How to convert .FLV(Flash) to .WMV, .AVI or any other format?
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In my last post on ‘How to Download Video, not just from YouTube?, I mentioned that the downloaded file will be in .flv format (Flash). I also gave links to some of the free FLV players. But, if you want to use that downloaded video in another or friends computer which doesn’t have FLV player then every time you have to install FLV player in all computers.
But it’s possible to convert FLV files to WMV, AVI or any other format you prefer and it’s easier than you think. The best part is you might already have that software installed in your computer.
So, How to convert FLV to WMV, AVI or any other format?
VLC player is one of the software which is widely used and which plays any format of audio or video (including .flv). The less known fact is that it also helps to convert audio and video file formats. Follow these steps to convert .flv to .wmv, .avi or any other format.
Note: If you don’t have VLC player yet, then you can download from VideoLan. It’s an open source!
Step 1: Load the .flv file into VLC player and press Stop. (If you are using large file then it may take some time to load, so wait till the whole file is loaded and then press stop. Otherwise you may not be able to transcode the full file)
Step 2: Go to File -> Wizard. It will give you a pop-up ‘Streaming/Transcoding Wizard‘.
Step 3: Select Transcode/Save to file and Click Next.
Step 4: Select Exisiting Playlist Item and the file you have just loaded will be listed there.
Step 5: Highlight the .flv file and click Next.
Step 6: In the next screen, Select Transcode Video and from the drop down box choose WMV3 (this has highest quality, though the output of the file may differ as per the original .flv file). If you are having problem with WMV3, try using WMV2.
Step 7: Select Transcode Audio and from the drop down box choose MP3 (for the quality to be higher, leave it at the default bitrate of 192) and click Next.
Step 8: choose ‘ASF‘ as the ‘Encapsulation Format‘ and click Next.
Step 9: You will be asked to select the file to save to, click ‘Choose‘ and browse to the folder where you want your new file to be saved.
Step 10: !!!Important!!! Type in the file name in the ‘File’ field with the extension of .WMV (example, lytebyte.wmv)
Step 11: Click Finish and wait for couple of seconds and the new file is ready.
Step 12: Use the new .WMV file in any player!
Earlier Update: In case if you are not able to transcode the full file, it may be because the file was not fully loaded before it was transcoded. Read Step 1 or this comment for more.
Or if you are facing some green garbage video for first few seconds, try using wmv2 instead of wmv3. Thanks Shawanta for this tip and MoYaKa for confirming it.
Update [Jan 11, 2009] Also, some have reported some changes in the new version of VLC. See Paul’s comments on how to convert using new VLC versions. Thanks Paul and Karl for confirming it.
Earlier Note: VLC has not yet released the new version for Vista but it works for most of the cases except for some rare extension types. Find out ‘How to make VLC player work in Vista?‘
If you are reading this post then you are probably downloading videos from internet. Use this new easiest method to download online videos using real player, read more on “How to Download Youtube and Other Online Videos using Real Player?“
hi,
i did what you said, but somehow my video only has sound and no picture.
i am using Vista so i don’t know if that’s the problem.
thanks anyway.
Thought i’d found the answer to easily convert my flv movie files to wmv.
I’ve followed the instructions to the letter, using wmv2, mp3, encapuslate as asf, save to folder as….
However, when get to the ‘file name’ i cannot add extension wmv. unless i also add asf. extension!
This then means it won’t play in Media Player.
Am i doing something wrong?
I’m having the same issue as Tien. Only, it’s just started doing this recently for me. Before I was able to convert files just fine. Now, I’m just getting audio.
I use Flash To Video Encoder! That’s enough for me?
Thanks =) I’ve been seeking some converters on the internet before but they never really worked or they sent me a virus file instead. I have Windows Vista and your way worked fine for me =)
How do you convert it to a format that Windows Media Player would play because everytime I convert it to .wmv format windows media player only plays the audio/sound and nothing shows up for the video
thank you fella. never saw this way anywhere.
thank you
Thanks alot man. this is a really big help. I have been using VLC for almot 3 years and never new its posssible to convert videos with VLC. Thank you thank you thank you so much =)
excelent! I downloaded a lot of rubbish programs, full of viruses, or ones that needed a fee to use the main features- the vlc player is good, but your advice on converting flv files to wma is exactly what i’ve been looking for to make my spoof video trailers! Also, initially I thought it wasn’t working as I got a green scambled screen at the start of the video I downloaded- but i followed bits of the advice above, and it now works brilliantly!
can’t express how happy i am that you’ve done this. Superb! any future things I need i will be checking this site!
I found your posting to be of great interest and I’ll try it out so I can see how my current method of downloading/converting compares.
This is what I do now.
