List of codecs

The following is a list of compression formats and related codecs.

Audio compression formats

Main article: Audio coding format

Non-compression

• Linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM, generally only described as PCM) is the format for uncompressed audio in media files and it is also the standard for CD-DA; note that in computers, LPCM is usually stored in container formats such as WAV, AIFF, or AU, or as raw audio format, although not technically necessary.
  • FFmpeg
• Pulse-density modulation (PDM)
  • Direct Stream Digital (DSD) is standard for Super Audio CD
    • foobar2000 Super Audio CD Decoder (based on MPEG-4 DST reference decoder)
    • FFmpeg (based on dsd2pcm)
• Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)

Lossless compression

Main article: Lossless data compression

• Actively used
  • Most popular
    • Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) ^[1]
      • libFLAC
      • FFmpeg
    • Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)
      • Apple QuickTime
      • libalac
      • FFmpeg
      • Apple Music ^[2]
    • Monkey's Audio (APE)
      • Monkey's Audio SDK
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
    • OptimFROG (OFR)
    • Tom's verlustfreier Audiokompressor (TAK)
      • TAK SDK
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
    • WavPack (WV)
      • libwavpack
      • FFmpeg
    • True Audio (TTA)
      • libtta
      • FFmpeg
    • Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMAL)
      • Windows Media Encoder
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Other
    • DTS-HD Master Audio, also known as DTS++ and DCA XLL
      • libdca (decoder only)
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
    • Dolby TrueHD  –Standard for DVD-Audio in Blu-ray (mathematically based on MLP)
      • FFmpeg
    • Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), also known as Packed PCM (PPCM) –Standard for DVD-Audio in DVD
      • FFmpeg
    • MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 ALS)
      • SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007)
      • FFmpeg (decoding only)
    • MPEG-4 Scalable Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 SLS) –Parts of it are used in HD-AAC.
      • SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007)
    • RealAudio Lossless
      • RealPlayer
      • FFmpeg (decoding only)
    • BFDLAC (BFD Lossless Audio Compression). ^[3] Ongoing development.
      • FXpansion's BFD3 drum software. (2013-2017)
    • L2HC - Huawei
      • Huawei Music
      • NearLink
      • Huawei FreeBuds ^[4]
  • Oddball
    • ATRAC Advanced Lossless (AAL) –Extremely unpopular
      • FFmpeg (lossy decoder only)
    • Direct Stream Transfer (DST) - Only used for Direct Stream Digital
      • SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007)
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
    • Original Sound Quality (OSQ) - Only used in WaveLab
      • FFmpeg (decoding only)
• Discontinued
  • Lossless Audio (LA) ^[5] – No update for 10+ years
  • Shorten (SHN) ^[6] – Officially discontinued.
    • libshn
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
  • Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (LPAC) – Predecessor of MPEG-4 ALS
  • Lossless Transform Audio Compression (LTAC) – Predecessor of LPAC
  • MPEG-1 Audio Layer III HD (mp3HD) – Officially discontinued
  • RK Audio (RKAU) ^[7] – Officially discontinued
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)

Lossy compression

Main article: Lossy data compression § Audio

• Discrete cosine transform (DCT)
  • Modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT, used in most of the audio codecs listed below)

General/Speech hybrid

• Unified Speech and Audio Coding (USAC, MPEG-D Part 3, ISO/IEC 23003-3)
  • exhale (encoder only; open source)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only; open source) ^[8]
• IETF standards:
  • Opus (RFC 6716) – based on SILK vocoder and CELT codec
    • libopus
    • FFmpeg (decoding and experimental encoding)
• IETF Internet Draft
  • IPMR Speech Codec ^[9] - used in Spirit DSP's TeamSpirit Voice&Video Engine ^[10]

Neural audio codecs

• Lyra (codec) - used in Google Duo
• Lyra V2 - based on SoundStream neural codec
• Satin (used by Microsoft Teams)
• Facebook EnCodec
• WavTokenizer ^[11]

