List of codecs

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

Audio compression formats

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

• Actively used
  • Most popular
    • Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)
      • Apple QuickTime
      • libalac
      • FFmpeg
    • Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)^[1]
      • libFLAC
      • FFmpeg
    • 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)
  • Oddball
    • ATRAC Advanced Lossless (AAL) – Extremely unpopular
    • 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
• Discontinued
  • Lossless Audio (LA)^[2] – No update for 10+ years
  • Shorten (SHN)^[3] – 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)^[4] – Officially discontinued

Lossy compression

General

• Adaptive Differential (or Delta) pulse-code modulation (ADPCM, see 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)
  • DTS Coherent Acoustics (DTS, Digital Theatre System Coherent Acoustics, ETSI TS 102 114)
    • FFmpeg
    • libdca (decoder only)
• Impala FORscene audio codec
• ITU standards:
  • G.719
  • G.722
    • FFmpeg
  • G.722.1 and G.722.1 Annex C
    • 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^[5]
    • opencore-amr (decoder)
    • VisualOn AMR-WB encoder
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
• 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 (aka libvo_aacenc)
    • Fraunhofer FDK AAC
    • libaacplus
• MPEG-4 Audio
  • Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), (MPEG-4 Part 3 subpart 4), HE-AAC
    • 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)
• Musepack (aka MPEGplus)
  • Musepack SV8 Tools
  • FFmpeg (decoding only)
• IETF standards:
  • Opus (RFC 6716) – based on SILK vocoder and CELT codec
    • libopus
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
• AT&T Perceptual audio coder
• 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)
  • Siren 14
    • libg722_1
  • 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

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth Special Interest Group
  • Low Complexity Subband Coding (SBC)
    • BlueZ
• Qualcomm Technologies International (formerly CSR)
  • aptX (aka apt-X. used in Bluetooth)
    • Qualcomm libbt-aptx
  • aptX HD
• Sony
  • LDAC (used in bluetooth)

Voice

(low bit rate, optimized for speech)

• Xiph.Org Foundation
  • Speex, patent free^[6]
    • libspeex
• Dialogic ADPCM (VOX)
• International Voice Association (IVA) standards:
  • Digital Speech Standard / Standard Play (DSS-SP)
    • FFmpeg (decoding only)
  • Digital Speech Standard / Quality Play (DSS-QP)
• ITU standards:
  • G.711 (a-law and μ-law companding), also known as PCM of voice frequencies
    • FFmpeg (libavcodec)
  • G.711.0 (G.711 LLC)
  • G.711.1 (Wideband extension for G.711)
  • G.711.1D (Super-wideband extension for G.711.1)
  • G.718
  • G.718B (Super-wideband extension for G.718)
  • G.719
  • G.721 (superseded by G.726)
  • G.722 (SB-ADPCM)
    • FFmpeg
  • G.722B (Super-wideband extension for G.722)
  • G.722.1
  • G.722.2 (AMR-WB)
    • 3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation^[5]
    • opencore-amr (decoder)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • G.723 (24 and 40 kbit/s DPCM, extension to G.721, superseded by G.726)
  • G.723.1 (MPC-MLQ or ACELP)
    • FFmpeg
  • G.726 (ADPCM)
    • FFmpeg (libavcodec)
  • G.728 (LD-CELP)
  • G.729 (CS-ACELP)
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • G.729a
  • G.729d
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • G.729.1 (Wideband extension for G.711)
  • 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^[7]
  • HawkVoice (libHVDI)
• Truespeech Triple Rate CODER (TRC)^[8] – used in some pocket recorders
• 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
  • IPMR Speech Codec (used by SPIRIT DSP and many others)^[9]
  • SILK (used by Skype)^[10]
  • CELT (developed by Xiph.Org Foundation)^[11]
    • libcelt
• MPEG-4 Audio
  • MPEG-4 CELP
  • MPEG-4 HVXC
• Skyphone MPLP
• Inmarsat
  • INMARSAT-M IMBE
  • Inmarsat Mini-M AMBE

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

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 5.6kbps)
  • Enhanced Full Rate (GSM 06.60, ACELP 12.20kbps, compatible with AMR mode AMR_12.20)
• Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) IS-95 (aka cdmaOne)
  • IS-96A (QCELP 8kbps)
  • IS-127 (EVRC 8kbps)
  • IS-733 (QCELP 13kbps)
• Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) IS-54/IS-136 (aka Digital AMPS)
  • IS-85 (VSELP 8kbps)
  • IS-641 (ACELP 7.4kbps, compatible with AMR mode AMR_7.40)
• Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) RCR STD-27 (PDC)
  • PDC-HR (PSI-CELP 3.45kbps)
  • PDC-FR (VSELP 11.2kbps)
  • PDC-EFR CS-ACELP 8kbps (aka G.729)
  • PDC-EFR ACELP 6.7kbps (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^[12]
      • 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^[5]
      • 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^[13]
  • EVS (Enhanced Voice Services)
• 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2)
  • Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC, aka IS-127) – based on RCELP
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
  • Enhanced Variable Rate Codec B (EVRC-B)
  • QCELP (Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Prediction)
    • QCELP-8 (aka SmartRate or IS-96C)
      • FFmpeg (decoder only)
    • QCELP-13 (aka 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 4.6kbps)
• TETRAPOL
  • RPCELP 6kbps
• 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
• RL-CELP (used in Japanese railways^[14][15])

