List of codecs
The following is a list of compression formats and related codecs.
Audio compression formats
Non-compression
- Linear Pulse Code Modulation 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
- * Direct Stream Digital is standard for Super Audio CD
- ** foobar2000 Super Audio CD Decoder
- ** FFmpeg
- Pulse-amplitude modulation
Lossless compression
- Actively used
- * Most popular
- ** Free Lossless Audio Codec
- *** libFLAC
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Apple Lossless Audio Codec
- *** Apple QuickTime
- *** libalac
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Monkey's Audio
- *** Monkey's Audio SDK
- *** FFmpeg
- ** OptimFROG
- ** Tom's verlustfreier Audiokompressor
- *** TAK SDK
- *** FFmpeg
- ** WavPack
- *** libwavpack
- *** FFmpeg
- ** True Audio
- *** libtta
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Windows Media Audio Lossless
- *** Windows Media Encoder
- *** FFmpeg
- * Other
- ** DTS-HD Master Audio, also known as DTS++ and DCA XLL
- *** libdca
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Dolby TrueHD Standard for DVD-Audio in Blu-ray
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Meridian Lossless Packing, also known as Packed PCM Standard for DVD-Audio in DVD
- *** FFmpeg
- ** MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding
- *** SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software
- *** FFmpeg
- ** MPEG-4 Scalable Lossless Coding Parts of it are used in HD-AAC.
- *** SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software
- ** RealAudio Lossless
- *** RealPlayer
- *** FFmpeg
- ** BFDLAC. Ongoing development.
- *** FXpansion's BFD3 drum software.
- * Oddball
- ** ATRAC Advanced Lossless Extremely unpopular
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Direct Stream Transfer - Only used for Direct Stream Digital
- *** SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software
- *** FFmpeg
- ** Original Sound Quality - Only used in WaveLab
- Discontinued
- * Lossless Audio – No update for 10+ years
- * Shorten – Officially discontinued.
- ** libshn
- ** FFmpeg
- * Lossless Predictive Audio Compression – Predecessor of MPEG-4 ALS
- * Lossless Transform Audio Compression – Predecessor of LPAC
- * MPEG-1 Audio Layer III HD – Officially discontinued
- * RK Audio – Officially discontinued
Lossy compression
- Discrete cosine transform
- * Modified discrete cosine transform
General/Speech hybrid
- Unified Speech and Audio Coding
- IETF standards:
- * Opus based on SILK vocoder and CELT codec
- ** libopus
- ** FFmpeg
- IETF Internet Draft
- * IPMR Speech Codec
General
- Adaptive differential pulse-code modulation
- Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding
- * FFmpeg
- ATSC/ETSI standards:
- * Dolby Digital
- ** FFmpeg
- ** liba52
- * Dolby Digital Plus
- ** FFmpeg
- * DTS Coherent Acoustics
- ** FFmpeg
- ** libdca
- * Dolby AC-4
- Impala Blackbird audio codec
- ITU standards:
- *G.719
- * G.722
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.722.1 and G.722.1 Annex C
- ** libg722_1
- ** libsiren
- * G.722.2
- ** 3GPP TS 26.173 AMR-WB speech Codec reference implementation
- ** opencore-amr
- ** VisualOn AMR-WB encoder
- ** FFmpeg
- *EVS
- MPEG-1 Audio and MPEG-2 Audio
- * layer I
- ** FFmpeg
- * layer II
- ** FFmpeg
- ** tooLame
- ** twoLame
- * layer III