General

• Adaptive differential pulse-code modulation (ADPCM, also called adaptive delta pulse-code modulation)
• Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC, used in MiniDisc devices)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ATSC/ETSI standards:
  • Dolby Digital (AC3, ATSC A/52, ETSI TS 102 366)
    • FFmpeg
    • liba52 (decoder only)
  • Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3, ATSC A/52:2012 Annex E, ETSI TS 102 366 Annex E)
    • FFmpeg
  • DTS Coherent Acoustics (DTS, Digital Theatre System Coherent Acoustics, ETSI TS 102 114)
    • FFmpeg
    • libdca (decoder only)
  • Dolby AC-4 (ETSI TS 103 190)
• Impala Blackbird audio codec
• ITU standards:
  • G.719
  • G.722
    • FFmpeg
  • G.722.1 (subset of Siren7) and G.722.1 Annex C (subset of Siren14)
    • libg722_1
    • libsiren (part of libmsn and msn-pecan)
  • G.722.2
    • 3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation ^[12]
    • opencore-amr (decoder)
    • VisualOn AMR-WB encoder
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
  • EVS
• MPEG-1 Audio and MPEG-2 Audio
  • layer I (MP1) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • layer II (MP2) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)
    • FFmpeg
    • tooLame (encoding only)
    • twoLame (encoding only)
  • layer III (MP3) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
    • LAME (encoding only)
  • Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (MPEG-2 Part 7)
    • FAAC (encoder) and FAAD (decoder)
    • FFmpeg
    • iTunes
    • Nero AAC Codec
    • VisualOn AAC Encoder (a.k.a. libvo_aacenc)
    • Fraunhofer FDK AAC
    • libaacplus
• MPEG-4 Audio
  • Advanced Audio Coding (AAC, MPEG-4 Part 3 subpart 4), HE-AAC and AAC-LD
    • FAAC, FAAD2
    • FFmpeg
    • iTunes
    • Nero AAC Codec
    • MPEG-4 AAC reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
  • Harmonic and Individual Lines and Noise (HILN, MPEG-4 Parametric Audio Coding)
    • MPEG-4 reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
  • TwinVQ
    • MPEG-4 reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
  • BSAC (Bit-Sliced Arithmetic Coding)
    • MPEG-4 reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
• MPEG-H
  • MPEG-H 3D Audio
• Musepack (a.k.a. MPEGplus)
  • Musepack SV8 Tools
  • FFmpeg (decoding only)
• NICAM
• AT&T Perceptual Audio Coder
• Precision Adaptive Subband Coding (PASC; a variant of MP1; used in Digital Compact Cassette)
• QDesign (purchased by DTS)
  • QDesign Music Codec – used in Apple QuickTime
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
• PictureTel (purchased by Polycom)
  • Siren 7
    • libg722_1
    • libsiren (part of libmsn and msn-pecan)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Siren 14
    • libg722_1
    • vgmstream (decoder only)
  • Siren 22
• NTT TwinVQ
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • NTT TwinVQ Encoder, NTT TwinVQ Player
• Voxware MetaSound (a variant of NTT TwinVQ)
  • Windows Media Player (voxmsdec.ax)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Vorbis
  • aoTuV
  • FFmpeg
  • libvorbis
  • Tremor (decoder only)
• Windows Media Audio (WMA)
  • Windows Media Encoder
  • FFmpeg

AES3

• SMPTE 302M
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Dolby E
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth Special Interest Group
  • Low Complexity Subband Coding (SBC)
    • BlueZ's SBC library (libsbc)
    • Fluoride Bluetooth stack (successor of BlueDroid)
    • FFmpeg
  • CVSD 8 kHz - used in Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
  • modified SBC (mSBC) - used in Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
    • BlueZ's SBC library (libsbc) ^[13]
    • Fluoride Bluetooth stack
    • FFmpeg
  • SBC XQ
    • PulseAudio's bluetooth stack ^[14] (encoder only)
    • PipeWire's bluetooth stack ^[15] (encoder only)
  • LC3 (Low Complexity Communication Codec)
    • Google's liblc3 (open source) - used in Android 13 and later
• ETSI
  • LC3plus (ETSI TS 103 634)
    • Google's liblc3 (open source)
• Qualcomm Technologies International (formerly CSR)
  • aptX (a.k.a. apt-X)
    • Qualcomm libaptX ^[16]
    • FFmpeg
  • aptX HD
    • Qualcomm libaptXHD ^[16]
    • FFmpeg
  • aptX Low Latency
  • aptX Adaptive
  • FastStream - a variant of SBC codec for bi-directional audio transmission
• Sony
  • LDAC
    • libldac (encoder only) ^[17] - used in Android Oreo
    • libldacdec (decoder only)
• HWA Alliance/Savitech
  • LHDC ^[18]
    • HWA encoder/decoder
  • LLAC ^[19]
    • HWA encoder/decoder
• HiBy
  • Ultra Audio Transmission (UAT)
• Samsung
  • Samsung HD/UHQ-BT codec
  • Samsung Scalable codec
  • Samsung Seamless codec
• MQA
  • MQair

