Format Showdown

MP4 VS FLV

The ultimate comparison guide. Understanding the technical differences between MPEG-4 Part 14 and Flash Video.

MP4

mp4

The most compatible digital multimedia container for video and audio.

Pros

  • Universal compatibility
  • Good compression/quality balance
  • Streaming support

Cons

  • Compression is lossy
  • Editing requires re-encoding

FLV

flv

Legacy streaming container widely used before HTML5 video adoption.

Pros

  • Small file sizes
  • Progressive playback
  • Easy to embed in legacy players

Cons

  • Deprecated technology
  • No iOS/Android support
  • Must be converted for modern browsers

When MP4 wins

Stay with MP4 when you need web video or social media. Its strengths center on universal compatibility and a feature set native to MPEG.

When FLV wins

Choose FLV when your workflow prioritizes legacy archives or intranet training portals. It delivers small file sizes plus modern compression perks.

Technical Specifications

FeatureMP4FLV
MIME Typevideo/mp4video/x-flv
DeveloperMPEGMacromedia
Release Year20012002
Best ForWeb video, Social media, General storageLegacy archives, Intranet training portals

Need to switch?

Convert FLV to MP4
Opportunity map

Where MP4 still wins

Keep MP4 when you need universal compatibility and workflows depend on web video / social media. Link those teams directly to the converter above so they can ship FLV deliverables without leaving their browser.

  • • Reference the .mp4 glossary from this page.
  • • Embed the conversion CTA in docs, wikis, and onboarding runbooks.
  • • Use FLV for legacy archives while archiving originals as MP4.
Internal linking plan

Keep crawlers in the conversion hub

Link this comparison to the relevant tool, glossary, and documentation pages so every crawl discovers a monetizable route.

MP4 to FLV converterFLV to MP4 converterUse case libraryImplementation docs