- ** FFmpeg
- ** LAME
- * Advanced Audio Coding
- ** FAAC and FAAD
- ** FFmpeg
- ** iTunes
- ** Nero AAC Codec
- ** VisualOn AAC Encoder
- ** Fraunhofer FDK AAC
- ** libaacplus
- MPEG-4 Audio
- * Advanced Audio Coding, HE-AAC and AAC-LD
- ** FAAC, FAAD2
- ** FFmpeg
- ** iTunes
- ** Nero AAC Codec
- ** MPEG-4 AAC reference software
- * Harmonic and Individual Lines and Noise
- ** MPEG-4 reference software
- * TwinVQ
- ** MPEG-4 reference software
- ** FFmpeg
- * BSAC
- ** MPEG-4 reference software
- MPEG-H
- * MPEG-H 3D Audio
- Musepack
- * Musepack SV8 Tools
- * FFmpeg
- AT&T Perceptual audio coder
- Precision Adaptive Subband Coding
- QDesign
- * QDesign Music Codec used in Apple QuickTime
- ** FFmpeg
- PictureTel
- * Siren 7
- ** libg722_1
- ** libsiren
- ** FFmpeg
- * Siren 14
- ** libg722_1
- ** vgmstream
- * Siren 22
- NTT TwinVQ
- * FFmpeg
- * NTT TwinVQ Encoder, NTT TwinVQ Player
- Voxware MetaSound
- * Windows Media Player
- * FFmpeg
- Vorbis
- * aoTuV
- * FFmpeg
- * libvorbis
- * Tremor
- Windows Media Audio
- * Windows Media Encoder
- * FFmpeg
AES3
- SMPTE 302M
- * FFmpeg
- Dolby E
- * FFmpeg
Bluetooth
- Bluetooth Special Interest Group
- * Low Complexity Subband Coding
- ** BlueZ's SBC library
- ** Fluoride Bluetooth stack
- ** FFmpeg
- * CVSD 8 kHz - used in Hands-Free Profile
- * modified SBC - used in Hands-Free Profile
- ** BlueZ's SBC library
- ** Fluoride Bluetooth stack
- ** FFmpeg
- * LC3
- ETSI
- * LC3plus
- Qualcomm Technologies International
- *aptX
- ** Qualcomm libaptX
- ** FFmpeg
- *aptX HD
- ** Qualcomm libaptXHD
- ** FFmpeg
- *aptX Low Latency
- *aptX Adaptive
- * FastStream
- Sony
- *LDAC
- ** libldac - used in Android Oreo
- HWA Alliance/Savitech
- *LHDC
- ** HWA encoder/decoder
- *LLAC
- **HWA encoder/decoder
- HiBy
- * Ultra Audio Transmission
- Samsung
- * Samsung HD/UHQ-BT codec
- * Samsung Scalable codec
Digital radio
- Hybrid Digital Coding - used in HD Radio
- * NRSC-5 receiver for rtl-sdr
Voice
- Linear predictive coding
- * Code-excited linear prediction
- ** Algebraic code-excited linear prediction
- Xiph.Org Foundation
- * Speex, patent free
- ** libspeex
- Dialogic ADPCM
- ITU standards:
- * G.711, also known as PCM of voice frequencies
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.711.0
- * G.711.1
- * G.711.1D
- * G.718
- * G.718B
- * G.719
- * G.721
- * G.722
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.722B
- * G.722.2
- ** 3GPP TS 26.173 AMR-WB speech Codec reference implementation
- ** opencore-amr
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.723
- * G.723.1
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.726
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.728
- * G.729
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.729a
- * G.729d
- ** FFmpeg
- * G.729.1
- * G.729.1E
- * internet Speech Audio Codec
- ** WebRTC
- Nellymoser Asao Codec
- * FFmpeg
- PictureTel PT716, PT716plus
- PictureTel PT724
- RTAudio used by Microsoft Live Communication Server
- SVOPC used by Skype
- OpenLPC created by Future Dynamics
- * HawkVoice
- ANSI/SCTE
- * ANSI/SCTE 24-21 2006
- ** BroadVoice Speech Codec Open Source C Code
- * ANSI/SCTE 24-22 2013
- * ANSI/SCTE 24-23 2007
- ** BroadVoice Speech Codec Open Source C Code
- IETF RFCs:
- * Internet Low Bit Rate Codec developed by Global IP Solutions/Google
- ** WebRTC
