Introduction

The Eltima SWF & FLV Toolbox 4 is a great tool you have to have in your toolset if you are a Flash developer or a Flash designer especially if your day-to-day job rely on the Flash video files.  The SWF & FLV Toolbox allows you to convert Flash video file(SWF or FLV) to AVI video file, to a series of JPEG/GIF/BMP or an animated GIF, to a Windows screens aver, to a standalone executable file, or convert FLV to SWF.  The preset options allow you to convert them fast but the SWF & FLV Toolbox also provides you with wide range of settings to customize each conversion jobs.  It also allows you to do the batch conversion if you have many files to convert.  The overall UI design is very simple yet effective to follow through the conversion process as well.


Convert to Video
Convert to Images

These two are the basic functionality of the SWF & FLV Toolbox or any other conversion software.  I have run several conversion processes with these options and I am very happy with the overall quality of the output.  The conversion speed was reasonably fast as well, but that probably has to do with how the original video file is prepared.  I had a couple of FLV files that I was not able to convert, but it seems like those tester files are using the DivX codec.  It'd be wonderful if I can export to other video file formats though.


Convert to SWF

I have to mention that the Convert to SWF option is really useful if you simply want to deliver the Flash video on the web but do not want to mess with the video importing process inside the Flash IDE.  This option allows to embed the video controller so this eliminates the need of importing process.  It'd be nice if you have some more varieties of the video controls.


Convert to SCR
Convert to EXE

These two options are quite unique to the video conversion software yet very demanding functionalities not to mention that this can be a unique way of delivering the Flash video to the desktop environment.  You can either create a Windows screen saver or a standalone projector with the SWF & FLV Toolbox.  You can use another software to do these, but Eltima team managed to put these features into the SWF & FLV Toolbox which really makes it a unique product.
It seems like I can only create a screen saver with non-interactive video file which is understandable.  The Convert to EXE feature includes everything other third party projector tools supports except the programming portion which makes it a great tool if you simply want to create a projector, change the icon of it, or create a demo file that expires in a given date or even disable what Adobe Flash Player originally puts such as copyright, version or right click menu.


Conclusion

The SWF & FLV Toolbox 4 is not an ordinary video file conversion software.  It's got most of the desired functionalities built in it as the name 'toolbox' suggests.  The EXE related feature alone can cost more than the current price of $40(as of July 2010).  This is a must-have software if you are using Flash, period.

If I'd send an email to Eltima team, I'd like to say that I'd love to see the Mac version of this software and the documentation be included within the software along with the thank you note.