

Ask HN: Do we still need FLV? - cedel2k1

As Flash started to support MP4 back in 2007, does somebody still see any advantage (compatibility reasons?) in converting videos to .flv in parallel to .mp4?<p>I just wonder why the majority of html5/flash players (http://praegnanz.de/html5video/) still suggest/support .flv as a fallback format.
======
Rust
FLV is a holdover from a less civilized time.

The new regime requests the following in at least 3 different bandwidths
(mobile, standard, HD) each:

* MP4 (h.264 Main Profile w/AAC audio) * OGG (Theora with Vorbis or MP3 audio) * WEBM (WebM with Vorbis audio)

This is from memory, so I could be mistaken about the specific codecs used for
those last two, but those three file types combined with a player (or JS
library) that detects bandwidth capabilities should let you play a video back
on virtually any modern device (ie. most phones, tablets and browsers), and
fall back to Flash using MP4 for browsers without HTML5 video element support.

I've used VideoJS and JWPlayer in the past (and recently!) with great success.
There is no need for an FLV version of the video unless you expect your users
to be using Flash before version 9 (or was it 8?).

------
peterhunt
FWIW, we do not convert to FLV anymore for Facebook video.

