List of open-source codecs
Video codecs
- x264 and x265 – H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) implementation. x264 or x265 is not any codec (encoder/decoder); it is just an encoder (it cannot decode video).
- OpenH264 – H.264 baseline profile encoding and decoding
- OpenVVC an VVC /H.266 Real Time-Decoder for Mac OS, Windows, Linux and Android and special Version of FFmpeg, which was used for Ateme Satellite Broadcast Test.
- Xvid – MPEG-4 Part 2 codec, compatible with DivX
- libvpx – VP8 and VP9 implementation; formerly a proprietary codec developed by On2 Technologies, released by Google under a BSD-like license in May 2010.
- SVT-AV1 – An AV1 encoder originally developed by Intel and Netflix, which is available as FOSS now. SVT-AV1 is generally considered to be the most optimized and fastest free AV1 encoder, which is why it serves as the base for the development of new, free, general-purpose and production-ready implementations in the AOMedia Software Implementation Working Group. While SVT-AV1 already performs very well in constrained quality mode and is economically usable for many scenarios, as of the time being commercial implementations like Aurora1 may still beat it.
- VideoLAN dav1d – An AV1 decoder for decoding videos with AV1 codec
- Xiph.Org rav1e – An AV1 encoder written in Rust
- Google libgav1 – An AV1 decoder by Google
- xvc – An open source video codec, aiming to compete with h.265 and AV1. The reference implementation is released under the LGPL 2.1 and currently available in version 2.0 (as of 12/2020)
- 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
- Dirac as dirac-research, a wavelet based codec created by the BBC Research, and Schrödinger, an implementation developed by David Schleef.
- Huffyuv – Lossless codec from BenRG
- Daala – Experimental Video codec which was under development by the Xiph.Org Foundation and finally merged into AV1.
- Thor – Experimental royalty free video codec which was under development by Cisco Systems, and merged technologies into AV1.
- Turing – A High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) encoder implemented by BBC Research.
- libaom – Reference implementation for the royalty free AV1 video coding format by AOMedia, inheriting technologies from VP9, Daala and Thor.
- Kvazaar – An academic open-source encoder based on the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) standard.
- UVG266 academic open-source VVC/H.266 encoder based on Kvazaar. (on 3 Clause BSD License for Linux/Windows/macOS, and in Development)
- VVenC & VVdeC – An open-source encoder and decoder released by Fraunhofer HHI based on the Versatile Video Coding (VVC/H.266) standard available on GitHub.
- XEVE (the eXtra-fast Essential Video Encoder) MPEG-5 Part 1: Essential Video Coding
- XEVD (the eXtra-fast Essential Video Decoder) MPEG-5 Part 1: Essential Video Coding
- REVC – a Rust-based MPEG-5 Part 1: Essential Video Coding baseline encoder and decoder.
Audio codecs
- FLAC – Lossless codec developed by Xiph.Org Foundation.
- LAME – Lossy compression (MP3 format).
- TooLAME/TwoLAME – Lossy compression (MP2 format).
- Musepack – Lossy compression; based on MP2 format, with many improvements.
- Speex – Low bitrate compression, primarily voice; developed by Xiph.Org Foundation. Deprecated in favour of Opus according to www.speex.org.
- CELT – Lossy compression for low-latency audio communication
- libopus – A reference implementation of the Opus format, the IETF standards-track successor to CELT. (Opus support is mandatory for WebRTC implementations.)
- libvorbis – Lossy compression, implementation of the Vorbis format; developed by Xiph.Org Foundation.
- 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
- Bonk – Hybrid lossy/lossless; supported by fre:ac (formerly BonkEnc)
- Apple Lossless – Lossless compression (MP4)
- Fraunhofer FDK AAC – Lossy compression (AAC)
- FFmpeg codecs in the libavcodec library, 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)
- opencore-amr – Lossy compression (AMR and AMR-WB)
- liba52 – a free ATSC A/52 stream decoder (AC-3)
- libdca – a free DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder
- Codec2 – Low bitrate compression, primarily voice
- OAC – A versatile codec designed to replace Opus, suitable for all applications, from low-bitrate to high-fidelity, currently under development by the Alliance for Open Media.