Open source codecs and containers
Encyclopedia
This is a listing of open-source implementations of media formats—usually called codec
s. Many of the codecs listed implement media formats that are restricted by patents and are henceforth not open format
s. For example, x264
is a widely used open source implementation of the heavily patent encumbered MPEG-4 AVC media format.
Video codec
Audio 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. Many of the codecs listed implement media formats that are restricted by patents and are henceforth not open format
Open format
An open file format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a standards organization, which can therefore be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implementable by both proprietary and free and open source software, using the typical...
s. For example, x264
X264
x264 is a free software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-History:...
is a widely used open source implementation of the heavily patent encumbered MPEG-4 AVC media format.
Video codecVideo codecA video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression. Historically, video was stored as an analog signal on magnetic tape...
s
- x264X264x264 is a free software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-History:...
- H.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.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...
implementation. x264 is not a codec (encoder/decoder), it is just an encoder (it cannot decode video). - XvidXviDXvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a...
- MPEG-4 Part 2MPEG-4 Part 2MPEG-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...
codec, compatible with DivXDivXDivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the... - libvpxVP8VP8 is an open video compression format released by Google, originally created by On2 Technologies.After purchasing On2 Technologies in early 2010, Google has provided an irrevocable patent promise for underlying patents for the VP8 format, and released a bitstream format specification under a...
- VP8VP8VP8 is an open video compression format released by Google, originally created by On2 Technologies.After purchasing On2 Technologies in early 2010, Google has provided an irrevocable patent promise for underlying patents for the VP8 format, and released a bitstream format specification under a...
implementation; formerly a proprietary codec developed by On2 Technologies, released by Google under a BSD-like license in May 2010. - FFmpegFFmpegFFmpeg 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...
codecs - Codecs in the libavcodecLibavcodeclibavcodec is a free software/open source LGPL-licensed library of codecs for encoding and decoding video and audio data. Same name but incompatible libraries are provided from both FFmpeg project and Libav project....
library from the FFmpeg project (FFV1FFV1FFV1, which stands for "FF video codec 1", is a lossless intra-frame video codec. It can use either variable length coding or arithmetic coding for entropy coding...
, Snow, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2, MSMPEG-4, WMV2, SVQ3, MJPEG, HuffYUV and others). Decoders in the libavcodec (H.264, WMV3, VP3, Theora, Indeo and others). - LagarithLagarithLagarith is an open source lossless video codec written by Ben Greenwood. It was designed and written with a few aims in mind:Speed: while not as fast as Huffyuv, it still outperforms most other lossless video codecs when it comes to encoding times, although decoding speed may be slower...
- Video codec designed for strong lossless compression in RGB(A) colorspace (similar to ZIP/RAR/etc.) - libtheora - A reference implementation of the TheoraTheoraTheora is a free lossy video compression format. It is developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and distributed without licensing fees alongside their other free and open media projects, including the Vorbis audio format and the Ogg container....
format, based on VP3VP3On2 TrueMotion VP3 is a lossy video compression format and video codec. It is an incarnation of the TrueMotion video codec, a series of video codecs developed by On2 Technologies....
, part of the Ogg Project - Tarkin - An experimental and now obsolete lossy video codec formerly under development by the Xiph.org Foundation, replaced by Theora
- dirac-research - A waveletWaveletA wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that starts out at zero, increases, and then decreases back to zero. It can typically be visualized as a "brief oscillation" like one might see recorded by a seismograph or heart monitor. Generally, wavelets are purposefully crafted to have...
based codec created by the BBC Research. It is the software reference implementation of DiracDirac (codec)Dirac is an open and royalty-free video compression format, specification and system developed by BBC Research at the BBC. Schrödinger and dirac-research are open and royalty-free software implementations of Dirac...
. - Schrödinger - A DiracDirac (codec)Dirac is an open and royalty-free video compression format, specification and system developed by BBC Research at the BBC. Schrödinger and dirac-research are open and royalty-free software implementations of Dirac...
implementation developed by David Schleef. - HuffyuvHuffyuvHuffyuv is a lossless video codec created by Ben Rudiak-Gould which is meant to replace uncompressed YCbCr as a video capture format.Despite the "YUV" in the name, it does not compress the YUV color space, but YCbCr...
- Lossless codec from BenRG - OpenAVS - Audio Video StandardAudio Video StandardAudio Video Standard is a compression standard for digital audio and video, and is competing with H.264/AAC to potentially replace MPEG-2. Chinese companies own 90% of AVS patents. The audio and video files have an .avs extension as a container format.-Overview:Development of AVS was initiated by...
(AVS) codec with 90% of its patents owned by Chinese companies and government.
Audio codecAudio codecAll codecs are devices or computer programs capable of coding or decoding a digital data stream or signal.The term audio codec has two meanings depending on the context:...
s
- FLAC - Lossless compression.
- LAMELAMELAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
- Lossy compression (MP3 format). - TooLAMETooLAMETooLAME is a free software MPEG-1 Layer II audio encoder written primarily by Mike Cheng. While there are innumerable MP2 encoders, TooLAME is well-known and widely used for its particularly high audio quality. It has been unmaintained since 2003, but is directly succeeded by the TwoLAME code fork...
