What to do with SWF files

[Auday3509063582qw]

I am sorry if this may have been answered elsewhere but I am really looking for an advice what to do. I have 4 X .swf files on a 160GB HDD that I removed from a Samsung DVD Player/Recorder. At least one of these is a family video of my children from when they were little. I have searched everywhere on the internet to find a way to convert these SWF file, to no avail. I have downloaded various players which are claimed to be capable of playing, and/or converting them to MP4. They range in size from 1.2GB - 2.6GB. None worked. I am not a medic and my knowledge is very basic in programs and technology. Any advice would be very much appreciated. 

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

I would assume that the content of these SWF files is video, is that correct?  Do you have a MAC or Windows PC?

If you are on a MAC then there's probably no way you can play these SWF files to view the content.  However, PCs on earlier versions of MS Windows prior to about 2020 (e.g. Windows XP or Windows 2000) should still be able to launch the SWF by double-clicking the file, unless the Samsung device has also added some other form of protection (e.g. password or encryption).

So, if you can find a PC capable of launching the SWF, one possible way you might be able to recover the footage is to use another capture program on that PC (e.g. Captivate or Snagit) to capture the video as it plays.  

The SWF format can package other types of content, including images, sound and video.  If any of these SWF converters are at least able to open the SWF package to show the files it contains, you might simply be able to extract the videos that way.  But since SWF was officially 'dead' from about 2020 onward, there are not going to be too many apps out there designed to work with it.

[Lilybiri]

You do not mention the converters you have tried so far. I asked ChatGPT about this, and it looks like the file size will be the biggest problem (will probably also be the same when trying to use Captivate Video Demo or Camtasia/Snagit). This is the answer I got:

"

You can convert large SWF files to MP4 using an online converter such as FreeConvert.com ¹, Convertio ², or CloudConvert ³. Here are the steps to convert SWF files to MP4 using FreeConvert.com:

1. Go to the SWF to MP4 Converter page on FreeConvert.com ¹.
2. Click the Choose Files button and select the SWF file you want to convert.
3. Click the Convert to MP4 button to start the conversion process.
4. Once the conversion is complete, click the Download MP4 button to download the converted file.

Please note that the maximum file size for conversion on FreeConvert.com is 1GB ¹. If your file is larger than this, you may need to use a different converter or split the file into smaller parts before converting."

I also wonder why you didn't try to post this in the Animate forum? This is the Captivate forum.