Digital radio

• Hybrid Digital Coding - used in HD Radio (a.k.a. NRSC-5)
  • NRSC-5 receiver for rtl-sdr (decoder only)

Voice

Main article: Speech coding

(low bit rate, optimized for speech)

• Linear predictive coding (LPC, used in most of the speech codecs listed below)
  • Code-excited linear prediction (CELP)
    • Algebraic code-excited linear prediction (ACELP)
• Xiph.Org Foundation
  • Speex, patent free ^[20]
    • libspeex
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Dialogic ADPCM (VOX)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ITU standards:
  • G.711 (a-law and μ-law companding; 64 kbit/s), also known as PCM of voice frequencies
    • Sun Microsystems's public domain implementation ^[21]
    • FFmpeg (libavcodec)
  • G.711.0 (G.711 LLC)
  • G.711.1 (Wideband extension for G.711; 64/80/96 kbit/s)
  • G.711.1D (Super-wideband extension for G.711.1; 96/112/128 kbit/s)
  • G.718 (8/12/16/24/32 kbit/s)
  • G.718B (Super-wideband extension for G.718; 28–48 kbit/s)
  • G.719
  • G.721 (superseded by G.726; 32 kbit/s)
    • Sun Microsystems's public domain implementation ^[21]
  • G.722 (SB-ADPCM; 48/56/64 kbit/s)
    • FFmpeg
  • G.722B (Super-wideband extension for G.722; 64/80/96 kbit/s)
  • G.722.2 (AMR-WB)
    • 3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation ^[12]
    • opencore-amr (decoder)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • G.723 (24 and 40 kbit/s DPCM, extension to G.721, superseded by G.726)
    • Sun Microsystems's public domain implementation ^[21]
  • G.723.1 (MPC-MLQ or ACELP; 5.3/6.3 kbit/s)
    • FFmpeg
  • G.726 (ADPCM; 16/24/32/40 kbit/s)
    • Sun Microsystems's public domain implementation ^[21]
    • FFmpeg (libavcodec)
  • G.727
    • Sun Microsystems's public domain implementation ^[21]
  • G.728 (LD-CELP; 16 kbit/s)
  • G.729 (CS-ACELP; 8 kbit/s)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • G.729a
  • G.729b
  • G.729ab
  • G.729d (6.4 kbit/s)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • G.729e (11.8 kbit/s)
  • G.729.1 (G.729 Annex J; Wideband extension for G.711; 8–32 kbit/s)
  • G.729.1E (Super-wideband extension for G.729.1)
• Google
  • internet Speech Audio Codec (iSAC)
    • WebRTC
• Nellymoser Asao Codec
  • FFmpeg (libavcodec)
• PictureTel PT716, PT716plus
• PictureTel PT724
• RTAudio – used by Microsoft Live Communication Server
• SVOPC  – used by Skype
• OpenLPC – created by Future Dynamics ^[21]
  • HawkVoice (libHVDI)
• ANSI/SCTE
  • ANSI/SCTE 24-21 2006 (BroadVoice16)
    • BroadVoice Speech Codec Open Source C Code
  • ANSI/SCTE 24-22 2013 (iLBCv2.0)
  • ANSI/SCTE 24-23 2007 (BroadVoice32)
    • BroadVoice Speech Codec Open Source C Code
• IETF RFCs:
  • Internet Low Bit Rate Codec (iLBC, RFC 3951) – developed by Global IP Solutions/Google
    • WebRTC
• IETF Internet Draft
  • SILK (used by Skype) ^[22]
  • CELT (developed by Xiph.Org Foundation) ^[23]
    • libcelt
• MPEG-4 Audio
  • MPEG-4 CELP
  • MPEG-4 HVXC
• Skyphone MPLP
• Inmarsat
  • INMARSAT-M IMBE
  • Inmarsat Mini-M AMBE
• Meta MLow - used in Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. ^[24]

Microsoft DirectPlay

Those codecs are used by many PC games which use voice chats via Microsoft DirectPlay API.

