diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index 2716302e72..8d916ea849 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -2718,7 +2718,7 @@ Demuxer
 ``--demuxer-lavf-analyzeduration=<value>``
     Maximum length in seconds to analyze the stream properties.
 
-``--demuxer-lavf-probe-info=<yes|no|auto>``
+``--demuxer-lavf-probe-info=<yes|no|auto|nostreams>``
     Whether to probe stream information (default: auto). Technically, this
     controls whether libavformat's ``avformat_find_stream_info()`` function
     is called. Usually it's safer to call it, but it can also make startup
@@ -2727,6 +2727,10 @@ Demuxer
     The ``auto`` choice (the default) tries to skip this for a few know-safe
     whitelisted formats, while calling it for everything else.
 
+    The ``nostreams`` choice only calls it if and only if the file seems to
+    contain no streams after opening (helpful in cases when calling the function
+    is needed to detect streams at all, such as with FLV files).
+
 ``--demuxer-lavf-probescore=<1-100>``
     Minimum required libavformat probe score. Lower values will require
     less data to be loaded (makes streams start faster), but makes file
diff --git a/demux/demux_lavf.c b/demux/demux_lavf.c
index 20cf6429a3..4e1e3067ea 100644
--- a/demux/demux_lavf.c
+++ b/demux/demux_lavf.c
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ const struct m_sub_options demux_lavf_conf = {
     .opts = (const m_option_t[]) {
         OPT_INTRANGE("demuxer-lavf-probesize", probesize, 0, 32, INT_MAX),
         OPT_CHOICE("demuxer-lavf-probe-info", probeinfo, 0,
-                   ({"no", 0}, {"yes", 1}, {"auto", -1})),
+                   ({"no", 0}, {"yes", 1}, {"auto", -1}, {"nostreams", -2})),
         OPT_STRING("demuxer-lavf-format", format, 0),
         OPT_FLOATRANGE("demuxer-lavf-analyzeduration", analyzeduration, 0,
                        0, 3600),
@@ -892,8 +892,11 @@ static int demux_open_lavf(demuxer_t *demuxer, enum demux_check check)
 
     priv->avfc = avfc;
 
-    bool probeinfo = lavfdopts->probeinfo < 0 ?
-                            !priv->format_hack.skipinfo : lavfdopts->probeinfo;
+    bool probeinfo = lavfdopts->probeinfo != 0;
+    switch (lavfdopts->probeinfo) {
+    case -2: probeinfo = priv->avfc->nb_streams == 0; break;
+    case -1: probeinfo = !priv->format_hack.skipinfo; break;
+    }
     if (demuxer->params && demuxer->params->skip_lavf_probing)
         probeinfo = false;
     if (probeinfo) {