If you use Firefox as your browser, then the Add-On Extension DOWNLOADHELPER will download the video for you from the website that you are watching it at.
It also will suggest the files it can download from a website and highlight them on the page.
It will also download images from a gallery for you
A new feature is a direct interface with the FFMPEG program which provides the necessary glue to make it simple and convenient for DownloadHelper users.
FFMPEG is a powerful video conversion utility used as the back-end program for most video converters on the market.
I also use the free version of Any Video Converter which accepts avi, asf, mov, rm, rmvb, flv, mkv, mpg, 3gp, m4v, and vob as input formats and can output to avi, wmv, mp4, 3gp, wmv, flv, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 mpg (PAL or NTSC)
There is a paid version also but the free version does everything I need.
DownloadHelper
http://www.downloadhelper.net
Any Video Converter
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
after i pick WMV3 to transcode video, will choosing a higher bit rate than the default make an improvement? or any difference at all?
Can you help me? how to convert VP6 Flash video into Windows Media Video?.. i tried different video converter but when id finish to convert the vp6 video.its to short is not the same…only up of the movie converted… what video converter will i use?. kindly send me the answer to my email add.. ty..
Hey awesome job, it works fine for me. Thanks for putting this up.
THANKS
if you are using windows media player 9.
dont pick wmv3
instead select divx3
with highest bit rate for video.
didnt test the audio because it sounded alright how it was.
than do the rest that he said.
ur video will be clearier this way.
thnxx dude………amazing
Hi, this was really helpful but I got the new VLC and I’m having problems with converting. Could you see If the steps are the same with the new one?
Thank you sooooooooooooo much
edwin, for converting vp6 flv to wmv, i’m using moyea flv to video converter, http://www.flash-video-soft.com/flv-to-video/
This program can perfectly convert all kinds of FLV files without any extra codecs, including On2 vp6 video FLV, H263 video FLV, Nelly Moser audio FLV, MP3 audio FLV and audio-only FLV.
thanks, it works pretty well for me, I google flv online converter
I tried using this but it didn’t work. My player must be screwed, or too new =/ There isn’t even a “file” option… And the settings aren’t under media >.<
Stinks, because this worked on my Xp… just not my vista =(
hey
how would we do this using vlc 0.9.2?
i tried but i can’t even find the file button.
hey i tried this but it doesn’t seem to work! I don’t have the file option and i thinkmy thing is screwd up too. I ‘m so confused on how to do this, i have windows xp but it doesn’t work:(:(
Hey,
Apparently the player has updated itself or something, I can no longer find the file button. I’ve downloaded it twice from two different locations, and all versions have no “file”. However, they can still convert, but it’s extremely complicated for me. I’m pretty tech/html/computer savy, but the options are all very confusing.
HERE’S HOW TO GET RID OF THE GREEN STUFF at the beginning of the video coverted to wmv.
When you originally download the video from the internet, download it as a MP4 file, NOT a FLV file (you can use clipgrabber for the download – use the MP4 iPod link)
Also like others have said, let the whole video play through in your FLV player (yes it plays MP4 video) to make sure the download was good.
NO MORE GARBLED GREEN SCREEN MESS.
This definitely works with the VLC player with the file option.
Sorry in that last post I typed clipgrabber, it should have been clipnabber,
With regaurd to the people who complained that only a fraction of their video was converted, I think I know the problem. At least for me, once I have completed the last step (clicked finish), a VLC window appears in which there is no video, only the place bar. If you close the VLC window when the place bar has only moved 20 seconds, you will only have 20 seconds of converted video. You need to let the place bar completely finish (move from left to right, as if you were playing the whole sequence).
It appears that the latest versions of VLC player have been changed, they don’t even have the file>wizard options. If anyone can tell us how to convert .flv to wmv or what ever using the new version I would be most appreciative.
VLC has now been ruined in the name of progress. This tip is now obsolete as none of the options are available. As with other open source stuff, someone has made it “much mre functional” and thereby made it useless to ordinary users. Buried within, it seems to still be possible to convert, but Joe Blogs is not going to be able to do it, shame
A few other people, I’ve noticed, have complained about there being no file button. I don’t have one either, and would really like to know where it is, or how to get one. Or even a site to download one that has a file button. xDD Somebody please answer us?
You don’t have to use the latest version of VLC – I went ahead and downloaded ver. 0.8.6i from the VideoLAN FTP archives. Using this version you can follow the guide given on this site or even look up video tutorials on YouTube.
http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/0.8.6i/
^ That’s the link.
For Windows users, select the “win32/” directory and download the file in your preferred format. (The .exe worked just fine for me)
For Mac users, the “macosx/” directory.
For Linux users, well you probably already have this figured out
– but if not, no browsing needed – simply pick the compressed format of your choice from the given link.