• Voxware MetaVoice
  • Windows Media Player (voxmvdec.ax)
• Truespeech
  • Windows Media Player (tssoft32.acm)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• MS GSM
  • Windows Media Player (msgsm32.acm)
  • libgsm
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• MS-ADPCM
  • Windows Media Player (msadp32.acm)
  • FFmpeg

Digital Voice Recorder

• International Voice Association (IVA) standards:
  • Digital Speech Standard / Standard Play (DSS-SP)
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
  • Digital Speech Standard / Quality Play (DSS-QP)
• Sony LPEC
• Truespeech Triple Rate CODER (TRC) ^[25]  – used in some pocket recorders
• Micronas  [ de ] Intermetall MI-SC4 - used by voice recorders such as RadioShack Digital Recorder ^[26] and I-O DATA  [ ja ] HyperHyde ^[27]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Mobile phone

Generation 2

• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) GSM
  • Full Rate (GSM 06.10, RPE-LTP)
    • libgsm
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Half Rate (GSM 06.20, VSELP 5.6 kbit/s)
  • Enhanced Full Rate (GSM 06.60, ACELP 12.20 kbit/s, compatible with AMR mode AMR_12.20)
• Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) IS-95 (a.k.a. cdmaOne)
  • IS-96A (QCELP 8 kbit/s)
  • IS-127 (EVRC 8 kbit/s)
  • IS-733 (QCELP 13 kbit/s)
• Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) IS-54/IS-136 (a.k.a. Digital AMPS)
  • IS-85 (VSELP 8kbit/s)
    • ITU-T G.191's IS-54 implementation
  • IS-641 (ACELP 7.4 kbit/s, compatible with AMR mode AMR_7.40)
• Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) RCR STD-27 (PDC)
  • PDC-HR (PSI-CELP 3.45 kbit/s)
  • PDC-FR (VSELP 11.2 kbit/s)
  • PDC-EFR CS-ACELP 8 kbit/s (a.k.a. G.729)
  • PDC-EFR ACELP 6.7 kbit/s (compatible with AMR mode AMR_6.70)

Generation 3/4

• 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
  • Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR)
    • AMR-NB
      • 3GPP TS 26.073 – AMR speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation ^[28]
      • opencore-amr (one may compile ffmpeg with—enable-libopencore-amrnb to incorporate the OpenCORE lib)
      • FFmpeg (by default decoder only, but see above the compiling options to incorporate the OpenCORE lib)
    • AMR-WB
      • 3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation ^[12]
      • opencore-amr (decoder), from OpenCORE (one may compile ffmpeg with—enable-libopencore-amrwb to incorporate the OpenCORE lib)
      • vo-amrwbenc (encoder), from VisualOn, included in Android (one may compile ffmpeg with—enable-libvo-amrwbenc to incorporate the VisualOn lib)
      • FFmpeg (by default decoder only, but see above the compiling options).
    • AMR-WB+
      • 3GPP TS 26.273 – AMR-WB+ speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation ^[29]
    • Enhanced Voice Services (EVS)
      • 3GPP TS.26.443 – Codec for Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) – ANSI C code (floating-point) ^[30]
• 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2)
  • Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC, a.k.a. IS-127) – based on RCELP
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Enhanced Variable Rate Codec B (EVRC-B)
  • QCELP (Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Prediction)
    • QCELP-8 (a.k.a. SmartRate or IS-96C)
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
    • QCELP-13 (a.k.a. PureVoice or IS-733)
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Selectable Mode Vocoder (SMV)
  • Variable Multi Rate – WideBand (VMR-WB)

Professional mobile radio

• APCO
  • Project 25 Phase 2 Enhanced Full-Rate (AMBE+2 4400bit/s with 2800bit/s FEC)
  • Project 25 Phase 2 Half-Rate (AMBE+2 2450bit/s with 1150bit/s FEC) – also used in NXDN and DMR
    • mbelib (decoder only)
  • Project 25 Phase 1 Full Rate (IMBE 7200bit/s)
    • mbelib (decoder only)
• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
  • ETS 300 395-2 (TETRA ACELP 4.6kbit/s)
• TETRAPOL
  • RPCELP 6 kbit/s
• D-STAR Digital Voice (AMBE 2400bit/s with 1200bit/s FEC)
  • mbelib (decoder only)
• Professional Digital Trunking System Industry Association (PDT Alliance) standards:
  • NVOC – used in China
• Spirit DSP RALCWI
• DSPINI
  • SPR Robust
  • TWELP Robust
• Codec2
  • libcodec2
• RL-CELP (used in Japanese railways ^{[31] [32]} )

