Codec
A part of the program which understands a type of video or audio (short for Coder/Decoder or Compression/Decompression). DivX and Theora are examples of video codecs; MP3 and Vorbis are audio codecs. The output stream produced when a codec to audio or video is generally "muxed" into a container format, such as AVI or Ogg. As certain codecs are often associated with certain container formats, the name of the container is often used to imply the codec, such as "Ogg", which usually refers to a Vorbis stream in an Ogg container.
To know what codecs are readable with VLC media player, see VLC Features Formats.
For portability to almost all decoders, we recommend
using the MPEG-1 standard of vcodec=mp1v, acodec=mpga, and mux=mpeg1. See the MPEG Wiki page for more details on the other MPEG standards.
To save a file in a different codec, you can use the streaming wizard or transcode from the command prompt with a command like this:
vlc file --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp1v, vb=1024, acodec=mpga, ab=128}:std{access=file, mux=mpeg1, dst=C:\file_name.mpg}'
Video Codecs
Use the "name" part in your vcodec=... commands
| name | description |
| mp1v | MPEG-1 Video - recommended for portability |
| mp2v | MPEG-2 Video - used in DVDs |
| mp4v | MPEG-4 Video |
| SVQ1 | Sorenson Video v1 |
| SVQ3 | Sorenson Video v3 |
| DVDv | VOB Video - used in DVDs |
| WMV1 | Windows Media Video v1 |
| WMV2 | Windows Media Video v2 |
| WMV3 | Windows Media Video v3, also called Windows Media 9 (unsupported) |
| DVSD | Digital Video |
| MJPG | MJPEG |
| H263 | H263 |
| h264 | H264 |
| theo | Theora |
| IV20 | Indeo Video |
| IV40 | Indeo Video version 4 or later (unsupported) |
| RV10 | Real Media Video |
| cvid | Cinepak |
| VP31 | On2 VP |
| FLV1 | Flash Video |
| CYUV | Creative YUV |
| HFYU | Huffman YUV |
| MSVC | Microsoft Video v1 |
| MRLE | Microsoft RLE Video |
| AASC | Autodesc RLE Video |
| FLIC | FLIC video |
| QPEG | QPEG Video |
| VP8 | VP8 Video |
Audio Codecs
Use the "name" part in your acodec=... commands
| name | description |
| mpga | MPEG audio (recommended for portability) |
| mp3 | MPEG Layer 3 audio |
| mp4a | MP4 audio |
| a52 | Dolby Digital (A52 or AC3) |
| vorb | Vorbis |
| spx | Speex |
| flac | FLAC |
No-"name" Codecs
- DTS
- AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
- Windows Media Audio
- DV Audio
- LPCM
- ADPCM
- AMR
- QuickTime Audio
- RealAudio
- MACE
- MusePack
Subtitle Codecs
See Subtitles codecs for more information.
| CVD | CVD |
| SVCD (Overlay Graphics) | SVCD Subtitle (OGT) Information |
| SRT | SubRip |
| SSA/ASS | SubStation Alpha |
| SubViewer | SubViewer |
| VobSub | VobSub |
| DVD subtitles | DVD subtitles |
| DVB subtitles | DVB subtitles |
| VPlayer | Vplayer |
| MicroDVD | MicroDVD |
| SAMI | SAMI |
Muxers
Use the "name" part in your mux=... commands
| name | description |
| mpeg1 | MPEG-1 multiplexing - recommended for portability. Only works with mp1v video and mpga audio, but works on all known players |
| ts | MPEG Transport Stream, primarily used for streaming MPEG. Also used in DVDs |
| ps | MPEG Program Stream, primarily used for saving MPEG data to disk. |
| mp4 | MPEG-4 mux format, used only for MPEG-4 video and MPEG audio. |
| avi | AVI |
| asf | ASF |
| dummy | dummy output, can be used in creation of MP3 files. |
| ogg | Xiph.org's ogg container format. Can contain audio, video, and metadata. |