Military

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

Text compression formats

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

Video compression formats

Lossless video compression

• Alpary
• Apple Animation (QuickTime RLE)
  • QuickTime
  • FFmpeg
• ArithYuv
• AVIzlib
  • LCL (VfW codec) MSZH and ZLIB^[17]
  • FFmpeg
• Autodesk RLE (AASC)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• BMV Video (Discworld II BMV Video)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• CamStudio GZIP/LZO
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Dirac lossless (a.k.a VC-2)
  • libdirac
  • libschroedinger
  • GStreamer
  • FFmpeg
• DXA
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Dxtory
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• FastCodec
• FFV1^[18] 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 to GNU LGPL.
  • FFmpeg
• Flashsv (flash screen video)^[19]
  • FFmpeg
• FM Screen Capture Codec
• Fraps codec (FPS1)^[20]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• H.264 lossless
  • x264 (encoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only, uses x264 for encoding)
• 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
• innoHeim/Rsupport Screen Capture Codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• JPEG 2000 lossless
  • libopenjpeg
• Lagarith A more up-to-date fork of Huffyuv is available as Lagarith^[21]
  • Lagarith Codec (VfW codec)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• LOCO^[22]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• MagicYUV^[23]
  • MagicYUV SDK
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• MSU Lossless Video Codec
• MSU Screen Capture Lossless
• CorePNG - based on PNG
  • FFmpeg
• ScreenPresso (SPV1)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ScreenPressor^[24] - a successor of MSU Screen Capture Lossless
• SheerVideo
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Snow lossless
  • FFmpeg
• TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC)^[25]
  • EnSharpen Video Codec for QuickTime
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Toponoky
• Ut Video^[26][27]
  • libutvideo
  • FFmpeg
• VMnc VMware screen codec^[28]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• VP9 by Google^[29]
  • libvpx
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• YULS
• ZMBV (Zip Motion Block Video) Codec
  • FFmpeg
• VBLE^[30]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ZeroCodec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• ZRLE used by VNC
• Cinema DNG Raw (created by Adobe, used by Blackmagic)
• Grass Valley Lossless
  • Grass Valley Codec Option
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Lossy compression

General

• Apple Intermediate Codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Bink Video, Smacker video
  • FFmpeg
  • libavcodec
• Blackbird FORscene video codec
• Cinepak^[31] (aka Apple Compact Video)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Dirac
  • Schrödinger
  • dirac-research
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Firebird^[32] Original FORscene video codec
• H.261 (aka Px64)
  • FFmpeg H.261 (libavcodec)
• MPEG-1 Part 2 (MPEG-1 Video)
  • Elecard MPEG-1 Decoder/Encoder
  • FFmpeg
  • MainConcept MPEG-1
  • TMPGEnc
• H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 (MPEG-2 Video)
  • Canopus ProCoder
  • Cinema Craft Encoder
  • Elecard MPEG-2 Video Decoder/Encoder
  • FFmpeg
  • InterVideo Video Decoder
  • MainConcept MPEG-2
  • TMPGEnc
• H.263
  • FFmpeg H.263 (libavcodec)
• MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile)
  • 3ivx
  • DivX
  • Elecard MPEG-4 Decoder/Encoder
  • 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)
  • Elecard AVC Decoder/Encoder (baseline and main 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
  • Scalable Video Coding
  • XAVC
  • AVC-Ultra – a subset of MPEG-4 AVC Hi444PP profile
• HEVC
  • x265 (encoder only)
• Indeo 2 (RTV 2.1)/3^[33]/4/5^[34]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• NewTek NT25/SpeedHQ
• OMS Video
• On2 Technologies TrueMotion VP3/VP4, VP5, VP6, VP7, VP8; under the name The Duck Corporation: TrueMotion S, TrueMotion 2, TrueMotion RT 2.0
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Pixlet
• RealVideo
  • FFmpeg
• Snow Wavelet Codec
• Sorenson Video,^[35] Sorenson Spark
  • FFmpeg
• Theora
  • FFmpeg (decoding only)
  • libtheora
• VC-1 (SMPTE standard, subset of Windows Media Video)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• VP9 by Google
• 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)
      • FFmpeg (decoding only)
    • AVS1-P7 (AVS-M; under-development)
    • AVS-S-P2 (under-development)
    • AVS2-P2 (aka IEEE 1857.4; under-development)
      • uAVS2 Encoder
      • uavs2d^[36] (decoder only)
  • SVAC (GB/T 25724-2010)

Intra-frame-only

• Motion JPEG
  • FFmpeg
  • Morgan Multimedia M-JPEG
  • Pegasus PICVideo M-JPEG
  • MainConcept M-JPEG
• Motion JPEG 2000
  • libopenjpeg
  • FFmpeg
• Redcode RAW (used in RED cameras) – a modified version of JPEG 2000^[37]
  • libredcode
• Apple ProRes 422/4444
  • FFmpeg
• AVC-Intra
  • x264 (encoder only)
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• XAVC-I
• DV
  • 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 (a.k.a Dirac)
    • 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)
    • GoPro CineForm
    • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Grass Valley HQ/HQA/HQX
  • Grass Valley Codec Option
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)

Stereoscopic 3D

• Multiview Video Coding

Real-time

• Hap/Hap Alpha/Hap Q
  • VIDVOX hap codec
  • FFmpeg
• DXV Codec
  • Resolume DXV Codec
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• VESA Display Stream Compression (DSC)

See also

• Open source codecs and containers
• Comparison of video codecs
• Comparison of audio coding formats
• Comparison of container formats
• Comparison of media players
• RTP audio video profile

References

External links

• Subjective codec comparison
• Audio formats comparison – a look at six lossless formats and five lossy formats
• http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php, list of codec four digit codes (like DIV3, XVID, ...)
• Interactive blind listening tests of audio codecs over the internet
• http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en/Support/Formats,List of different audio codecs and meta-data by them
• Online Video Format Identification Tool – designed primarily for CCTV video formats and codecs