Military

• U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Federal Standard:
  • FS-1015 (a.k.a. LPC-10)
    • HawkVoice (libHVDI)
  • FS-1016 (CELP)
    • HawkVoice (libHVDI)
  • FS-1023 (CVSD 12kbit/s)
• United States Military Standard (MIL-STD)
  • MIL-STD-188 113 (CVSD 16 kbit/s and 32 kbit/s)
    • SoX (libsox)
  • MIL-STD-3005 (a.k.a. MELP)
    • Texas Instruments' 2.4 kbit/s MELP Proposed Federal Standard speech coder
• NATO
  • STANAG 4198 (a.k.a. LPC-10e)
    • SpanDSP (open source)
  • STANAG-4591 (a.k.a. MELPe)
    • Microsoft Speech coder
• BBN NRV – developed in DARPA program ^[33]

Video games

• Bink Audio, Smacker Audio
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Actimagine (Nintendo European Research & Development) FastAudio ^[34]
  • MobiclipDecoder (decoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Nintendo GCADPCM ^[35] (a.k.a. DSP ADPCM or THP ADPCM) - used in GameCube, Wii and Nintendo 3DS.
  • vgmstream (decoder only)
  • VGAudio
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Sony VAG ^[35] (a.k.a. Sony PSX ADPCM)
  • vgmstream (decoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Sony HEVAG ^[35] - used in PS Vita. ^[36]
  • vgmstream (decoder only)
• Sony ATRAC9 ^[35] - used in PS4 and PS Vita.
  • VGAudio (decoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Microsoft XMA ^[35] - WMA variants for Xbox 360 hardware decoding. ^[37]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Xbox ADPCM
  • vgmstream (decoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• CRI ADX ADPCM
  • vgmstream (decoder only)
  • VGAudio
  • FFmpeg
• CRI HCA/HCA-MX - used in CRI ADX2 middleware. ^[38]
  • vgmstream (decoder only)
  • VGAudio
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • libcgss
  • HCADecoder (decoder only)
• FMOD FADPCM ^[39]
  • vgmstream (decoder only)

Text compression formats

• BiM
• Continuous Media Markup Language (CMML)
• MPEG-4 Part 17 (e.g. 3GPP Timed Text)
• ttyrec

Video compression formats

Main article: Video coding format

Further information: Video codec and Comparison of video codecs

Non-compression

• RGB 4:4:4 (only linear, transfer-converted and bit-reduced also sort of compression up to about 3:1 for HDR)
• YUV 4:4:4/4:2:2/4:1:1/4:2:0 (all lower 4:4:4 is spatially compressed up to 2:1 for 4:2:0 with specific colour distortions).
  • Intel IYUV
• 10-bit uncompressed video
• Composite digital signal - used by SMPTE D-2 and D-3 broadcast digital videocassettes
• Avid DNxUncompressed (SMPTE RDD 50)
• V210 - defined by Apple and used by Serial digital interface Input/output video cards ^[40]

Analog signals

• PAL broadcast signal
  • Pyctools-PAL (open source)
• NTSC broadcast signal
  • gr-ntsc (open source)
• LaserDisc RF signal
  • ld-decode (open source)
• VHS / S-VHS / U-Matic RF signal
  • VHS-Decode (open source)
• Composite Video Baseband Signal (CVBS)
  • VHS-Decode's CVBS-Decode (open source)

