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 violated | 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 | untested ??? | faad (decode), libaacplus + ffmpeg (encoding) | ISO/IEC MPEG, AAC+ encoding through libaacplus + ffmpeg (patched) - untested
RECOMPILE VLC & ffmpeg for this Audio codec | |
| AC-3 | a52, a52b | Yes | Yes | liba52 (decode), ffmpeg (encode) | |
| ATRAC | atrc | Yes | No | ||
| iLBC | ILBC, ilbc | untested ??? | untested ??? | QuickTime (decode) | (check for encoder and free decoder) |
| Mu-Law | Yes | No | ffmpeg | (check for encoder) | |
| NellyMoser | Yes | No | ffmpeg | ||
| QCELP (PureVoice) | Qclp | Yes | No? | ffmpeg | Usually in QCP container. buggy? |
| 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 violated | 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 |
Introduction
Third-generation optical discs are meant for distributing high-definition video and support greater data storage capacities than DVDs, accomplished with short-wavelength visible-light lasers and greater numerical apertures.
The disc uses blue-violet lasers of greater aperture, for use with discs with smaller pits and lands, thereby greater data storage capacity per layer. In practice, the effective multimedia presentation capacity is improved with enhanced video data compression codecs such as H.264, and VC-1.
Two major competitive formats were present:
- Blu-Ray discs
- HD-DVD
Support in VLC
| Codec | VLC 1.0 | VLC 1.1 | VLC 1.2 | VLC 3.0.6 | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H.264 | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPU acceleration recommended VLC DxVA2 or VLC VAAPI. | |
| VC-1 | Partial | Partial | Partial | VC-1 Interlaced isn't ready | |
| MPEG-2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | FFmpeg or libmpeg2 | |
| EAC3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | FFmpeg, libavcodec > 52.0 | |
| TrueHD | Yes | Yes | Yes | FFmpeg, libavcodec > 52.40 | |
| DTS Core | Yes | Yes | Yes | libdca or FFmpeg | |
| DTS-HD Master Audio | No | No | No | Core is played | |
| Blu-Ray Subtitles | No | Yes, libavcodec > 52.40 | Yes | FFmpeg | |
| HD-DVD Subtitles | No | No | No | ||
| HD-DVD Files (.evo) | No | No | No | ||
| Blu-Ray folders | Partial | Partial | Partial | ||
| Discs | No | No | Partial |
