View source for VLC HowTo/Transcode from Flash Video format

You can use [[ffmpeg]] to change [[.flv]] files to [[.avi]] files (or one of many other types of files).

If you have problems playing .flv files, changing them to .avi will probably fix the problem.

== Windows ==

=== Install ===
Precompiled windows binaries are avaliable at:
* http://arrozcru.no-ip.org/ffmpeg_builds/
Pick the file '''ffmpeg-SVN-r6708-static-gpl-win32.zip'''

Extract the files from the .zip and copy ffmpeg.exe to your Windows directory (Windows folder), or somewhere else in your search path.

=== Run ===
Ffmpeg.exe is command-line based, so to use it you need to open a [[wikipedia:cmd.exe|command prompt]]. In the start menu pick "Run", and type
 cmd.exe
into the box and press enter. This opens a cool black box with white text. It'll say something like C:\>.

At the prompt, type
 cd "''somewhere''"
where "''somewhere''" is the path to the folder where you saved your files, it's probably something like
 cd "c:\windows\profiles\user\Desktop\"
Then press enter. You can find out the path (location) of a file by right clicking on the file and selecting properties.

Finally type
 ffmpeg -i "''your_file''.flv" "''your_file''.avi"
and press enter. This takes "''your_file''.flv" as the input file and spits out "''your_file''.avi" as an avi file. Job done (at last!)

Close the command prompt by closing the window as normal, or typing "exit".