- IETF Internet Draft
- * SILK
- * CELT
- ** libcelt
- MPEG-4 Audio
- * MPEG-4 CELP
- * MPEG-4 HVXC
- Skyphone MPLP
- Inmarsat
- * INMARSAT-M IMBE
- * Inmarsat Mini-M AMBE
Microsoft DirectPlay
- Voxware MetaVoice
- * Windows Media Player
- Truespeech
- * Windows Media Player
- * FFmpeg
- MS GSM
- * Windows Media Player
- * libgsm
- * FFmpeg
- MS-ADPCM
- * Windows Media Player
- * FFmpeg
Digital Voice Recorder
- International Voice Association standards:
- * Digital Speech Standard / Standard Play
- ** FFmpeg
- * Digital Speech Standard / Quality Play
- Micronas Intermetall SC4
- Sony LPEC
- Truespeech Triple Rate CODER used in some pocket recorders
Mobile phone
Generation 2
- European Telecommunications Standards Institute GSM
- * Full Rate
- ** libgsm
- ** FFmpeg
- * Half Rate
- * Enhanced Full Rate
- Telecommunications Industry Association IS-95
- * IS-96A
- * IS-127
- * IS-733
- Telecommunications Industry Association IS-54/IS-136
- * IS-85
- * IS-641
- Association of Radio Industries and Businesses RCR STD-27
- * PDC-HR
- * PDC-FR
- * PDC-EFR CS-ACELP 8kbit/s
- * PDC-EFR ACELP 6.7kbit/s
Generation 3/4
- 3rd Generation Partnership Project
- * Adaptive Multi-Rate
- ** AMR-NB
- *** 3GPP TS 26.073 AMR speech Codec reference implementation
- *** opencore-amr
- *** FFmpeg
- ** AMR-WB
- *** 3GPP TS 26.173 AMR-WB speech Codec reference implementation
- *** opencore-amr, from OpenCORE
- *** vo-amrwbenc, from VisualOn, included in Android
- *** FFmpeg.
- ** AMR-WB+
- *** 3GPP TS 26.273 AMR-WB+ speech Codec reference implementation
- ** Enhanced Voice Services
- *** 3GPP TS.26.443 – Codec for Enhanced Voice Services – ANSI C code
- 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2
- * Enhanced Variable Rate Codec based on RCELP
- ** FFmpeg
- * Enhanced Variable Rate Codec B
- * QCELP
- ** QCELP-8
- *** FFmpeg
- ** QCELP-13
- *** FFmpeg
- * Selectable Mode Vocoder
- * Variable Multi Rate – WideBand
Professional mobile radio
- APCO
- * Project 25 Phase 2 Enhanced Full-Rate
- * Project 25 Phase 2 Half-Rate also used in NXDN and DMR
- ** mbelib
- * Project 25 Phase 1 Full Rate
- ** mbelib
- European Telecommunications Standards Institute
- * ETS 300 395-2
- TETRAPOL
- * RPCELP 6kbit/s
- D-STAR Digital Voice
- * mbelib
- Professional Digital Trunking System Industry Association standards:
- * NVOC used in China
- Spirit DSP RALCWI
- DSPINI
- * SPR Robust
- * TWELP Robust
- Codec2
- * libcodec2
- RL-CELP
Military
- U.S. Department of Defense Federal Standard:
- * FS-1015
- ** HawkVoice
- * FS-1016
- ** HawkVoice
- * FS-1023
- United States Military Standard
- * MIL-STD-188 113
- ** SoX
- * MIL-STD-3005
- ** Texas Instruments' 2.4 kbit/s MELP Proposed Federal Standard speech coder
- NATO
- * STANAG 4198
- * STANAG-4591
- BBN NRV developed in DARPA program
Video games
- Bink Audio, Smacker Audio
- * FFmpeg
- Actimagine FastAudio
- * MobiclipDecoder
- Nintendo GCADPCM - used in GameCube, Wii and Nintendo 3DS.
- * vgmstream
- * VGAudio
- * FFmpeg
- Sony VAG
- * vgmstream
- * FFmpeg
- Sony HEVAG - used in PS Vita.
- * vgmstream
- Sony ATRAC9 - used in PS4 and PS Vita.
- * VGAudio
- * FFmpeg
- Microsoft XMA - WMA variants for Xbox 360 hardware decoding.
- * FFmpeg
- Xbox ADPCM
- * vgmstream
- CRI ADX ADPCM
- * vgmstream
- * VGAudio
- * FFmpeg
- CRI HCA/HCA-MX - used in CRI ADX2 middleware.
