This is a listing of open-source implementations of media formats—usually called codecs. Many of the codecs listed implement media formats that are restricted by patents and are henceforth not open formats. For example, x264 is a widely used open source implementation of the heavily patent encumbered MPEG-4 AVC media format.
- x264 – H.264/MPEG-4 AVC implementation. x264 is not a codec (encoder/decoder), it is just an encoder (it cannot decode video).
- Xvid – MPEG-4 Part 2 codec, compatible with DivX
- libvpx – VP8 implementation; formerly a proprietary codec developed by On2 Technologies, released by Google under a BSD-like license in May 2010.[1][2][3][4]
- FFmpeg codecs – Codecs in the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project (FFV1, Snow, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2, MSMPEG-4, WMV2, SVQ1, MJPEG, HuffYUV and others). Decoders in the libavcodec (H.264, SVQ3, WMV3, VP3, Theora, Indeo, Dirac, Lagarith and others).
- Lagarith – Video codec designed for strong lossless compression in RGB(A) colorspace (similar to ZIP/RAR/etc.)
- libtheora – A reference implementation of the Theora format, based on VP3, 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 wavelet based codec created by the BBC Research. It is the software reference implementation of Dirac.
- Schrödinger – A Dirac implementation developed by David Schleef.[5]
- Huffyuv – Lossless codec from BenRG
- OpenAVS – Audio Video Standard (AVS) codec with 90% of its patents owned by Chinese companies and government.
- FLAC – Lossless compression.
- LAME – Lossy compression (MP3 format).
- TooLAME – Lossy compression (MP2 format).
- Musepack – Lossy compression; based on MP2 format, with many improvements.
- Speex – Low bitrate compression, primarily voice; developed by Xiph.org.
- CELT – Lossy compression for low-latency audio communication
- Opus – The IETF standards-track successor to CELT
- libvorbis – Lossy compression, implementation of the Vorbis format; developed by Xiph.org.
- iLBC – Low bitrate compression, primarily voice
- iSAC – Low bitrate compression, primarily voice; (free when using the WebRTC codebase)
- TTA – Lossless compression
- WavPack – Hybrid lossy/lossless
- Apple Lossless – Lossless compression (MP4)
- OpenAVS
- FFmpeg – Codecs in the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project (e.g. AC-3, AAC, ADPCM, PCM, Apple Lossless, FLAC, WMA, Vorbis, MP2, etc.)
- FAAD2 – open-source decoder for Advanced Audio Coding. There is also FAAC, the same project's encoder, but it is proprietary (but still free of charge).
- libgsm – Lossy compression (GSM 06.10)[6]
- opencore-amr – Lossy compression (AMR and AMR-WB)[7]
- liba52 – a free ATSC A/52 stream decoder (AC-3)[8]
- libdca – a free DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder[9]
- Aften – Lossy compression (AC-3 format).
[edit] Text Codecs
(generally used for subtitles/closed captioning)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
