not all disappear. Old e-learning modules, legacy intranet players, signage software, some video-editing tools and a few specialised devices still want FLV, and they will not accept anything else.
MOV, on the other hand, is what you get today from an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac and many cameras. It is a clean, modern container, and it is the usual starting point when someone has a fresh recording and an old system to feed. That is the whole story behind a request to convert MOV to FLV: a new clip, an old destination, and a gap between them that a simple conversion can close.
This page does the job in your browser. Your video is not uploaded anywhere, which matters for footage of people, rooms and conversations. Below you will find how the conversion works, why it can be so quick, when it is not, and what you should know about the converter itself before you press the button.
How the conversion works
The container is rewritten, not the video
A video file is made of two layers. Inside are the picture and the sound, each stored in a particular coded form. Around them is a container, such as MOV or FLV, which keeps the two together and tells a player how to line them up. When you convert MOV to FLV here, your file is opened in your browser and its picture and sound are moved into an FLV container. If FLV accepts what was inside, which it usually does, nothing is re-encoded. Nothing is lost, and the job takes seconds.
Why it is so fast
Re-encoding a video is slow, because every frame has to be decoded and compressed again. Moving the contents from one container to another is quick, because it is closer to copying than to processing. A film of an hour can be rewritten into a new container in a short time, since the converter does not touch the pictures, only their packaging.
What a modern phone video holds
Recent phones record with modern, efficient compression. FLV is an older container with a shorter list of things it can hold, so it does not always accept such contents unchanged. When it cannot, the converter re-encodes the picture or the sound into a form FLV does accept. You will notice it from the longer wait, and from a file size that may differ from the original.
What is kept
The picture and the sound exactly as they were
Whenever FLV accepts what the MOV held, the picture and the sound are kept exactly as they were. This conversion rewrites the container, not the video. The picture is not recompressed, softened or resized, and what you see in the FLV is what was in the MOV, frame for frame.
Length, frame size and frame rate
The length, the frame size and the frame rate are untouched. A clip of ten minutes stays ten minutes, a picture of 1280 by 720 stays 1280 by 720, and movement keeps its original speed.
What may cost you something
When FLV will not take what the MOV held
Sometimes FLV will not accept the coded form of the picture or the sound that the MOV contains. Then the video is re-encoded, which means it is decoded and compressed again in a form FLV accepts. Re-encoding always costs a little quality, and it takes much longer than simply moving the contents. The converter does this automatically, but it explains why one conversion takes seconds and another takes minutes.
Subtitles and chapter marks
Subtitles and chapter marks are not carried over. If your MOV has subtitle tracks or chapter markers, the FLV will hold the picture and the sound but not those extras. If you need them, keep the original MOV and do not rely on the FLV alone.
The converter is fetched the first time
The converter is not part of the page itself. It is fetched the first time you use one of these video pages, about nine megabytes, once. After that it stays in your browser and later conversions start straight away. On a slow connection the first use takes longer, and offline you must have loaded it at least once before.
Long films on phones
Everything runs on your own device, so a long film on a phone may run out of memory before it finishes. Phone recordings can be large, a gigabyte or more for a long one. If that happens, try again on a computer, or cut the video into shorter parts first.
How to convert MOV to FLV here
Add your video
Drop the MOV onto the page or pick it from your device. It is opened inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Let it finish
Press the button. If the contents can simply be moved, it takes seconds. If they have to be re-encoded, it takes longer. Leave the page open until the result is ready.
Download and check
Download the FLV and open it in the player or the system you need it for. Watch the beginning, a bit from the middle and the end. Check that the sound and the picture stay together and that the length is the same as the original.
A closer look at MOV and FLV
Where the two formats come from
MOV was created by Apple for QuickTime, the technology that played video on Macs long before video was common on the web. FLV was created for Flash. It was designed to stream video through a web page, and for that it was good: small files, simple structure, quick to start. Sites like the early video portals relied on it. Then the web moved to other technologies, and FLV was left behind, but not erased.
What the format looks like today
Today nobody records new video in FLV for the open web. The format survives in archives, in old software and in devices that were built when it was everywhere. That is exactly why people need to convert MOV to FLV: not to publish on the modern web, but to feed something old. If your target is a modern site or an app, you almost certainly do not need FLV at all, and a more current format will serve you better.
When FLV is the wrong answer
If you only want a video that plays on a phone, a television or a website today, FLV is not the format to aim for, since most current players no longer read it. Check what the destination really needs before you convert, and use FLV only if the documentation or the error message asks for it by name.
Common situations in detail
Old e-learning packages
Courseware built in the Flash era often expects its videos as FLV files placed beside the lesson. If you need to update a lesson with new footage filmed on a phone, converting that footage to FLV lets it slot into the old package without rebuilding everything. Test the lesson after replacing the file, because some packages also expect particular sizes.
Legacy intranet and signage players
Companies sometimes run internal portals or digital signs that were set up fifteen years ago and still work. They play FLV and little else. A promotional clip or a safety instruction filmed on a recent phone can reach them once you convert MOV to FLV, with no change to the player.
Old editing and conversion tools
Some older programs only open FLV and a few other formats. If you want to trim or caption a phone video in one of them, an FLV copy gets you in. When the editing is done, export in the format you actually want to keep.
Archives and collections
Someone who keeps a collection of old web videos may want a new clip to match the rest. Converting to the same format keeps the collection uniform, though the original MOV remains the better master.
Questions people ask before converting
Will the quality drop?
