libavcodec is a free software/open source GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1+ or GNU General Public License 2+ (depending on which options are enabled)-licensed[2] library of codecs for encoding and decoding video and audio data.[3] Libraries with this name are provided from both the FFmpeg project and the Libav project, but they are mutually incompatible.[4][5]
libavcodec is an integral part of many open-source multimedia applications and frameworks. The popular MPlayer, xine and VLC media players use it as their main, built-in decoding engine that enables playback of many audio and video formats on all supported platforms. It is also used by the ffdshow tryouts decoder as its primary decoding library. libavcodec is also used in video editing and transcoding applications like Avidemux, MEncoder or Kdenlive for both decoding and encoding.
libavcodec contains decoder and sometimes encoder implementations of several proprietary formats, including ones for which no public specification has been released. As such, a significant reverse engineering effort is part of libavcodec development. Having such codecs available within the standard libavcodec framework gives a number of benefits over using the original codecs, most notably increased portability, and in some cases also better performance, since libavcodec contains a standard library of highly optimized implementations of common building blocks, such as DCT and color space conversion. However, even though libavcodec strives for decoding that is bit-exact to the official implementation, bugs and missing features in such reimplementations can sometimes introduce compatibility problems playing back certain files.
Implemented video codecs [edit]
libavcodec includes video decoders and/or encoders for the following formats:[6]
Implemented audio codecs [edit]
libavcodec includes decoders and encoders for the following formats:[7]
Libraries that depend on libavcodec [edit]
- libavformat (part of FFmpeg)
- libgegl (optional part of GEGL)
- libmpcodecs (part of MPlayer)
Applications using libavcodec [edit]
Video players [edit]
Audio players [edit]
Multimedia players [edit]
Video editors [edit]
See also Comparison of video editing software
Visual Effects [edit]
Audio editors [edit]
Video converters [edit]
Video libraries [edit]
Optical disc authoring [edit]
Graphic libraries [edit]
3D graphics editors [edit]
Multimedia Streaming Server [edit]
Multimedia frameworks [edit]
Computer vision libraries [edit]
Browser [edit]
Media Center [edit]
Screen Capture [edit]
Device utilities [edit]
- BitPim – utilities for CDMA phones
- ZoneMinder – video camera security suite
- Motion – video camera security/monitoring program
Others [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ libavcodec can be configured to make it a proprietary and unredistributable library since some optional external libraries are proprietary software and cannot be distributed under the terms of the GPL, for example libfaac.
- ^ Libav License and Legal Considerations, libav.org, retrieved 2013-05-07
- ^ libavcodec – AfterDawn: Glossary of technology terms & acronyms, AfterDawn, 2010-07-02, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ FFmpeg, FFmpeg, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ Libav, Libav, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ General Documentation, Ffmpeg.org, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ General Documentation, Ffmpeg.org, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ Listed in FFmpeg Hall of Shame
- ^ Blender for Dummies, Books.google.com, p. 320, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ Learning OpenCV: computer vision with the OpenCV library, Books.google.com, 2008-09-24, p. 9, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ whatwg MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec, Lists.whatwg.org, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ Open Source Development, Communities and Quality: IFIP 20th World Computer, Books.google.com, p. 167, retrieved 2012-01-17
- ^ pulseaudio.git/tree – src/pulsecore/ffmpeg/, Git.0pointer.de, retrieved 2012-01-17
