Question: Why is FLV format better than SWF?
Answer: You may not know it, but FLV format has been around for quite some time, primarily as a video format embedded into an SWF. The difference between the two is that SWFs have a frame limit. They can only be 16,000 frames long; FLVs don't have a cap, and can theoretically be infinite in length (although I wouldn't advise testing that). Most players can't play just an FLV; they need a delivery vehicle, primarily an SWF via the Adobe Flash Player.
You may be thinking of the new export formats for Flash video and audio: .f4v and .f4a, which Flash recognizes as video for the Flash Player and audio for the Flash Player, respectively. These use encoding upgrades provided by the FLV format to capture and present higher quality streaming video and audio than was originally available through SWFs before Flash 8.
