Pop FLV Players Comparison

FLV is short for Flash Video, and presently FLV streaming video format is a new file with its extreme small size but even fast to load features. FLV makes watching video through network to be possible. Totally, FLV video format owns the following three major advantages:

Small size - For a clear FLV video file lasting around one minute, the file size is only 1MB, as well as 100MB for a movie, which is really a one third space of an ordinary video file.

Easy to download - you can download FLV files in three different kinds of ways: direct download, download tools and download from websites. Almost all current video websites with FLV file support these three methods.

Save system resources - there is no any senior system resource requirements to play FLV files, which in turn means the FLV files can also be played normally on a PC even with junior configuration.

As a consequence, FLV player, specially designed for FLV files, is a very small, free player with a fast running speed and additional functions.

So, in this article, we tested five FLV players as follows:
Riva FLV Player 1.2
Aunsoft FLV Player 1.0.2.1
Any FLV Player 2.5.0
Fortop FLV Player 1.1
BitComet FLV Player 1.4

The following is our test platform.
CPU：Intel Celeron 2.8GHz
Memory：Hynix 1GB
Hard Disk：ST3802110A (74 GB)
Graphic Card：Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
Sound Card：Realtek AC97 Audio

1. Riva FLV Player
Riva FLV Player, original from Germany, is the player with a long history among five ones. It has always ranked at a higher place for its searching and downloading volumes since 2006 until now.

Riva FLV Player, lasting a long time, of course contains special features. In our opinion, Riva holds the most beautiful interface over user option design among five ones. Such as:
* White menu listing on the top of playing window.
* Only Files, Language and Help-only three options, very concise.
* Riva supports English and German.
* Oval and rounded rectangle buttons downside. Vivid icon and arrowhead appearance respectively stand for own functions. Green progress bar goes when playing.
* A clear and fluent video player.

Ever the Riva FLV Player provides a nearly clear video share, but it is a little simple over functions. It only supports normal FLV player without any additional functions. What makes users more confused is the size of playing window, whose size cannot be altered to meet their demand. It forces people to watch the video almost as small as a phone screen! Personally speaking, products come from persist and as a consequence, the German cling to it!

Advantage:
* Time-honored
* Beautiful interface
Disadvantage:
* unchanged size of playing window
* Two processes running when playing
* Single function

Sum-up: a simple and easy-to-use FLV player.

2. Aunsoft FLV Player
What makes Aunsoft FLV Player different from other four ones is its build-in Playlist, as one part of software. While any other players, usually put it under or on the side edge of main program. It looks more wishy-washy.

Notable change for user interface design is that Aunsoft FLV Player has a gray and black main screen. Yellow font, together with black background, is a decent option. There is also a special functional key on the right edge of menu; words beginning with PL in yellow box can control the Playlist. This key, with color and shape design, really looks like popular recorder screen! Play and stop buttons list beneath main playing box together with program bar and volume control.

In another word, Aunsoft FLV Player has the wonderful user interface design among five ones. Differ from Riva; Aunsoft mostly looks like VCD player in Windows 98. Aunsoft made a good example for the balance between interface and function.

Besides, Aunsoft FLV Player also includes fundamental and common functions, such as video size adjustment, URL play and favorites. Still a little single, isn’t it?

Advantage:
* Beautiful layout
* Build-in Playlist
Disadvantage:
* Single function

Sum-up: nostalgic interface with practical functions.

3. Any FLV Player
This kind of FLV Player is really demassifying and free player software; most publishers will keep a stable version as a long publication instead of updating frequently. It can be found that there is really a majority of users who are interested in this simple player. Specially, Any FLV Player is completely a new trend among them. Any has been updated for several times since its publication and now the highest version is 2.5.0. Of course, the functions will be more and more abundant during the updating. Additional built-in FLV Converter and FLV Publisher are typical examples.

Getting so caught up in functional updating, the interface of Any FLV Player has no obvious alteration since V1.0 until now. Menu on the top, and the play\stop\time\schedule\silence key and volume slider are listed downside normally in a line. Most users thought it was a little rough. Nevertheless, the abundant functions are those we focused on.

