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)
• Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)

Lossless compression

• Actively used
  • Most popular
    • Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)
    • Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)^[1]
    • Monkey's Audio (APE)
    • OptimFROG (OFR)
    • Tom's verlustfreier Audiokompressor (TAK)
    • WavPack (WV)
    • True Audio (TTA)
    • Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMAL)
  • Other
    • DTS-HD Master Audio, also known as DTS++.
    • Dolby TrueHD  – Standard for DVD-Audio in Blu-ray (mathematically based on MLP)
      • Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), also known as Packed PCM (PPCM)  – Standard for DVD-Audio in DVD
    • MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 ALS)
    • MPEG-4 Scalable Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 SLS)  – Parts of it are used in HD-AAC
    • RealAudio Lossless
  • Oddball
    • ATRAC Advanced Lossless (AAL)  – Extremely unpopular
    • Direct Stream Transfer (DST) - Only used for Direct Stream Digital with no publicly available encoder&decoder
    • Original Sound Quality (OSQ) - Only used in WaveLab
• Discontinued
  • Lossless Audio (LA)^[2] – No update for 10+ years
  • Shorten (SHN)^[3] – Officially discontinued.
  • 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
• 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
  • G.718
  • G.719
  • G.721 (superseded by G.726)
  • G.722 (SB-ADPCM)
    • FFmpeg
  • 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
• 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)
• Voxware – used by Microsoft DirectPlay
• Truespeech
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• 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

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)
• 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)
• BMV Video (Discworld II BMV Video)
• CamStudio GZIP/LZO
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Dirac lossless (a.k.a VC-2)
  • libdirac
  • libschroedinger
  • GStreamer
  • FFmpeg
• DXA
  • 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]
• Fraps codec (FPS1)^[20]
• 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
• 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)
• LZO
• MagicYUV^[23]
• MSU Lossless Video Codec
• PNG
  • CorePNG
  • FFmpeg
• ScreenPressor^[24]
• SheerVideo
• Snow lossless
  • FFmpeg
• TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC)^[25]
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• Ut Video^[26][27]
  • libutvideo
  • FFmpeg
• VMNC VMware screen codec^[28]
• VP9 by Google^[29]
  • libvpx
  • FFmpeg (decoder only)
• YULS
• ZMBV (Zip Motion Block Video) Codec
  • FFmpeg
• VBLE^[30]
• ZRLE used by VNC
• Blackmagic codec
• 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)
  • Cinema Craft Encoder
  • 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)
• 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 (under-development)
  • 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^[36]
  • 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
• Comparison of video encoders

References

1. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Version 1.1.2 Library of Congress
2. "Lossless Audio Homepage".
3. Shorten Lossless Audio Compression Format (SHN), Version 3.5.1 Library of Congress
4. "RK Audio".
5. 3GPP (2008-12-11) 3GPP TS 26.173 - AMR-WB speech Codec; version 8.0.0 Release 8, retrieved 2009-09-09
6. Speex Audio Codec, Version 1.2 Library of Congress
7. Finding voice codecs for free software Linux.com October 14, 2005
8. DSP Group Unveils Total Telephony Solutions(TM) For Digital Cordless Telephony Applications PRNewswire
9. IPMR Speech Codec - draft-spiritdsp-ipmr-01.txt IETF
10. SILK Speech Codec - draft-vos-silk-02 IETF
11. Constrained-Energy Lapped Transform (CELT) Codec - draft-valin-celt-codec-02 IETF
12. 3GPP (2008-12-11) 3GPP TS 26.073 - AMR speech Codec; version 8.0.0 Release 8, retrieved 2009-09-08
13. 3GPP (2008-12-18) 3GPP TS 26.273 - AMR-WB+ speech Codec; version 8.0.0 Release 8, retrieved 2009-09-09
14. INFORMATION COLLECTION SURVEY FOR THE MEGA MANILA SUBWAY PROJECT IN THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES Japan International Cooperation Agency September, 2015
15. 東北上越新幹線デジタル列車 無線システムの開発 (Japanese) East Japan Railway Company 2003
16. 300 bps noise robust vocoder MILCOM 2010
17. "Lossless Codec Libraries". multimedia.cx.
18. FF Video Codec 1 Library of Congress
19. http://ffmpeg.org/doxygen/trunk/flashsv_8c.html
20. http://www.fraps.com/faq.php#videocap
21. http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html
22. http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=LOCO
23. http://magicyuv.com/
24. "ScreenPressor by Infognition - lossless video codec for screen capture". infognition.com.
25. "Downloads". TechSmith.
26. "#534 (Ut Video Support) – FFmpeg". ffmpeg.org.
27. "Ut Video Codec Suite - a new lossless video codec for Windows! [Archive] - Doom9's Forum". doom9.org.
28. "VMware Video". multimedia.cx.
29. "The WebM Project - VP8 Encode Parameter Guide". webmproject.org.
30. http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=VBLE
31. Cinepak Library of Congress
32. "Live demonstration". Forbidden.
33. Indeo Video Codec, Version 3 Library of Congress
34. Indeo Video Codec, Version 5 Library of Congress
35. Sorenson Video Codec, Version 3 Library of Congress
36. libredcode

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