Lossless video compression

• ITU-T/ISO/IEC standards:
  • H.264 lossless
    • x264 (encoder only)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only, uses x264 for encoding)
  • H.265 lossless ^[41]
    • x265 (encoder only)
    • UHDcode (decoder only, uses x265 to read HEVC encoded files) ^[42]
    • FFmpeg (decoder only, uses x265 for encoding) ^{[43] [44]}
  • Motion JPEG 2000 lossless
    • libopenjpeg
  • JPEG XS lossless
    • FastTICO-XS
• IETF standards:
  • FFV1 (RFC 9043) ^[45]  – FFV1's compression factor is comparable to Motion JPEG 2000, but based on quicker algorithms (allows real-time capture). Written by Michael Niedermayer and published as part of FFmpeg under GNU LGPL.
    • FFmpeg
• SMPTE standards:
  • VC-2 HQ lossless (a.k.a. Dirac Pro lossless)
    • libdirac
    • libschroedinger
• Alparysoft Lossless Video Codec (Alpary)
• Apple Animation (QuickTime RLE)
  • QuickTime
  • FFmpeg
• ArithYuv
• AV1
  • libaom
• AVIzlib
  • LCL (VfW codec) MSZH and ZLIB ^[46]
  • FFmpeg
• Autodesk Animator Codec (AASC)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• CAI Format
• CamStudio GZIP/LZO
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Chennai Codec (EVX-1)
  • Cairo Experimental Video Codec (open source)
• Dxtory
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• FastCodec
• Flash Screen Video v1/v2 ^[47]
  • FFmpeg
• FM Screen Capture Codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Fraps codec (FPS1) ^[48]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Grass Valley Lossless
  • Grass Valley Codec Option
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Huffyuv Huffyuv (or HuffYUV) was written by Ben Rudiak-Gould and published under the terms of the GNU GPL as free software, meant to replace uncompressed YCbCr as a video capture format. It uses very little CPU but takes a lot of disk space. See also ffvhuff which is an "FFmpeg only" version of it.
  • FFmpeg
• IgCodec
• Intel RLE
• innoHeim/Rsupport Screen Capture Codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Lagarith A more up-to-date fork of Huffyuv is available as Lagarith ^[49]
  • Lagarith Codec (VfW codec)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• LOCO ^[50] - based on JPEG-LS
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• MagicYUV ^[51]
  • MagicYUV SDK
  • FFmpeg
• Microsoft RLE (MSRLE)
  • FFmpeg
• MSU Lossless Video Codec
• MSU Screen Capture Lossless
• CorePNG  [ de ] - based on PNG
  • FFmpeg
• ScreenPresso (SPV1)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ScreenPressor ^[52] - a successor of MSU Screen Capture Lossless
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• SheerVideo
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Snow lossless
  • FFmpeg
• TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC) ^[53]
  • EnSharpen Video Codec for QuickTime
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Toponoky
• Ut Video Codec Suite ^{[54] [55]}
  • libutvideo
  • FFmpeg
• VBLE ^[56]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• VMnc VMware screen codec ^[57] - used by VMware Workstation
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• VP9 by Google ^[58]
  • libvpx
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• YULS
• ZeroCodec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ZMBV (Zip Motion Block Video) Codec - used by DOSBox
  • FFmpeg

Lossless game codecs

• DXA
  • ScummVM Tools (encoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Lossy compression

• Discrete cosine transform (DCT, used in Digital Betacam ^[59] and most of the video codecs listed below)

General

• ITU-T/ISO/IEC standards:
  • H.120
  • H.261 (a.k.a. Px64)
    • FFmpeg H.261 (libavcodec)
    • Microsoft H.263
  • MPEG-1 Part 2 (MPEG-1 Video)
    • FFmpeg
    • MainConcept MPEG-1
    • TMPGEnc
  • H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 (MPEG-2 Video)
    • Canopus ProCoder
    • Cinema Craft Encoder
    • FFmpeg
    • InterVideo Video Decoder
    • MainConcept MPEG-2
    • Microsoft H.263
    • TMPGEnc
  • H.263
    • FFmpeg H.263 (libavcodec)
  • MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile)
    • 3ivx
    • DivX
    • libavcodec
    • HDX4
    • Nero Digital
    • Xvid
  • H.264/MPEG-4 AVC or MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding), approved for Blu-ray
    • CoreAVC (decoder only; limited to below Hi10P profile)
    • MainConcept
    • Nero Digital
    • QuickTime H.264
    • Sorenson AVC Pro codec, Sorenson's new implementation
    • OpenH264 (baseline profile only)
    • x264 (encoder only; supports some of Hi422P and Hi444PP features)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • MPEG-4 AVC variants:
    • MPEG-4 Web Video Coding or MPEG-4 Part 29 – a subset of MPEG-4 AVC baseline profile
    • XAVC
  • HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, H.265, MPEG-H part 2)
    • x265 (encoder only)
  • Versatile Video Coding (H.266, VVC)
    • VVC Test Model (VTM reference software for VVC; open source)
    • Fraunhofer Versatile Video Decoder (open source; decoder only)
    • Fraunhofer Versatile Video Encoder (open source; encoder only)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Video Coding for Browsers (VCB)/VP8 (MPEG-4 Part 31, ISO/IEC 14496-31, RFC 6386)
    • libvpx
    • FFmpeg
  • Internet Video Coding (ISO/IEC 14496-33, MPEG-4 IVC)
  • Essential Video Coding (EVC; MPEG-5 Part 1; under-development)
    • eXtra-fast Essential Video Encoder (open source; encoder only)
    • eXtra-fast Essential Video Decoder (open source; decoder only)
• IETF Internet Draft (NETVC)
  • xvc ^[60]
    • Divideon's reference implementation (open source)
  • Thor ^[61] (forms the basis of AV1)
    • Cisco's reference implementation (open source)
• SMPTE standards:
  • VC-1 (SMPTE 421M, subset of Windows Media Video)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Dirac (SMPTE 2042-1)
    • Schrödinger
    • dirac-research
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Alliance for Open Media
  • AV1 (AOMedia Video 1)
    • libaom
    • SVT-AV1
    • rav1e (encoder only)
    • dav1d (decoder only)
    • libgav1 (decoder only)
• Xiph.Org Foundation
  • Daala (under development, basis (alongside other formats) of AV1)
    • libdaala (open source)
  • Theora (based on VP3)
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
    • libtheora (open source)
• Apple Video (Apple RPZA)
  • QuickTime
  • FFmpeg
• Blackbird FORscene video codec
• Firebird ^[62] Original FORscene video codec
• Digital Video Interactive standards:
  • RTV 2.1 (a.k.a. Indeo 2)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • PLV (Production Level Video)
    • ActionMedia II driver (decoder only)
• Indeo 3 ^[63] /4/5 ^[64]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Microsoft Video 1 (MSV1, MS-CRAM, based on MotiVE)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Open Media Commons standards:
  • OMS Video (based on H.261)
• On2 Technologies TrueMotion VP3/VP4, VP5, VP6, VP7; under the name The Duck Corporation: TrueMotion S, TrueMotion 2, TrueMotion RT 2.0
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• RealVideo 1, G2, 8, 9 and 10
  • FFmpeg
  • RealMedia HD SDK
• RealVideo Fractal Codec (a.k.a. Iterated Systems ClearVideo)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• RealMedia HD (a.k.a. RealVideo 11 or RV60)
  • RealMedia HD SDK
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Snow Wavelet Codec
• Sorenson Video, ^[65] Sorenson Spark
  • FFmpeg
• VP9 by Google; VP10 was not released and instead was integrated into AV1
  • libvpx
  • FFmpeg
• Windows Media Video (WMV)
  • WAX (Part of the Windows Media Series)
  • FFmpeg
• Guobiao standards (GB/T)
  • Audio Video Standard (AVS)
    • AVS1-P2 (GB/T 20090.2-2006) - used in China Blue High-definition Disc.
      • FFmpeg (decoding only)
    • AVS1-P7 (AVS-M; under-development)
    • AVS2-P2 (GB/T 33475.2-2016, IEEE 1857.4 (draft))
      • uAVS2 Encoder
      • xavs2 (encoder only)
      • davs2 (libdavs2; decoder only)
    • AVS3-P2 (draft, IEEE1857.10)
      • uavs3e (encoder only)
      • uavs3d (decoder only)