Moreover, Any FLV Player sustains rich setting features. Here I only list several ones, for example, color and fonts in playing interface, video playing order, random and circular models, etc. Furthermore, advanced settings in buffered reading time could be settled for a better fluency.

Any FLV Player built in a FLV Converter and FLV Publisher at the same time. Publisher is very convenient to upload video files, which must be FLV formats in local disks into specified websites and it can be constantly previewed during that process. While FLV Converter, is a simple build-in video converter, switching video to FLV, including RM, WMV, ASF and AVI. Extra decoder sometimes is needed.

In our performance test, FLV Converter in free Any FLV Player is a trial version with 3-minute time limitation. But as a result, actual converting speed and effect are not as well as that we expect. Consequently, it is an advisable choice to buy other professional FLV converters better than a Full Version Any FLV Player for a better compatibility and user experience.

Through what we discussed and tested above, there is exactly some half-and-half additional build-in functions. Yet, what cannot be denied, Any FLV Player is making progress continually. We hope we can get more practical experience from Any FLV Player in the future, such as cooperation with online video websites like YouTube.

Advantage:
* Version updating constantly, V 2.5.0 at present.
* FLV Converter
* Online publish
* Abundant setting functions.
Disadvantage:
* Rough interface
* Large files (more than 20M)
* Playlist cannot be batch added.
* 3- minute limitation of FLV Converter

Sum-up: rudiment for FLV Media Terminal.

4. ForTop FLV Player
Without a long developing history like Riva and rich additional functions as Any FLV Player, ForTop FLV Player is nearly a common player without any marketing reputation. However, it makes our sight bright and deserves special attention!

There are more abundant shortcut keys operations in ForTop FLV Player, including keys for volume control, schedule refinement, video window size adjustment as well as open and play keys. It seems the main menu bar would be useless for everything can be done by shortcut keys. Once those shortcut operations are well understood, it is definitely more convenient than clicking the menu bar. For any case you want that menu bar show up, right click in anywhere to do graphic settings.

ForTop FLV Player also sustains many video sizes and playing ratio adjustment and even 16:9 formats is under the application for wide screen play in PC or notebooks. Meanwhile, build-in FLV TO MP3 converter converts FLV to MP3 without any other audio quality loss. There is only one thing needs to be noticed, MP3 files after conversion cannot be played forward.

But what is worth mentioning, system resource occupation of ForTop FLV Player ranks No.1 in our test. Presently a few MB Memory cannot influence PC observably, but resource advantage in ForTop FLV Player do more or less prove its calculating features in FLV playing and decoding.

Aside from almost perfect function, there is also something unstable in ForTop FLV Player. Deadlock happened several times when we testing but would be turn normal after restarting. Hope it is a particular case.

Even ForTop FLV Player did not get a high score in function, whereas its practical application at least takes a well place in testing, for example rich shortcut key, MP3 output directly. Most of features users focused on are all well performed in it. The simple but beautiful interface leaves us a comfortable using experience.

Advantage:
* Simple and beautiful interface
* Direct MP3 output
* Low resource occupation
* 16:9 playing compatible
* Complete shortcut keys.
Disadvantage:
* unsteadiness

Sum-up: harmonious balance within function and interface.

5. BitComet FLV Player
Just like the name indicated, BitComet FLV Player was published by the famous P2P software provider - BitComet. It is a really software without installation. An executable file can be downloaded directly from the official website. Hereafter, run it at once and do not need any installation. A tip shows in the main setting window, reminding you whether it would be associated with .flv files. The file size is the smallest one in five comparisons. And it is portable and saved in portable disk in 200KB.

However, the BitComet FLV Player owns a weak compatibility with Adobe Flash Player Plug-ins. In our test, a tip recommending updating Adobe flash player plug-in, yet the plug-in has already previously installed. Even we tried to install it for a second time from Adobe official website, the player still cannot be played normally. But other four players install successfully in this same computer. Take same sample in another computer, BitComet FLV Player runs directly. It is easy proved; there must be something wrong on compatibility between BitComet FLV Player and Adobe Flash Player.

Advantage:
* No installation
* Small size(200KB)
Disadvantage:
* Weak compatibility
Sum-up: common player from famous publisher.

Attached list: Score:

BrotherSoft Editor's Pick: ForTop FLV Player