Transcribe a long FLV file after Flash is gone.
A long FLV file runs about 225 MB per hour at the 500 kbps of an old 360p lecture download and about 1.1 GB per hour at 2.5 Mbps, so most recordings fit one upload of up to 10 hours or 5 GB. It transcribes at about 2 minutes per audio hour; the first 20 minutes are free and a 5-hour recorded stream goes on the $6 pack of 500 minutes.
FLV, worked out
The player is retired. The lectures saved in its format are still on hard drives everywhere.
Where FLV files come from
Flash Video was how the web played video for most of the 2000s, so course sites, conference pages and early streaming services delivered long talks as FLV, and download tools saved them that way. Adobe ended Flash Player at the close of 2020, but stream software still writes FLV, because live streaming over RTMP carries it.
Size from the bitrate
An old 360p lecture at around 500 kbps is about 225 MB an hour. A 480p recording near 800 kbps is about 360 MB, and a 720p stream recorded at 2.5 Mbps about 1.1 GB. Ten hours at 800 kbps is 3.6 GB: over the 2 GB that uploads before a pack, inside the 5 GB ceiling.
Getting it accepted
Try the FLV on the upload page. If the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first; ffmpeg can copy out the audio in a minute, and a 128 kbps MP3 of a ten-hour stream is about 576 MB.
A course you can read
Each lecture comes back with a brief, chapters for each part of the argument, the formulas, names and dates the lecturer gave, and a chat that answers questions about the session. The lecturer and anyone asking questions are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters.
Why old FLV files sit unwatched
Nothing plays them in a browser any more, and a long one is too big for quick tools.
✗ Stuck in a retired format
FLV needs a desktop player now, and hours of it meet caps built for short clips.
- Browsers that will not play the file
- Upload forms that reject .flv
- Hour caps on no-cost plans elsewhere
- Cutting a semester's lectures into chunks
- Notes that lose their place in the video
- Scrubbing for one worked example
✓ The lecture, readable again
Upload the FLV, or its audio, and read the session through.
- One FLV up to 10 hours or 5 GB
- About 2 minutes per hour of audio
- 20 minutes at no cost on a first visit
- $12 for 2,000 minutes, one semester
- Timestamped chapters to jump back into
- SRT and VTT to caption the old video
Sample
An archived statistics lecture, saved as FLV.
Illustrative only, written for this page and not taken from any real course; the timestamps show where each passage falls in a long FLV recording.
Export
One transcript. Five clean formats.
Every pack exports all five — no format is held back for a higher tier.
Plain text
De-ummed paragraphs. Ready to paste.
SRT captions
Timed to the speech. Every video editor reads this.
WebVTT
HTML5 player + YouTube uploads.
Show notes
Formatted with chapters and pull-quotes.
Machine-readable
Timestamped text for your own tools.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no surprises.
A pack from $6 (500 minutes) opens the full transcript. After that, no subscription and no auto-renew — every tier is a one-time minute pack, and credits never expire. Buy once, use the minutes whenever you need them.
Casual pack
$6/500 min
8 hours of audio — $0.72 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 500 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$12/2,000 min
33 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 2,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Long FLV files, the common questions.
How long does a long FLV take to transcribe?
About 2 minutes per audio hour, so a 5-hour stream recording is ready in roughly 10 minutes. A 1 GB FLV usually takes longer to upload than to process.
What does a semester of FLV lectures cost?
Twenty-six lectures of 75 minutes is 1,950 minutes, which fits the $12 pack of 2,000 with 50 left. A single 5-hour stream is 300 minutes on the $6 pack of 500.
How big is an FLV file per hour?
About 225 MB at 500 kbps, 360 MB at 800 kbps and 1.1 GB at 2.5 Mbps, worked from the total bitrate. The file's properties in a player such as VLC show the bitrate if you are unsure.
Can I still use FLV files I downloaded years ago?
Yes, if you have the right to transcribe them; Flash being retired does not change the file. Upload it, or convert it to MP3 if the upload refuses it. A stream that ran past 10 hours needs splitting into two uploads.
Which languages do the lectures have to be in?
Any of 99, detected automatically, Japanese, Spanish and Tagalog among them. A lecture that drops into a second language for a quotation is detected on its main language.
What do I download, and who sees the FLV?
TXT for reading, DOCX for editing, SRT or VTT for captions, JSON for tools. FLV recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Other long video formats
Upload the FLV. Twenty lecture minutes free to begin.
Transcribe my FLV fileOperated by Neugence Technology Pvt. Ltd. · contact@whipscribe.com · Security · Privacy · Terms