I’ve had a recent need to edit a downloaded Flash video (.FLV extension). However, my usual editor of choice, PowerDirector, wouldn’t import a file in this format. And, it would appear, editing choices for Flash videos are few and far between.

First of, I used the online video editor, JayCut. It imported and converted the video. However, it had two problems – first, if it’s a large video you have to preview it first before you can edit it. Second, the conversion process had put the video and audio out of sync. I therefore abandoned using JayCut.

Next, I came across an Adobe Air application named RichFLV. Installation is quick and easy. Unfortunately, when importing the video it hung on “99% analysed”. It was still consuming CPU cycles, so I left it. Over 2 hours later, I gave up. Looking at comments on the applications website it would appear that others have had this issue.

Lastly, I came to Moyea FLV Editor Lite, a downloadable application. Because it’s the free version it’s restricted but for the use I wanted to put it to, it was fine. It installed easily and worked quickly. There’s an option to output as a Flash video or Shockwave – the latter gives you the HTML code to embed the result into a website.

I’d loved to have hosted it myself, but I use a fair proportion of my available bandwidth just hosting this site each month as it is.  As I don’t wish to use my own bandwidth I simply saved it as a flash video and uploaded the file to YouTube – again a conversion took place, but the result is excellent.