- * vgmstream
- * VGAudio
- * FFmpeg
- * libcgss
- * HCADecoder
- FMOD FADPCM
- * vgmstream
Text compression formats
- BiM
- Continuous Media Markup Language
- MPEG-4 Part 17
- ttyrec
Video compression formats
Non-compression
- RGB 4:4:4
- YUV 4:4:4/4:2:2/4:1:1/4:2:0
- Composite digital signal - used by SMPTE D-2 and D-3
- Avid DNxUncompressed
Lossless">Data compression#Lossless">Lossless video compression
- ITU-T/ISO/IEC standards:
- * H.264 lossless
- ** x264
- ** FFmpeg
- * H.265 lossless
- ** x265
- ** UHDcode
- **FFmpeg
- * Motion JPEG 2000 lossless
- ** libopenjpeg
- IETF standards:
- * ZRLE - used by VNC
- SMPTE standards:
- * VC-2 HQ lossless
- ** libdirac
- ** libschroedinger
- Alparysoft Lossless Video Codec
- Apple Animation
- * QuickTime
- * FFmpeg
- ArithYuv
- AV1
- * libaom
- AVIzlib
- * LCL MSZH and ZLIB
- * FFmpeg
- Autodesk Animator Codec
- * FFmpeg
- CamStudio GZIP/LZO
- * FFmpeg
- Chennai Codec
- Dxtory
- * FFmpeg
- FastCodec
- FFV1 FFV1's compression factor is comparable to Motion JPEG 2000, but based on quicker algorithms. Written by Michael Niedermayer and published as part of FFmpeg under to GNU LGPL.
- * FFmpeg
- Flash Screen Video v1/v2
- * FFmpeg
- FM Screen Capture Codec
- * FFmpeg
- Fraps codec
- * FFmpeg
- Grass Valley Lossless
- * Grass Valley Codec Option
- * FFmpeg
- Huffyuv 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
- Lagarith A more up-to-date fork of Huffyuv is available as Lagarith
- * Lagarith Codec
- * FFmpeg
- LOCO - based on JPEG-LS
- * FFmpeg
- MagicYUV
- * MagicYUV SDK
- * FFmpeg
- MSU Lossless Video Codec
- MSU Screen Capture Lossless
- - based on PNG
- * FFmpeg
- ScreenPresso
- * FFmpeg
- ScreenPressor - a successor of MSU Screen Capture Lossless
- * FFmpeg
- SheerVideo
- * FFmpeg
- Snow lossless
- * FFmpeg
- TechSmith Screen Capture Codec
- * EnSharpen Video Codec for QuickTime
- * FFmpeg
- Toponoky
- Ut Video Codec Suite
- * libutvideo
- * FFmpeg
- VBLE
- * FFmpeg
- VMnc VMware screen codec - used by VMware Workstation
- * FFmpeg
- VP9 by Google
- * libvpx
- * FFmpeg
- YULS
- ZeroCodec
- * FFmpeg
- Codec - used by DOSBox
- * FFmpeg
Lossless game codecs
- DXA
- * ScummVM Tools
- * FFmpeg
Lossy compression
- Discrete cosine transform
General
- AV1
- * libaom
- * SVT-AV1
- * rav1e
- * dav1d
- * libgav1
- Blackbird FORscene video codec
- Cinepak
- * FFmpeg
- Daala
- Dirac
- * Schrödinger
- * dirac-research
- * FFmpeg
- Firebird Original FORscene video codec
- H.261
- * FFmpeg H.261
- MotionPixels
- MPEG-1 Part 2
- * Elecard MPEG-1 Decoder/Encoder
- * FFmpeg
- * MainConcept MPEG-1
- * TMPGEnc
- H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2
- * Canopus ProCoder
- * Cinema Craft Encoder
- * Elecard MPEG-2 Video Decoder/Encoder
- * FFmpeg
- * InterVideo Video Decoder
- * MainConcept MPEG-2
- * TMPGEnc
- H.263
- * FFmpeg H.263
- MPEG-4 Part 2
- * 3ivx
- * DivX
- * Elecard MPEG-4 Decoder/Encoder
- * libavcodec
- * HDX4
