Due to the rise in internet video, and the need for it to be easily played on different operatiing systems and browers, Flash FLVs have taken off in the last two years. In light of this phenomenon, I find myself more and more downloading FLV videos for later viewng.

The most common places you will see FLV video for the masses is of course YouTube and Google Video, but many more sites are catching on. Flash has 98% browser penetration, and works on Mac, PC, and Linux, so it is a no brainer.

So what do you do with all those downloaded FLVs? You could open Flash and make a quick SWF file to play it, but that would be annoying and wouldn't work at all for people without Flash Professional installed. The direct problem with FLVs is that they dont play in Windows Media Player or Linux's Totem player. If you are on a Mac, you can install Perian and Quicktime will play the FLVs You could convert them to normal video files with some free video conversion programs such as Media Coder for Windows or FFMpegX for Mac. You could also use a free online converter such as Media Convert.

However, all that could add up to time wasted. The solution I found to be the most pleasing and easy was to download the free VLC Media Player for Windows/Mac/Linux/Unix. VLC plays FLV files natively and vry clearly. The controlls are quite plain but intuitive, and it supports playlists for viewing multiple FLVs. Best of all, it also plays pretty much any other file format thrown at it. I have used it as my primary video player on Mac and PC for 2 years and have been very satisfied. I don't even open Windows Media Player anymore. VLC plays all Windows Media files out of the box. Plus, if you are on a heavily regulated network at work, or do not have install privelages, there is a no-install thumbdrive version of VLC with all the same capabilities as the full install version!