Time moves a lot faster in the virtual world. Less than a decade ago, embedding videos to websites was an absurd concept. Now it is exactly the opposite, videos are everywhere. People have no choice but to consume hundreds of megabytes of streaming video as their snacks.

Unfortunately, unless you are living in Finland [Broken URL Removed], a broadband internet connection is not one of your human rights. Most of us still have to put up with snail speed connections and watching "coughing" streaming videos is a torture. That's why people come up with many alternative methods to download web videos.

The problem is, while most browsers can play web videos by default (with a little help from plugins), you need a dedicated application to play the downloaded file. Instead of looking for media players which support Flash videos (the common format of web videos), why don't we use an application that was specifically built to play Flash files? Something like SWF & FLV Player.

Go Beyond Videos

SWF & FLV Player is a free app - available for Windows and Mac - that you can use to play all kinds of common Flash files that you would find on the net like movies and games.

To try the software, I downloaded a YouTube video and then opened it using SWF & FLV Player.

play flash files

The video is played in the main window.

play flash files

The playback control is opened in a separate panel where you can play/pause. fast forward, rewind, increase/decrease the volume, adjust the zoom, etc. There's also a tiny preview screen that you can reveal/hide.

play flash files

But the app can do a lot more than play Flash files. I tried playing one small SWF game that I downloaded years ago using Safari and everything went well without any glitch. All the game controls is functional.

play flash games

The app also allows you to open Flash files on the web. If you know the exact location of the file, something like "http://www.whateveraddress.com/flashfile.swf", you can use the "File - Open URL" menu.

play flash games

Then write down the address in the pop up window and click OK.

play flash games

But if you only know the address of the site (which has a flash movie), use the "File - Download online Flash movies" menu instead. Write down the site address, click browse, then SWF & FLV Player will analyze the site and list all the files on that address which are supported. You can treat the page as you normally do in the browser, or you can choose one of the filter results and click Preview to watch it.

flash video player

The paid Pro version of the app allows you to save the flash files to your hard drive. So you will have more convenient ways to download flash files from the net. There are more advanced features in the Pro version for those who need extra bells and whistles.

Another noteworthy feature of this app is the ability to manage flash files in a playlist. Open the Playlist window using the "Window - Playlist" menu.

flash video player

Then you can manage your playlist from the playlist window. Beside adding and removing files, the playlist also allows you to repeat and shuffle.

flash video player

There are many ways that you can use to download flash videos from the web, there are also multimedia players that are capable of playing flash videos. But SFW & FLV Player lets you do everything from one place. Plus this one does flash games too.

Have you tried SWF & FLV Player? Do you know other alternatives? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below.