MediaCoder
Encyclopedia
MediaCoder is a transcoding program for Microsoft Windows
. It has been developed by Stanley Huang since 2005.
MediaCoder uses various open source
audio and video codec
s, among several proprietary codecs and tools to transcode different audio/video formats and has many extra features. Common uses for the program include compression
, file type conversion and extraction of audio from video files. Many formats are supported, including MP3
, Vorbis
, Advanced Audio Coding
(AAC), Windows Media Audio
(WMA), RealAudio
, WAV
, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
, MPEG-4 Part 2
, MPEG-2
, Audio Video Interleave
(AVI), Video CD
and DVD-Video
.
MediaCoder is free of charge and is supported by bundling OpenCandy
software recommendation service in its installer. There are no ads in the software GUI, although by default a web page containing ads is loaded on every startup. This behavior qualifies the program as adware
.
Prior to 2008, MediaCoder was a free and open-source software application and was available on SourceForge
. MediaCoder was a nominee of SourceForge.NET 2007 Community Choice Award of Best Project for Multimedia along with Audacity
, InkScape
and FFDShow
. On December 2009 however, Stanley Huang announced that the project is no longer hosted on SourceForge and no longer open-source. Since then, it has become a proprietary
adware
for which no source code is available.
Following these changes, on 10 June 2009, a ticket was opened on FFmpeg
's development site, alleging "Possible MediaCoder GPL
violation". Although the author of MediaCoder participated in the discussion, the issue is yet to be resolved. Since then MediaCoder was listed on the "Hall of Shame" page on FFmpeg project page that names the projects that violate the (L)GPL.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. It has been developed by Stanley Huang since 2005.
MediaCoder uses various open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
audio and video codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
s, among several proprietary codecs and tools to transcode different audio/video formats and has many extra features. Common uses for the program include compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
, file type conversion and extraction of audio from video files. Many formats are supported, including MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, Vorbis
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
, Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
(AAC), Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
(WMA), RealAudio
RealAudio
RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
, MPEG-4 Part 2
MPEG-4 Part 2
MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual is a video compression technology developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. It is a discrete cosine transform compression standard, similar to previous standards such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2...
, MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
, Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
(AVI), Video CD
Video CD
Before the advent of DVD and Blu-ray, the Video CD became the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm optical discs. The format is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc...
and DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
.
MediaCoder is free of charge and is supported by bundling OpenCandy
OpenCandy
OpenCandy is a company based in San Diego that produces an advertising software module consisting of a Microsoft Windows library that can be incorporated in a Windows installer...
software recommendation service in its installer. There are no ads in the software GUI, although by default a web page containing ads is loaded on every startup. This behavior qualifies the program as adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
.
Prior to 2008, MediaCoder was a free and open-source software application and was available on SourceForge
SourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
. MediaCoder was a nominee of SourceForge.NET 2007 Community Choice Award of Best Project for Multimedia along with Audacity
Audacity
Audacity is a free software, cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD.Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni while he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University...
, InkScape
Inkscape
Inkscape is a free software vector graphics editor, licensed under the GNU General Public License. Its goal is to implement full support for the Scalable Vector Graphics 1.1 standard....
and FFDShow
Ffdshow
ffdshow is a media decoder and encoder mainly used for the fast and high-quality decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP and AVC formats, but it supports numerous other video and audio formats as well...
. On December 2009 however, Stanley Huang announced that the project is no longer hosted on SourceForge and no longer open-source. Since then, it has become a proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
for which no source code is available.
Following these changes, on 10 June 2009, a ticket was opened on FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
's development site, alleging "Possible MediaCoder GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
violation". Although the author of MediaCoder participated in the discussion, the issue is yet to be resolved. Since then MediaCoder was listed on the "Hall of Shame" page on FFmpeg project page that names the projects that violate the (L)GPL.
See also
- List of portable software
- AvidemuxAvidemuxAvidemux is a free and open-source video editing program designed for video editing and video processing. It is written in C++, and uses either the GTK+ or Qt.- Features :...
- HandbrakeHandBrakeHandBrake is a general-purpose, open-source, cross-platform, multithreaded video transcoder software application. HandBrake was originally developed by titer in 2003 as a general-purpose video transcoder to make ripping a film from a DVD to a data storage device easier...
- VirtualDubVirtualDubVirtualDub is a video capture and video processing utility for Microsoft Windows written by Avery Lee.It is designed to process linear video streams, including filtering and recompression...
- VirtualDubModVirtualDubModVirtualDubMod is an open source video capture and linear processing tool for Microsoft Windows. It is based on Avery Lee's VirtualDub, and is licensed under the GPL. VirtualDubMod is hosted on SourceForge and is at version 1.5.10.2 ....