AI-based / AI-enhanced video codecs

• AIVC ^[66]
• Deep Render codec ^{[67] [68]}
• MPAI
  • AI-Enhanced Video Coding (MPAI-EVC; under development)
  • AI-based End-to-End Video Coding (MPAI-EEV; under development)

Scalable / Layered

VP8, ^[69] VP9, ^[69] AV1, ^[69] and H.266/VVC support scalable modes by default.

• ITU-T/ISO/IEC standards:
  • Scalable Video Coding (H.264/SVC; H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Annex G; an extension of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC)
  • Scalable High Efficiency Video Coding (SHVC; an extension of H.265/HEVC)
  • Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC; MPEG-5 Part 2)
    • LCEVC Decoder SDK (open source; decoder only)
    • V-Nova LCEVC SDK
• SMPTE standards
  • VC-4 Layered Video Extension (SMPTE ST 2058-1:2011)

Intra-frame-only

• Motion JPEG
  • FFmpeg
  • Morgan Multimedia M-JPEG ^[70]
  • Pegasus PICVideo M-JPEG
  • MainConcept M-JPEG
• ISO/IEC standard
  • Motion JPEG 2000 (ISO/IEC 15444-3, ITU-T T.802)
    • libopenjpeg
    • FFmpeg
    • Morgan Multimedia M-JPEG2000 ^[71]
    • Morgan Multimedia dcpPlayer (decoder only) ^[72]
  • JPEG XS (ISO/IEC 21122) Lightweight Low latency video codec
    • intoPIX fastTICO-XS ^[73]
  • DV (IEC 61834)
    • FFmpeg
  • MPEG-4 SStP (ISO/IEC 14496-2)
    • FFmpeg ^[74]
  • Motion JPEG XR (ISO/IEC 29199-3, ITU-T T.833)
  • Animated JPEG XL (ISO/IEC 18181)
    • libjxl ^[75]
• Apple ProRes 422/4444
  • FFmpeg
• Apple Intermediate Codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Apple Pixlet
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• AVC-Intra
  • x264 (encoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• AVC-Ultra  – a subset of MPEG-4 AVC Hi444PP profile
• XAVC-I
• CineForm HD
  • CineForm-SDK  – developed by GoPro (open source)
  • FFmpeg
• SMPTE standard
  • VC-2 SMPTE standard (a.k.a. Dirac Pro. SMPTE ST 2042)
    • Schrödinger
    • dirac-research
    • VC-2 Reference Encoder and Decoder  – developed by BBC (open source)
    • FFmpeg (the encoder only supports VC-2 HQ profile)
  • VC-3 SMPTE standard (SMPTE ST 2019)
    • Avid DNxHD
    • FFmpeg
  • VC-5 SMPTE standard (SMPTE ST 2073; a superset of CineForm HD)
  • VC-6 SMPTE standard (SMPTE ST 2117-1)
    • V-Nova VC-6 SDK
• Grass Valley HQ/HQA/HQX
  • Grass Valley Codec Option
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• NewTek NT25
• NewTek SpeedHQ - used in Network Device Interface (NDI) protocol
  • NewTek Codec ^[76]
  • FFmpeg

