How to play Flv format files in Windows Media Player

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In this day and age, the most common software found on any Windows PC will most probably be doing double duties by playing host to a myriad of plugins. However this is one area where Microsoft’s Windows Media Player sorely lacks, which is surprising since its one of the most widely used media player software in the world!

Microsoft have provided a few plugins over the years but these are few and far between, and so in order to show some add-on love to WMP, PlayFLV takes center stage.

In contrast to the player that it’s designed for, PlayFLV is a free and open source plugin that allows WMP to playback FLash Video files (FLV). Unless you’ve been living underneath your sofa, you’ll know that FLV is the most popular video format out on the web right now.

Its the technology that drives Google Videos/YouTube and any other media site out there, in order to get such files isn’t a hassle (websites like keepvid.com help) however playing them always required you to get an external player because WMP doesn’t support the format by default. Downloading a sperate player  make sense if you intend to use it over a long term, but would be overkill if you just needed to view one FLV file.

PlayFLV shines in that regard, almost All Windows PC come pre installed with windows media player, in order to view that one file all you need to do is download the extremely tiny plugin (~300kb) install it and you’re done! The plugin automatically associates itself with the FLV extension and by default you get all the functions you’re used to in WMP (zooming, seeking, switching between fullscreen etc.)

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