BlackBerry Forums Support Community

davemack · 12-26-2008, 08:52 PM

If I'm correct, FLV video files that I download are native to the BB's format and I was wondering if there was a way to convert them to something that is.

I downloaded Blackberry Video Creator from Seabyrd Technologies ver 1.13.0.9 and it doesn't seem to have "flv" as one of it's options but I can select the "flv" files if I select "all files" in the input window. It goes through some kind of rendering process but the output file doesn't seem to be viewable on my computer and when I try to transfer them to my BB using the "Media Manager", it just fails and won't even put the file on my media card in the BB.

Is there something I'm not doing right or are flv files from the Internet just incompatible with the BB? I have a bunch of video that I would like to have on my BB so I can easily share it at work and such.

ScooterG · 12-26-2008, 10:45 PM

Any Video Converter

SUPER

Basically all you're wanting to do is convert .flv, flash video to .avi, what your BB uses. Either of the above will do that of just Google away to find something else.

akosnitzky · 12-26-2008, 10:49 PM

Maybe I am asking a dumb question. Do you need a separate program to save or capture the flv file? If so, is there a free program someone can recommend?

ScooterG · 12-26-2008, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akosnitzky

Maybe I am asking a dumb question. Do you need a separate program to save or capture the flv file? If so, is there a free program someone can recommend?

Where are you trying to capture the .flv file from. It sometimes makes a difference as some programs/extensions only work for certain sites.

davemack · 12-26-2008, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akosnitzky

Maybe I am asking a dumb question. Do you need a separate program to save or capture the flv file? If so, is there a free program someone can recommend?

I don't think there is any special requirement to "save" or "capture" a flv file but there is a special player required to play them. I found a free one by googling for it. It's just called "FLV Player version 2 build 23". Works great and has a good variety of options for playback.

davemack · 12-26-2008, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScooterG

Any Video Converter

SUPER

Basically all you're wanting to do is convert .flv, flash video to .avi, what your BB uses. Either of the above will do that of just Google away to find something else.

For some reason, I just haven't been able to produce a file that the BB's Media Manager will accept.

akosnitzky · 12-27-2008, 07:36 AM

Wirelessly posted (Verizon 8830)

If you send the input, I may be willing to tinker with it. I posed my question about capturing or saving because I assume you need an input.

ScooterG · 12-27-2008, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davemack

For some reason, I just haven't been able to produce a file that the BB's Media Manager will accept.

I just used to Any Video Converter to convert a downloaded .flv to a .avi and am watching it now...

akosnitzky · 12-27-2008, 09:28 AM

Thank you. My PC are a bit marginal compared with many of the users on the site. I installed any video converter and am testing it by trying to convert an FLV file from ESPN. It seems the only way as by grabbing the url which I did and that the file must play completely.

EDIt: the program link shows as waiting for quite awhile now.

slmoney · 12-27-2008, 01:27 PM

BlackBerry Video Generator will convert FLV files to play on the blackberry...
It was being offered for free on Christmas...

Free Download: Video Generator for BlackBerry - 24 Hours Only! | BlackBerryInsight

davemack · 12-28-2008, 04:59 PM

I found a super easy and fast way to deal with FLV video and I am amazed with the resolution. The best part, it's all free.

The easiest way to explain would be through example. So, let's say you saw a YouTube video you wanted to capture and be able to play on you BB. I did this on my computer at home so I'm not sure how it would work from your phone but I suspect running the converter is something that should be left for your computer.

Whether you click the "Share" button to get the URL or you find the URL for the video over on the right side of the screen, copy and paste that URL into a new tab or window in your browser. Then, before you click the "Go" button, high-light and replace the "youtube" part of the URL with "voobys". Make sure you don't distort the URL in any way except for the replacement of that one little part of it. When you click "Go", you will go to the "Voobys.com" site and be prompted with the option to download the video to your computer. When you download it, make sure to give it a name and include the extension ".flv" on the end of it.

When the download is complete, you will see a button to download their converter. It's a great little converter but like a lot of free stuff on the Internet, it isn't without it's drawbacks. It likes to call home to mommy when you try to use it. I use AVG's firewall and so I am able to prevent any outgoing transmissions that I don't want. I highly recommend using such a firewall. The converter will complain that there is no Internet connection and then you can just shrink the convertor to your task-bar.

Now that you have the converter running in the background, you can just right-click on it and select "Convert" any time you want. Just point it to any FLV video and you get the option of what kind of output you want. One would normally select the "3gg" output designed for phones like I did and it worked okay. Made a 4KB file that the BB's Media Manager liked and I selected the option in Media Manager for "Optimal Playback".

The video was "okay" but I decided to play around with it and used the converter again and this time, I selected "wmv" for the output. I ran it a third time and selected "mpg" that time but I think the "wmv" and "mpg" are pretty similar.

I used the BB's Media Manager to install this "wmv" file and I was blown away by the resolution. I selected "Full Screen" for my video playbacks on the BB and you would not believe how perfect these videos play. It's incredible. Granted, the file size was nearly 40KBs compared to the 4KBs for the 3gg video but the resolution is well worth it. It still is only a spec of space on a 4GB media card and even at that size, it loads and runs flawlessly. I couldn't be more pleased with the result.

akosnitzky · 12-28-2008, 11:23 PM

What about an ESPN video which has a link?
Below is a link I took off one of their videos?

The Mag: Matt Ryan NEXT - ESPN Video

davemack · 12-29-2008, 06:52 AM

I looked at that video and link. It's a fairly complex link and I even tried substituting the voobys site for the espn site in it but that didn't work. I might play around with these kinds of links later but it's time to go to work.

I am curious if anyone else has discovered an all inclusive method of snatching rogue videos off of any kind of website.

ScooterG · 12-29-2008, 08:58 AM

If you use FireFox, try the DownThemAll extension.

akosnitzky · 12-29-2008, 10:13 AM

I just installed it. Thank you. See if I can get it to work. As far as youtube, I simply save to my media card, so it is not my area of need

akosnitzky · 12-29-2008, 10:32 AM

Thank you all.

I am using Download Helper from Firefox and converted the file to .wmv with Format Factory which is free.

FormatFactory - Free media file format converter

akosnitzky · 12-29-2008, 12:11 PM

Wow!!!! I misspoke. Dont format to wmv. Format Factory allowed me to transfer the FLV file to a BB Format, which they referred to Blackberry mp4. The video defaulted to full screen and came out perfect.