Stereoscopic 3D / Multiview

• Multiview Video Coding
• Multiview High Efficiency Video Coding (MV-HEVC; an extension of H.265/HEVC)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Security and surveillance cameras

• Guobiao standards (GB/T)
  • AVS-S-P2 (suspended ^[77] )
  • SVAC (GB/T 25724-2010)
• Infinity CCTV Codec (IMM4/IMM5/IMM6)
  • FFmpeg ^{[78] [79]} (IMM4 and IMM5 decoder only)

CD-ROM or CD-related video codecs

• CDXL codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Cinepak ^[80] (a.k.a. Apple Compact Video)
  • FFmpeg
• Photo CD codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• MotionPixels - used in MovieCD
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• CD+G (CD+Graphics) codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • VLC (decoder only)
• CD+EG (CD+Extended Graphics) codec

Network video codecs

• SMPTE RDD
  • LLVC (Low Latency Video Codec; SMPTE RDD 34) - used in Networked Media Interface (NMI; SMPTE RDD 40)
• HEVC-SCC (Screen Content Coding Extensions)
• ZRLE (RFC 6143 7.7.6) - used by VNC
• Sun Microsystems's CellB video (RTP playload type 25) - used in Solaris's SunVideo Plus ^[81] and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's vic (Video Conferencing Tool) ^[82]
• Xerox PARC's Network Video (nv; RTP playload type 28) - used in Xerox's nv and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's vic (Video Conferencing Tool)
• CU-SeeMe video codec
• GoToMeeting codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Bayer/Compressed RAW video codecs

• CinemaDNG (created by Adobe; used in Blackmagic cameras)
• Redcode RAW (used in RED cameras) – a modified version of JPEG 2000 ^[83]
  • libredcode
• ArriRaw (used in Arri cameras)
• Cineform RAW (used in Silicon Imaging cameras)
  • CineForm-SDK
• Blackmagic RAW (used in Blackmagic cameras)
  • Blackmagic RAW SDK
• Cintel RAW (used in Cintel Scanner ^[84] )
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Apple ProRes RAW
• intoPIX TICO RAW ^[85]
  • intoPIX fastTICO-RAW SDK & TICO-RAW FPGA/ASIC libraries ^[86]
• Canon CRX - used in Canon Cinema Raw Light movie
  • Canon RAW Plugin for Avid Media Access
  • LibRaw (decoder only; open source)
• Sony X-OCN

Video games

• Bink Video, Smacker video
  • FFmpeg
  • libavcodec
• Nintendo Mobiclip video codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• CRI Sofdec codec - a MPEG variant with 11-bit DC and color space correction; ^[87] used in Sofdec middleware
• CRI P256 - used in Sofdec middleware for Nintendo DS ^[88]
• Indeo Video Interactive (aka Indeo 4/5) - used in PC games for Microsoft Windows
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Intel Indeo Video

Real-time

• RivaTuner video codec (RTV1/RTV2)
  • FFmpeg (RTV1 decoder only)
• Hap/Hap Alpha/Hap Q
  • VIDVOX hap codec
  • FFmpeg
• DXV Codec
  • Resolume DXV Codec
  • FFmpeg
• NotchLC
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• VESA Display Stream Compression (DSC)
• VESA Display Compression-M (VDC-M)

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• List of open-source codecs
• Comparison of video codecs
• Comparison of audio coding formats
• Comparison of video container formats
• Comparison of graphics file formats
• Comparison of video player software
• RTP payload formats

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