FLV versus WMV formats

[shaema]

Dear all

Just wondering about the best format to view full screen 640*480 SD video clips on a 24 inches LCD monitor. I have viewed high quality FLV clips embedded in Firefox and my questions are:

1 - Would downloading / saving these FLV SD clips and subsequently playing them off line using VLC give me better quality?

2 - If I convert them to 640*480 SD WMV format, would the quality be better, same or worse compared with the original FLVs?

Many thanks for your input.

[Baldrick]

1. I get smoother playback using vlc instead of the flash player.

2. Not better but about the same if you use high enough bitrate.

[shaema]

Thanks Baldrick for your response.

At present, I am using Freecorder Toolbar to convert FLVs into WMVs. It says it produces similar quality, which I have to say is about the same but the WMV files would be almost three times the size of the FLV files. Would that be expected?

Are there any other free software programs that can produce similar or higher quality WMV files but with smaller size?

Thanks again for your interest.

[Baldrick]

Try Windows Media Encoder and Windows Movie Maker. They might support flv if you have the correct filters installed or use flvextract to make an avi from the flv.

Or try MediaCoder, HDConverttoX or WmnicEnc(you also need avisynth).

[poisondeathray]

Downloading the original FLV in native format will give you the best quality and smallest filesize. When you convert using a lossy format like WMV, you increase the filesize only to get worse quality.

[jagabo]

You can also eliminate tearing when playing the FLV file locally with VLC rather than online in a browser.