- Lossy compression (MP2 format). - MusepackMusepackMusepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160–180 kbit/s...
- Lossy compression; based on MP2 format, with many improvements. - SpeexSpeexSpeex is a patent-free audio compression format designed for speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm. Speex claims to be free of any patent restrictions and is licensed under the revised BSD...
- Low bitrate compression, primarily voice; developed by Xiph.orgXiph.Org FoundationXiph.Org Foundation is a non-profit organizationthat produces free multimedia formats and software tools. It focuses on the Ogg family of formats, the most successful of which has been Vorbis, an open and freely licensed audio format and codec designed to compete with the patented MP3 and AAC...
. - CELTCELTConstrained Energy Lapped Transform is an open, royalty-free audio compression format and a free software codec with especially low algorithmic delay for use in low-latency audio communication. It is a lossy codec, meaning quality is permanently degraded to reduce file size.The algorithms are...
- Lossy compression for low-latency audio communication - OpusOpus (codec)Opus is a low-delay wideband codec intended for applications such as VoIP that will eventually be royalty-free. Opus incorporates technology from the speech-oriented SILK codec and the low-latency CELT codec...
- The IETF standards-track successor to CELT - libvorbis - Lossy compression, implementation of the VorbisVorbisVorbis 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...
format; developed by Xiph.org. - iLBC - Low bitrate compression, primarily voice
- iSAC - Low bitrate compression, primarily voice; (free when using the WebRTCWebRTCWebRTC is a framework that was open sourced on June 1, 2011 that allows web browsers to conduct real-time video chat.Its inclusion in the World Wide Web Consortium standards is supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera....
codebase) - TTATTA (codec)True Audio is a free software, real-time lossless audio codec, based on adaptive prognostic filters.Also, .tta is the generic extension to filenames of audio files created by True Audio codec.- Codec overview :...
- Lossless compression - WavPackWavPackWavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant.-Features:WavPack compression can compress 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-bit fixed-point, and 32-bit floating point audio files in the .WAV file format. It also supports surround sound streams and high frequency...
- Hybrid lossy/lossless - Apple LosslessApple LosslessApple Lossless Apple Lossless Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), or ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially being proprietary for many years, in late 2011 Apple open sourced...
- Lossless compression (MP4) - OpenAVS
- FFmpeg - Codecs in the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project (e.g. AC-3, AAC, ADPCM, PCM, Apple Lossless, FLAC, WMAWindows Media AudioWindows 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...
, Vorbis, MP2, etc.) - FAAD2 - open-source decoder for Advanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced 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....
. There is also FAACFAACFAAC or Freeware Advanced Audio Coder is a software project which includes the AAC encoder FAAC and decoder FAAD2. It supports MPEG-2 AAC as well as MPEG-4 AAC. It supports several MPEG-4 Audio object types , file formats , multichannel and gapless encoding/decoding and MP4 metadata tags...
, the same project's encoder, but it is proprietary (but still free of chargeFreewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
). - libgsm - Lossy compression (GSM 06.10Full RateFull Rate or FR or GSM-FR or GSM 06.10 was the first digital speech coding standard used in the GSM digital mobile phone system. The bit rate of the codec is 13 kbit/s, or 1.625 bits/audio sample...
) - opencore-amr - Lossy compression (AMR and AMR-WB)
- liba52 - a free ATSC A/52Dolby DigitalDolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
stream decoder (AC-3) - libdca - a free DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder
- Aften - Lossy compression (AC-3 format).
Text Codecs
(generally used for subtitles/closed captioning)- WritOgg WritOgg Writ is a text-phrase codec used with the Ogg encapsulation format.It was initially designed to provide subtitles for Ogg Theora videos, but is also useful for song lyrics with Ogg FLAC or Vorbis, transcripts with Ogg Speex, or any other place where it is useful to combine text with audio or...
- Kate
See also
- FFmpegFFmpegFFmpeg 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...
, cross-platformCross-platformIn computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
, open sourceOpen sourceThe 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 codecs suite/library - List of multimedia (audio/video) codecs
- Comparison of video codecsComparison of video codecsA video codec is software or a device that provides encoding and decoding which may or may not include the use of video compression and/or decompression for digital video....
- Comparison of audio codecsComparison of audio codecsThe following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of audio formats and audio compression formats. For listening tests comparing the perceived audio quality of audio formats and codecs, see the article Codec listening test....
- Comparison of video codecs
- List of other software video players
- List of other software media players
- Comparison of media playersComparison of media playersThe following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.For the purpose of this comparison, "video players" are defined as any media player which can play video, even if it can also play audio files.-General:-Operating system...
- Free file format
- Comparison of video encodersComparison of video encoders-General information:-Features:-Supported Import Codecs:-Supported Export Codecs:-Related lists on other projects:* :m:Open Source Toolset - short sections on Audio editing and Video editing* Software - short lists of Ogg audio and video editors...