Hope that helps.
What type of audio should I save it as so it will work in Windows movie Maker? Mp3 isn’t showing up….Thanks!
YouTube Converter–YouTube FLV Video Converter is the most powerful product to get flv videos from YouTube.com and convert them to other video formats. With its “downloading playing converting”, you could easily get FLV videos from YouTube to MP4. (Note: Apart from converting FLV files to MP4, this FLV to MP4 Converter can also convert FLV to iPod MP4, iPhone MP4, PSP MP4, 3GP, AVI.)
http://www.youtubeconverter.org/
is there a quicker way to convert the files? my computer is very slow…
Hi!
Ive been trying to convert a 4 minutes flv video using vlc 0.9.4 but I was not succesfull. In the encapsulation I selected ASF/WMV, Video Codec I selected WMV2 and for Audio I selected MP3. Can you help me?
“Step 2: Go to File -> Wizard. It will give you a pop-up ‘Streaming/Transcoding Wizard‘.”
is this a joke? there is no “file wizard” pop up anywhere.
U have given a grt info abt the grt VLC palyer.thank u so much n keep it up.naandrii!!
I Have a huge problem, u said go to file then wizard. I dont see file anywhere, I just see, media, audio, video, playback, playlist, tools, and help
I downloaded the latest version: 0.9.8a. There is no File|Wizard menu anymore – HOWEVER everthing is still possible. The steps are now:
Step 1: Open VLC player without clicking on a file i.e. open it e.g. from the Windows Start menu. If you do open it by double clicking a video file, then just click stop.
Step 2: On the VLC menu click Media -> Convert/Save
Step 3: In the file pop-up, locate the file that you want to convert and click Convert/Save
Step 4: Set the conversion options as follows:
1) in the “Outputs” section click the “File” checkbox and in the “Filename” field type a path where you want the converted file to end up e.g. “C:\Users\paul\Documents\Temp\myvideo.wmv”. The “wmv” extension is important.
2) in the “Profile” section on the “Encapsulation” tab select “ASF/WMV”.
3) in the “Profile” section on the “Video codec” tab check the “Video” checkbox. In the “Codec” dropdown select “WMV2″. Set the “Bitrate” to 1024 and the “Scale” to 1.
4) in the “Profile” section on the “Audio codec” tab check the “Audio” checkbox. In the “Codec” dropdown select “MP3″. If you get the issue where the converted file only has audio and no video, then try selecting the “WMA” codec instead – it worked for me.
5) click the “Save” button
Step 5: VERY IMPORTANT: WAIT!!!! VLC will now convert the file but won’t display much – don’t click any buttons, just wait until the convertion is complete.
6) close VLC. This is mostly for your own benefit since if you click the play button, then the conversion will start again. However, if you can stay away from the play button, then it is safe to start again from step 2 without closing VLC.
Thanks it really worked. Now i can watch all videos at windows media player “one entertainment in one place”.
Paul – thank you so much for that guide! It worked perfectly! Thanks soo so so so so so much! I was really frustrated and had given-up after failing to figure it out myself, and I figured I would check the comments. And then POOF! Right there!
Wonderful. :3
Thanks.
@Karl, Thanks for confirming and am glad it worked for you.
joel, you made my day. I wanted to download youtube musical vedios for a long time. I am not very good in this conversions and downloading business. I followed the steps you’ve given and now I am happy man. yes! It worked perfect. first I had to upgrade the VLC player. then I only got video no audio. my mistake obviously.then I followed the steps.It worked.
This program is so hard to use and none of the instruction match any thing on the program. I will look for something to convert vids some where else. I just deleted this junky program from my computer.
Well i have to say it worked. After two day of reading Pauls instructions and trial and lots of errors i got the first fly vid converted to a wmv. It is hard to do but i hope after a few more it will be easier to do.
Thanks Paul for your instruction or i would have never figured this out.
Dwight
I converted two fly vids and i can not get it to do it again. This is the hardest program i ever tried to use. There is just to much unexplaind garbage in the program.
I give up.
Dwight
After 3 days of trial and lots of errors i have converted about 20 vids from the downloaded flv flash format. I just counld not give up. I new Paul said it worked so i had to figure it out.
Once you figure out how to find the vid file and save it, replace it and change the flv to wmv it will stream the vid and convert it.
It works. Just took me 3 days to figure it out.
Thanks Paul
Dwight
VLC is “one entertainment in one place”.
What transcode audio/video codec do I use to turn the .flv into .dpg?
Karl there is a problem.
I have downloaded many flv’s to wmv2. there is one flv file that I can’t convert. do I need to change the settings I mean try wmv3 or mpeg or something else? please help.
tnx.