Usually not. When FLV accepts what the MOV held, nothing is re-encoded. If re-encoding is needed, a little quality is given up.
Why did it take only a few seconds?
Because only the container was rewritten, not the video itself.
Will the FLV play in a modern browser?
No. Browsers have not played Flash video for years. FLV files are for old players, old software and devices that still expect them. If you want to watch the result on a current computer, use a desktop player that supports the format.
Is my video uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser and the video never leaves your device.
Can I go the other way?
Yes. To turn Flash video back into something current, convert FLV to MOV works on the same principle.
Privacy and handling
Why local conversion matters for video
Video is among the most personal things we keep on our devices. It holds faces, voices, rooms, children and conversations. Many online converters ask you to upload the file to a server, wait while it is processed and then download the result, and in that time a copy of your video sits on a machine you do not control. Here, the work is done by your own browser, so the video stays on your device. There is nothing to delete afterwards and no account to create.
What happens to the file after you leave
When you close the page, the converted video is gone from the browser, so download it before you do. The converter itself, the program of about nine megabytes, stays in your browser storage so that the next conversion starts faster. Your videos are never kept.
If something goes wrong
The conversion stops or the page freezes
This most often means the device ran out of memory, which happens with long or very large videos, especially on phones. Close other tabs and applications and try again, or move to a computer. Cutting the video into two halves and converting each separately also works.
The FLV will not play
Remember that FLV is not played by current browsers. Open it with a desktop player that supports Flash video, or on the system it was made for. If it still fails, the player may not understand the coded form inside. A shorter test clip, or a lower resolution in the original, may help. Keep the MOV, because you can always try again from it.
The sound is missing or out of step
Open the original MOV and check that it has sound at all. If it does, try the FLV in a second player, since some players mishandle certain audio. If the audio track is the troublesome part, tools such as M4A to MP3 or WAV to MP3 can help you prepare the sound separately.
Related video conversions
The same family of tools covers the other pairings. For a plainer, more widely read container, convert MOV to AVI. To feed the Flash format from Windows video, AVI to FLV works the same way. In the other direction, FLV to AVI and AVI to MOV bring old clips into formats that edit well. For sound on its own, FLAC to MP3 and OGG to MP3 make small, widely playable files.
Getting the most from this page
Decide what you need before you convert MOV to FLV
Before you convert MOV to FLV, write down the one thing the destination asks for. Is it the file extension, the frame size, the length, or a maximum size in megabytes? Old systems are often fussy about one of these and indifferent to the rest. Knowing which saves you from converting the same video three times. If the documentation says nothing, try a short clip first.
Keep a clean master
When you convert MOV to FLV, the FLV is a delivery copy and not an archive. Store the MOV safely, because it is the file you can turn into anything later. A habit that costs nothing is to name the copy after its destination, for example the lesson number or the name of the player, so that you can tell later which file went where.
Do it in one pass
Every time a video is re-encoded it loses a little, so the best way to convert MOV to FLV is a single conversion from the original, not a chain through other formats. If you have already passed the clip through a different tool, go back to the first MOV if you still have it.
Be patient with large files
A large clip makes the browser work harder. When you convert MOV to FLV on a phone, plug it in, keep the screen on and stay on the page. On a computer, close tabs you do not need. The conversion needs memory for the whole file, and the more room it has, the more reliably it finishes.
Check before you send it on
Once you convert MOV to FLV and download the result, play it to the end before you upload it anywhere. A few seconds of checking now is worth far more than discovering a problem after the file has been installed in a lesson, a sign or a portal that nobody wants to open again.
Know when to stop
If the destination still refuses the file after you convert MOV to FLV, the problem may be in the player and not in the video. Look for a note about the codecs it expects, or ask whoever maintains it. It may want a different frame size, a lower bitrate or another container altogether.
A worked example
Say you have a company safety briefing filmed on an iPhone, a MOV of 300 megabytes and about four minutes long, and the training portal your firm bought years ago accepts only FLV. You drop the file here and press the button. A short while later, because the picture had to be re-encoded, you download an FLV of about 150 megabytes with the same length and the same sound. You upload it to the portal, it plays, and the MOV stays on your phone and on your computer as the master.
A short checklist
Before converting
Make sure the destination really needs FLV. Check how much free space you have. Keep the MOV safe.
While converting
Stay on the page. Do not start other heavy tasks on a phone. Expect a longer wait if the picture has to be re-encoded.
After converting
Download the file, play it from start to end in a player that supports the format, and test it in the system where it must work before you delete anything. Most people keep the original.
Common mistakes
Deleting the original
Keep the MOV until you have checked the FLV in the system that matters. It is the better copy and you cannot rebuild it from the FLV.
Converting in chains
Each re-encode costs quality. Convert once, from the original, rather than passing a file through several formats one after another.
Closing the page too soon
A long film takes time. Leave the page open until the download is ready.
Your video stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your video is opened by your own browser, moved into a new container there and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no copy on a server and no one else who could watch it. For recordings of people and places, that is the safe way to convert MOV to FLV.
Summary
To convert MOV to FLV here, drop the video and press the button. The picture and the sound are moved into an FLV container, and when FLV accepts what was inside, which it usually does, nothing is re-encoded, so nothing is lost and it takes seconds. Length, frame size and frame rate are untouched. Where FLV will not take what the MOV held, the video is re-encoded, which costs a little quality. Subtitles and chapter marks are not carried over, and the converter is fetched the first time, about nine megabytes, once. FLV is a format for old players and systems, not for the modern web, so use it only when something asks for it. Nothing leaves your device.