VLC Features Formats

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Revision as of 09:40, 24 June 2007 by J-b (talk | contribs)
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This is an new page that lists the audio/video codecs that VLC can or cannot read.

It should be a bit more complete than the official features page on VideoLAN website.


If you have any question about those codecs, just consult our Knowledge Base or our friends on the Multimedia Wiki.

Video Codecs

Most used Video Codecs
Name FOURCC Playable Encoder library Comment
MPEG-1 Part 2 mpeg, mp1v, mpg1, PIM1 Yes Yes libmpeg2 , ffmpeg
MPEG-2 Part 2 mp2v, mpg2, vcr2, hdv1, hdv2, hdv3, mx*n, mx*p Yes Yes libmpeg2 , ffmpeg
MJPEG (A/B) Yes Yes ffmpeg
Divx (1, 2, 3) DIV1, DIV2, DIV3, mp41, mp42, MPG4, MPG3 Yes Yes ffmpeg
DivX 4, 5, 6 , 3ivx D4, MPEG-4 DIV4, DIV5, DIV6, col1, col0, 3ivd Yes Yes ffmpeg
MPEG-4 Part 2 (AVP), Xvid DIVX, Xvid, mp4s, m4s2, xvid, mp4v, fmp4, 3iv2, smp4, ... Yes Yes ffmpeg
H.261 h261 Yes Yes ffmpeg
H.262 h262 Yes Yes ffmpeg Same as MPEG-2 Video
H.263 / H.263i h263 Yes Yes ffmpeg
H.264 / X.264

(MPEG-4/AVC) (MPEG-4 Part.10)

h264, s264, AVC1, DAVC, H264, X264, VSSH Yes Yes ffmpeg (decode), x264 (encode)
Sorenson 1 (Quicktime) SVQ 1 Yes Yes ffmpeg
Sorenson 3 (Quicktime) SVQ 3 Yes No ffmpeg
DV Yes Yes ffmpeg
Cinepak cvid Yes No internal, ffmpeg
Theora thra Yes Yes broken libtheora
WMV 1/2 (7/8) wmv1, wmv2 Yes Yes ffmepg
WMV 3 / WMV-9 / VC-1 wmv3, wvc1, wmva Yes No ffmpeg
On2 VP3, VP31, VP30, VP3 Yes No ffmpeg
On2 VP5 VP50, VP5, VP51 Yes No ffmpeg
On2 VP6 (used by FLV) VP60, VP61, VP62, VP6F Yes Yes ffmpeg
On2 VP7 VP7 No No
Flash Screen Video FSV1 Yes Yes ffmpeg
Indeo Video 3 IV31, IV32 Yes No ffmpeg
Indeo Video 4/5 IV41, IV51 No No
Real Video 1.0, 1.3, 2.0 RV10, RV13, RV20 Yes Yes ffmpeg
Real Video 3, 10 RV30, RV40 No No
Dirac BBCD Yes Yes dirac
Huffyuv / Lagarith Yes Yes ffmpeg


Less Used Video Codecs
Rare codecs !
Apple Animation, Graphics, Video, QuickDraw 'rle','smc ','rpza', 'qdrw' Yes No ffmpeg
SheerVideo No No Professional use, no open source decoders
CorePNG ?? ??
MSU Lossless ?? ??
Snow Yes Yes
Pixlet ?? ??
Rare codecs (Asus V1, Asus V2) ASV1, ASV2 Yes Yes ffmpeg
Game Codecs (Some) Yes No ffmpeg
Tarkin No No

Audio Codecs

Audio Codecs Status
Name FOURCC Decoder Encoder library Comment
MPEG-Audio 1 Layer-2 mpga Yes Yes libmad (decoding), twolame (encoding) ISO/IEC MPEG
MP3 mp3, .mp3, LAME Yes Yes libmad (decoding), ffmpeg-mp3lame ISO/IEC MPEG - (recompile needed)
AAC mp4a Yes Yes faad (decode), faac (encoding) ISO/IEC MPEG
HE-AAC Yes Yes faad (decode), faac (encoding) ISO/IEC MPEG, AAC+ encoding - not supported
AC-3 a52, a52b Yes Yes liba52 (decode), ffmpeg (encode)
ATRAC atrc Yes No
iLBC untested ??? untested ??? to check
Mu-Law Yes No ffmpeg (check for encoder)
NellyMoser No No to chek
Real Audio lpcJ, 28_8, dnet, sipr, cook, atrc, raac, racp, ralf Yes No Some works. ralf don't
Shorten shrn No No ffmpeg and ffplay do it. VLC doesn't. (It is in the FOURCC list in VLC's ffmpeg.c Dionoea)
Speex spex Yes Yes libspeex
Vorbis vorb Yes Yes libvorbis
DTS dts Yes No libdca DTS-HD unsupported
MPC Yes No libmpcdec
WMA 1/2 wma1, wma2 Yes Yes broken ffmpeg WMA9 is not supported
Flac flac Yes Yes libflac lossless
Apple Lossless Audio Codec alac Yes No ffmpeg lossless
Monkey's Audio No No lossless - NON FREE LICENSE
Musepack Yes No libmpcdec
ADMPCM (various) Yes Yes ffmpeg and internal
AMR samr Yes Yes ffmpeg + libamrnb + libamrwb RECOMPILE VLC for this
Sonic SONC Yes Yes ffmpeg

Subtitles Codecs

See SubtitlesCodec for the matter.