Codec

Codec is short for coder/decoder. For portability to almost all decoders, we recommend using vcodec=mp1v (MPEG 1 video), acodec=mpga (MPEG 1 layer 1 audio), and mux=mpeg1 (MPEG 1 multiplexing).

The minimal command to transcode from a capture card to a portable MPEG file is thus: vlc v4l:// :v4l-norm=1: '--sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp1v,vb=2030,audio-sync,acodec=mpga,ab=192,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=mpeg1,url="out_file.mpg"}}'

These MPEG files have been verified to work with:

• Windows Media Player 10
• Apple QuickTime Player 7
• XINE 1.0
• ffplay
• xanim 2.80 (no audio)

Video Codecs

• (vcodec=mp1v) MPEG-1 (recommended for portability)
• (vcodec=mp2v) MPEG-2
• (vcodec=mp4v) MPEG-4
• Sorenson Video
• Windows Media Video
• Digital Video
• (vcodec=MJPG) MJPEG
• (vcodec=H263) H263
• (vcodec=h264) H264
• (vcodec=theo) Theora
• Indeo Video
• Real Media Video
• Cinepak
• On2 VP
• Flash Video
• Creative YUV
• Huffman YUV

Audio Codecs

• (acodec=mpga) MPEG audio (recommended for portability)
• (acodec=mp3) MP3 audio
• (acodec=mp4a) MP4 audio
• (acodec=a52 or ac3) Dolby Digital (AC3 or A52)
• DTS
• (acodec=vorb) Vorbis
• (acodec=spx) Speex
• AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
• Windows Media Audio
• DV Audio
• (acodec=flac or fl32) FLAC
• LPCM
• ADPCM
• AMR
• QuickTime Audio
• Real Audio
• MACE
• MusePack