- * Nero Digital
- * Xvid
- H.264/MPEG-4 AVC or MPEG-4 Part 10, approved for Blu-ray
- * CoreAVC
- * Elecard AVC Decoder/Encoder
- * MainConcept
- * Nero Digital
- * QuickTime H.264
- * Sorenson AVC Pro codec, Sorenson's new implementation
- * OpenH264
- * x264
- * FFmpeg
- 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
- HEVC
- * x265
- Huygen codec
- IETF Internet Draft
- * xvc
- Indeo 2 /3/4/5
- * FFmpeg
- OMS Video
- On2 Technologies TrueMotion VP3/VP4, VP5, VP6, VP7; under the name The Duck Corporation: TrueMotion S, TrueMotion 2, TrueMotion RT 2.0
- * FFmpeg
- RealVideo 1, G2, 8, 9 and 10
- * FFmpeg
- * RealMedia HD SDK
- RealVideo Fractal Codec
- * FFmpeg
- RealMedia HD
- * RealMedia HD SDK
- Snow Wavelet Codec
- Sorenson Video, Sorenson Spark
- * FFmpeg
- Theora
- * FFmpeg
- * libtheora
- Thor
- VC-1
- * FFmpeg
- VP8 and VP9 by Google; VP10 was not released and instead was integrated into AV1
- * libvpx
- * FFmpeg
- Versatile Video Coding
- Windows Media Video
- * WAX
- * FFmpeg
- Guobiao standards
- *Audio Video Standard
- ** AVS1-P2
- *** FFmpeg
- ** AVS1-P7
- ** AVS2-P2
- *** uAVS2 Encoder
- *** xavs2
- *** davs2
- ** AVS3-P2
- *** uavs3e
- *** uavs3d
Intra-frame-only
- Motion JPEG
- * FFmpeg
- * Morgan Multimedia M-JPEG
- * Pegasus PICVideo M-JPEG
- * MainConcept M-JPEG
- ISO/IEC standard
- * Motion JPEG 2000
- ** libopenjpeg
- ** FFmpeg
- ** Morgan Multimedia M-JPEG2000
- ** Morgan Multimedia dcpPlayer
- * DV
- ** FFmpeg
- * MPEG-4 SStP
- ** FFmpeg
- * Motion JPEG XR
- Apple ProRes 422/4444
- * FFmpeg
- Apple Intermediate Codec
- * FFmpeg
- Apple Pixlet
- * FFmpeg
- AVC-Intra
- * x264
- * FFmpeg
- AVC-Ultra a subset of MPEG-4 AVC Hi444PP profile
- XAVC-I
- SMPTE standard
- * VC-2 SMPTE standard
- ** Schrödinger
- ** dirac-research
- ** VC-2 Reference Encoder and Decoder developed by BBC
- ** FFmpeg
- * VC-3 SMPTE standard
- ** Avid DNxHD
- ** FFmpeg
- * VC-5 SMPTE standard
- ** CineForm-SDK developed by GoPro
- ** FFmpeg
- Grass Valley HQ/HQA/HQX
- * Grass Valley Codec Option
- * FFmpeg
- NewTek NT25
- NewTek SpeedHQ
- * FFmpeg
Stereoscopic 3D
- Multiview Video Coding
Security and surveillance cameras
- Guobiao standards
- * AVS-S-P2
- * SVAC
- Infinity CCTV Codec
- * FFmpeg
Bayer video codecs
- CinemaDNG
- Redcode RAW a modified version of JPEG 2000
- * libredcode
- ArriRaw
- Cineform RAW
- * CineForm-SDK
- Blackmagic RAW
- * Blackmagic RAW SDK
- Apple ProRes RAW
Video games
- Bink Video, Smacker video
- * FFmpeg
- * libavcodec
- Nintendo Mobiclip video codec
- CRI Sofdec codec - a MPEG variant with 11-bit DC and color space correction; used in Sofdec middleware
- CRI P256 - used in Sofdec middleware for Nintendo DS
- Indeo Video Interactive - used in PC games for Microsoft Windows
- * FFmpeg
Real-time
- Hap/Hap Alpha/Hap Q
- * VIDVOX hap codec
- * FFmpeg
- DXV Codec
- * Resolume DXV Codec
- * FFmpeg
- VESA Display Stream Compression
- VESA Display Compression-M