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 | Yes | No | libavcodec | |
| 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 / |
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
| Subtitle Name | Extension | Subtitle Type | Character Encoding | Line Break | Text Styling | Metadata Info | Timings | Timing Precision | VLC media player Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AQTitle | *.aqt | Text-based | None | Yes | No | No | Framings | Dependent on Frame | Yes (0.9.0 and over) |
| Blu-Ray | N/A | Image-based | N/A | N/A | N/A | No | Elapsed Time | Unknown | Yes (1.1.0 and over) |
| CVD subtitles | *.cvd | Image-based | N/A | N/A | N/A | No | Elapsed Time | Unknown | Yes |
| DKS | *.dks | Text-based | None | Yes | No | No | Elapsed Time | Unknown | Yes (0.9.0 and over) |
| DVB subtitles | N/A (in DVB streams) | Image-based | N/A | N/A | N/A | No | Elapsed Time | Unknown | Yes |
| DVD subtitles | N/A | Image-based | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| JACOsub | *.jss | Text-based | None | Yes | Yes | No | Elapsed Time | 10 Milliseconds (1/100th sec) | Yes (0.9.0 and over), no styles |
| Kate | N/A (inside OGG) | Text-based | None | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | Unknown | Yes (0.9.0 and over), no styles |
| MicroDVD | *.sub | Text-based | None | Yes | No | No | Framings | Dependent on Frames | Yes |
| MPEG-4 Timed Text | .ttxt | XML | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | No | Elapsed Time | 1 Millisecond | Yes |
| MPL2 | *.mpl/.txt | Text-based | None | Yes | No | No | Sequential Time | 100 Milliseconds (1/10th sec) | Yes, no italic |
| MPSub | *.sub | Text-based | None | Yes | No | Yes | Sequential Time | 10 Milliseconds (1/100th sec) | Yes (0.9.0 and over) |
| OggWrit | N/A (inside Oggs) | Text-based | None | No | Yes | Yes | Sequential Granules | Dependent on Bitstream | untested ???- Not specified yet. |
| Phoenix Subtitle | *.pjs | Text-based | None | No | No | No | Framings | Dependent on Frames | Yes (0.9.0 and over) |
| PowerDivX | .psb | Text-based | None | No | No | No | Elapsed Time | 1 Second | Yes (0.9.0 and over) |
| RealText / SMIL | *.rt | HTML-based | Unicode (UTF-8) | Yes | Yes (SMIL) | No | Elapsed Time | 10 Milliseconds (1/100th sec) | Yes (0.9.0 and over) |
| SAMI | *.smi | HTML-based | Unicode (Windows-1252) | Yes | Yes (CSS) | Yes | Framings | Dependent on Frames | Yes |
| Structured Subtitle Format | .ssf | XML | None | No | Yes | Yes | Elapsed Time | 1 Millisecond | No |
| SubRip | *.srt | Text-based | Informally Unicode | Yes | No | No | Elapsed Time | 1 Millisecond (1/1000th sec) | Yes |
| SubStation Alpha | *.ssa/.ass | Text-based | None | No | Yes | Yes | Elapsed Time | 10 Milliseconds (1/100th sec) | Yes, 0.9.0 and over |
| SubViewer | *.sub | Text-based | None | Yes | No | Yes | Elapsed Time | 10 Milliseconds (1/100th sec) | Yes |
| SVCD subtitles | *.svcd | Image-based | N/A | N/A | N/A | No | Elapsed Time | Unknown | Yes |
| Teletext | Unknown | Text-based | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes |
| Universal Subtitle | *.usf | XML | Unicode (UTF-8) | No | Yes (XML DTD) | No | Elapsed Time | 1 Millisecond (1/1000th sec) | Yes, 0.9.0 and over |
| VobSub | *.sub, *.idx | Image-based | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Elapsed Time | 1 Millisecond (1/1000th sec) | Yes |
| VPlayer | *.txt | Text-based | None | Yes | No | No | Framing or Time | 10 Milliseconds (1/100th sec) | Yes |
| XSUB (DivX subtitles) | N/A (embedded in .divx) | Image-based | N/A | N/A | N/A | No | Elapsed Time | 1 Millisecond | Yes (1.1.0 and over) |
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, violated | |
| 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 |
HD-Discs codecs
| 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 |
