How to Convert iTunes M4V to FLV for Streaming Online

FLV, short for Flash Video, is a container file format originally developed by Macromedia for delivering digital video contents like TV shows and movies over the internet. It is supported by by Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer version. The audio and video data within FLV file are encoded in the same manner as they are within SWF files.

Differs from other formats, it has the advantages of minimal size and fastest loading speed, making it possible to watch videos online easily. Since the early 2000s, FLV has become the de facto standard for streaming video. Multiple video services like YouTube, Hulu, VEVO, Yahoo Video use the FLV as their streaming video format.

If you are considering to share videos like iTunes video episodes with your friends or family members, FLV is one of the best formats. In this post, I will show you how to convert iTunes M4V videos to FLV so that you can upload them online easily and freely.

View also: How to Convert DRM M4V to GIF

• Part 1. What Tool You Need to Convert iTunes M4V to FLV
• Part 2. Simple Steps to Convert DRM M4V Videos to FLV
• Part 3. More Details about FLV Format

Part 1. Tools You Need to Convert iTunes M4V to FLV

If you are a long time user of iTunes, you may have already known that most digital media contents on iTunes are encoded with the FairPlay DRM scheme. This is created for limiting the videos from copying and distributing everywhere. Hence, the feasible solution to share iTunes videos is to break the FairPlay DRM protection at the first place. Several years ago, the smart and handy open source tool Requiem can help to solve the issue perfectly. However it was discontinued in 2012 and it doesn't work any more. But don't worry. Alternatively you can turn to other third party iTunes video software for help, such as DRmare M4V to FLV Converter for Mac, a most convenient iTunes DRM destructor. You can use it to remove DRM and convert iTunes M4V to FLV in a fast and elegant manner. Besides, please make sure you have the latest version of iTunes on your computer as DRmare software depends on it to run smoothly. Also, we'd recommend you to use the software on a Mac computer instead of a Windows if you want to get multiple output video formats.

DRmare iTunes M4V to FLV Converter

• Eliminate iTunes FairPlay DRM by using the latest video decryption algorithm
• Enable you to convert M4V to FLV and any other popular formats you want
• Run at a 30X faster speed, batch convert iTunes purchases and rentals automatically
• User-friendly software interface and instant support, you can use it with little effort

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Part 2. Convert DRM M4V Videos to FLV within Few Clicks

Once you have all the required tools ready, you can start to remove DRM from iTunes videos in a significantly easy way. Here I will take the Mac version to demonstrate how it works in converting iTunes M4V to FLV step by step.

Step 1 Add DRM M4V movies from iTunes

When you launch the DRmare software, iTunes will be opened automatically. You can find the iTunes videos which are downloaded completely and then drag and drop to load them to the DRmare M4V to FLV Converter main screen directly. But if you'd rather not drag and drop, you can also navigate to the bottom left of the software screen to find and click the '+' icon. DRmare software will pop up a window to browse your videos from iTunes library.

Step 2Select FLV video profile

Next, you can go ahead to click the format icon, you will see a pop up panel to select the output format. From there, you can navigate to the 'Web Video' tab and select 'FLV' as the output format. Besides that, DRmare M4V to FLV Converter also offers multiple options for you to customize the videos like bit rate, frame rate, codec and so on, you can simply click the small gear icon above the 'FLV' format icon to open the settings window.

Step 3Transform DRM iTunes M4V to FLV

Please check twice to make sure everything is set as you required, then you can click the conversion button from the bottom right side. DRmare iTunes M4V Converter will remove FairPlay DRM and encode them to the new FLV videos. Once it is done, you will get the videos in FLV format in a smallest size. Typically 1 minute video only has about 1MB.

Part 3. More about Flash Video

By converting iTunes videos to the FLV format, you can transfer and share them with others quickly. But one thing you need to note is that the FLV is usually encoded with H.263, MPEG codec and it mainly refers to the SD(standard definition) videos. Though FLV supports to encode videos with H.264 and AAC codec, there still some streaming limitations and some players won't play FLV files with H.264 and AAC codec. Because of the limitations of FLV, Adobe has created a new flash video format F4V as the successor of FLV. F4V is a video container based on the ISO MP4 format which is starting with Flash Player 9 update 3 and it is similar to MP4. Compared to FLV, there is some difference in F4V. For instance, F4V does not support Screen video, Sorenson Spark, VP6 video compression formats and ADPCM, Nellymoser audio compression formats and so on. The common thing is that both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and developed by Adobe Systems.