Looking for some better options to play FLV

[Seeker47]

For awhile now, I've been running into FLV files that won't load or play in any of my desktop players. That includes the old FLV Player 1.33 and the Applian FLV Player 2.0. (Don't like what I read in the review here for their current 3.0) WMP: negative. GOM (older version): negative. VLC 1.11 remains my 'Go To' player, but also negative. It works for most everything else I routinely throw at it, and works well, but is also negative for these FLV. (It might have worked for some older types of FLV files, but I'd need to double-check that.) Given the reviews I'm reading on VLC 2.x, I think I'll stick with my default position of "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It." I also have WMP-HC (v. 1.5), which is also negative on this, but I'd probably be willing to update that to a later version, if it would really make a difference.

What may have changed with more recent-issue FLV that could be a factor here ? What else that's around in players should I be considering ?

[intracube]

What may have changed with more recent-issue FLV that could be a factor here ? What else that's around in players should I be considering ?

I know of at least one popular video site that has recently started modifying the headers of its flv videos in a fairly trivial way...

The only way I've managed to play the files is to manually 'fix' the headers.

I don't know if it's ok to talk in depth about this and suggest workarounds. Would this be classed as breaking some kind of copy protection... hmm.

[lordsmurf]

Media Player Classic is what I use.
WMP and VLC are terrible with FLV files. GOM is passable.

The Adobe Media Player works well, too, of course. (Comes with CS4 and CS5 Master Collection)

[jagabo]

Given the reviews I'm reading on VLC 2.x, I think I'll stick with my default position of "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It."

Download a portable version and you can run it without removing the older version. Then delete the new version whenever you want.

[jagabo]

The only way I've managed to play the files is to manually 'fix' the headers.

I don't know if it's ok to talk in depth about this and suggest workarounds. Would this be classed as breaking some kind of copy protection... hmm.

Since the site lets you talk about DVD Decrypter, AnyDVD, and DVDFab, why wouldn't it let you talk about changing the header in an FLV?

[intracube]

Since the site lets you talk about DVD Decrypter, AnyDVD, and DVDFab, why wouldn't it let you talk about changing the header in an FLV?

I thought circumvention of copy protection systems was illegal (in the U.S. at least) and issues like this might have been part of the reason for moving Videohelp to European servers.

In this case, I don't know why the headers are like this.

If you compare one of the problematic FLVs to a regular one in a hex editor, it's obvious what's missing.

[tbout]

Daum PotPlayer is all you need, trust me

[Seeker47]

Given the reviews I'm reading on VLC 2.x, I think I'll stick with my default position of "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It."

Download a portable version and you can run it without removing the older version. Then delete the new version whenever you want.

A good suggestion -- thanks. I've become a big fan of portable versions of a lot of different apps, and am tilting that way whenever feasible.

In this case, I don't know why the headers are like this.

If you compare one of the problematic FLVs to a regular one in a hex editor, it's obvious what's missing.

With these latest examples, there was no discernible FLV header of any sort. I often check with a hex editor, so I'm well accustomed to recognizing the standard video file type headers.

MediaInfo would not tell me anything about these files either, but I'm a version behind the latest there as well.

Media Player Classic is what I use.
WMP and VLC are terrible with FLV files. GOM is passable.

The Adobe Media Player works well, too, of course. (Comes with CS4 and CS5 Master Collection)

Good to know. My GOM version is probably too old. (Haven't updated that in a long time.) I'd like to find the Adobe player as a standalone module, though that does not seem to be in the cards.

[intracube]

Daum PotPlayer is all you need, trust me

It's for Windows only.

If you compare one of the problematic FLVs to a regular one in a hex editor, it's obvious what's missing.

With these latest examples, there was no discernible FLV header of any sort. I often check with a hex editor, so I'm well accustomed to recognizing the standard video file type headers.

Can you upload one of these flvs somewhere?

[jagabo]

With these latest examples, there was no discernible FLV header of any sort. I often check with a hex editor, so I'm well accustomed to recognizing the standard video file type headers.

Then it's not an FLV file. Or it's a corrupt FLV file. Or it's encrypted.

[Seeker47]

Can you upload one of these flvs somewhere?

I may have deleted them already, but I'll check.

Daum PotPlayer is all you need, trust me

I don't suppose there's a portable version of this around somewhere . . . ?
[EDIT: Never mind, it looks like AfterDawn has one.]

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_video/media_players/daum_potplayer_portable.cfm

[Seeker47]

With these latest examples, there was no discernible FLV header of any sort. I often check with a hex editor, so I'm well accustomed to recognizing the standard video file type headers.

Then it's not an FLV file. Or it's a corrupt FLV file.

Both Orbit Downloader and the YTF Greasemonkey script thought they were. But these have become rather hit or miss for YT video downloads.

[intracube]

It looks like the FLVs are more corrupted than I thought. I can get the files to start playing, but they bomb out part way through.

[jagabo]

Both Orbit Downloader and the YTF Greasemonkey script thought they were. But these have become rather hit or miss for YT video downloads.

Can you give the YouTube page?

[intracube]

Both Orbit Downloader and the YTF Greasemonkey script thought they were. But these have become rather hit or miss for YT video downloads.

Can you give the YouTube page?

Every YT video I've looked at recently has this problem.

[jagabo]

Every YT video I've looked at recently has this problem.

I just used FireFox and Download Helper to download a few FLV videos from Youtube. Both were "normal" FLV files (640x360, AVC/AAC) and played in all the players I tried (MPCHC, VLC, KMPlayer, PotPlayer).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dC03TA5UEI&feature=g-logo-xit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic&feature=g-music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GuqB1BQVr4&feature=g-music

[TreeTops]

Ditto for me using Download Helper.

[jagabo]

There are some YouTube videos that Download Helper can't download. For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVhAF1W6D2g

That's one reason I asked for a link to a video the OP was having trouble with. RtmpExplorer used to work for those videos but not anymore.

[intracube]

Every YT video I've looked at recently has this problem.

I just used FireFox and Download Helper to download a few FLV videos from Youtube. Both were "normal" FLV files (640x360, AVC/AAC) and played in all the players I tried (MPCHC, VLC, KMPlayer, PotPlayer).

Yeah, it looks like DH establishes a different connection compared to the YT Flash player and gets a subtly different file. The files received with DH don't seem to have broken headers.

The reason the videos were bombing out part way through was because there were HTTP headers left in the file (my fault). Not sure if there are any other differences.