VLC Features Formats
This is a new page that lists the audio/video codecs that VLC can or cannot read. It is still under development, don't hesitate to add a some FourCC and infos.
It should now 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. If you don't find information, search with wikipedia or Google.
Contents
Video Codecs
Widely 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 | Not all profiles are supported. See DMO. |
| 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, VP6A | 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 3.0, 4.0 | RV30, RV40 | No | No | ||
| Dirac | BBCD | Yes | Yes | dirac | |
| Huffyuv / Lagarith | Yes | Yes | ffmpeg |
Rarer Video Codecs
| Rare codecs | FOURCC | Decoder | Encoder | library | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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
| Name | FOURCC | Decoder | Encoder | library | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPEG-Audio 1 Layer-1/2 | 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 for encoding) |
| 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 Speech codec | ||
| Mu-Law | Yes | No | ffmpeg | (check for encoder) | |
| NellyMoser | Yes | No | ffmpeg | ||
| 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 | Yes | No | lossless | ||
| Musepack | Yes | No | libmpcdec | ||
| ADMPCM (various) | Yes | Yes | ffmpeg and internal | ||
| AMR | samr | Yes | Yes | ffmpeg + libamrnb + libamrwb | RECOMPILE VLC for this Speech codec |
| Sonic | SONC | Yes | Yes | ffmpeg |
Subtitles Codecs
See SubtitlesCodec for the matter.
Format/Container/Muxers
| Name | extensions | Playable | Savable | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3GP | .3gp | Yes | untested ??? | |
| AIFF | .asf, .wmv | Yes | No | |
| ASF | .asf, .wmv | Yes | Yes | |
| AU | .au | Yes | ||
| AVI | .avi | Yes | Yes, broken | |
| DMF | untested ??? | untested ??? | ||
| FLV | .flv | Yes | Yes | through ffmpeg |
| MOV | .mov | Yes | Yes | |
| MP4 | .mp4 | Yes | Yes | |
| OGG | .ogm, .ogg | Yes | Yes | |
| MKV | .mkv, .mka | Yes | No, WIP | Summer of Code 2007 Project |
| MPEG-2 / TS | .ts, .mpg | Yes | Yes | |
| MPEG-2 / ES, PS, PVA, MP3 | .mpg, .mp3, .mp2 | Yes | Yes | |
| NSC | .nsc | Yes | No | |
| NSV | .nsv | Yes | No | |
| Nut | .nut | Yes | Yes | Muxable through libavformat |
| Real | .ra, .ram, .rm, .rv , .rmbv | Partial | No | version 4 and 5, no support for version 3 |
| Raw (a52, dts, aac, flac, .dv, .vid) | .a52, .dts, .aac, .flac, .dv, .vid | Yes | ?? | |
| True Audio Codec | .tta, .tac | Yes | No | |
| Ty Tivo | .ty | Yes | No | |
| Wav | .wav, .dts | Yes | Yes | |
| Xa | .xa | Yes | No |
