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libavcodec

{{Short description|Library of multimedia codecs}}

{{lowercase}}

{{Infobox software

| name = libavcodec

| logo =

| screenshot =

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| collapsible =

| author =

| developer = FFmpeg team

| released =

| latest release version = 61.19.100

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2024|09|30}}{{cite web |url=http://ffmpeg.org/download.html#releases |title=Releases|work=ffmpeg.org |publisher=FFmpeg |url-status=live }}

| latest preview version =

| latest preview date =

| programming language = C99

| operating system = Available for Windows, OS X, Linux but may be compiled for any other OS{{cite web |url=http://ffmpeg.org/download.html |title=Download |work=ffmpeg.org |publisher=FFmpeg |access-date=2012-01-04 |archive-date=2013-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927101526/http://ffmpeg.org/download.html |url-status=live }}

| platform = Available for x86 but may be compiled for any desktop computer or supercomputer

| size =

| language =

| status =

| genre = Multimedia Library

| license = GNU LGPL 2.1+ or GNU GPL 2+ or non-redistributable if compiled as suchlibavcodec can be configured to make it a proprietary and non-redistributable library since some optional external libraries are proprietary software and cannot be distributed under the terms of the GPL (e.g. Decklink).

| website = {{url|https://ffmpeg.org}}

}}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

libavcodec is a free and open-source{{cite web |url=http://www.libav.org/legal.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515062117/https://www.libav.org/legal/ | archive-date=2021-05-15 |title=Libav License and Legal Considerations |publisher=libav.org |access-date=2013-05-07}} library of codecs for encoding and decoding video and audio data.{{citation |url=http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/libavcodec.cfm |title=libavcodec – AfterDawn: Glossary of technology terms & acronyms |publisher=AfterDawn |date=2010-07-02 |access-date=2012-01-17 |archive-date=2010-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214044958/http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/libavcodec.cfm |url-status=live }}

libavcodec is an integral part of many open-source multimedia applications and frameworks. The popular MPV, xine and VLC media players use it as their main, built-in decoding engine that enables playback of many audio and video formats on all supported platforms. It is also used by the ffdshow tryouts decoder as its primary decoding library. libavcodec is also used in video editing and transcoding applications like Avidemux, MEncoder or Kdenlive for both decoding and encoding.

libavcodec contains decoder and sometimes encoder implementations of several proprietary formats, including ones for which no public specification has been released. As such, a significant reverse engineering effort is part of libavcodec development. Having such codecs available within the standard libavcodec framework gives a number of benefits over using the original codecs, most notably increased portability, and in some cases also better performance, since libavcodec contains a standard library of highly optimized implementations of common building blocks, such as DCT and color space conversion. However, while libavcodec does strive to achieve decoding that is bit-exact to their official format implementations, occasional bugs and missing features in such re-implementations can sometimes introduce playback compatibility problems for certain files.

Implemented video codecs

libavcodec includes video decoders and/or encoders for the following formats, this list is not exhaustive:{{citation |url=http://www.ffmpeg.org/general.html#SEC6 |title=General Documentation |publisher=Ffmpeg.org |access-date=2021-05-05 |archive-date=2019-07-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717040636/http://ffmpeg.org/general.html#SEC6 |url-status=live }}

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Implemented audio codecs

libavcodec includes decoders and encoders for the following formats:

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Legal aspects

Libavcodec contains more than 100 codecs,{{cite web |url=http://ffmpeg.org/general.html#SEC8 |title=Codecs list |publisher=ffmpeg.org |access-date=2012-01-01 |archive-date=2014-06-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629194528/http://ffmpeg.org/general.html#SEC8 |url-status=live }} most of which do not just store uncompressed data. Most codecs that compress information could be claimed by patent holders.{{cite web |url=http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html |title=Legal information on FFmpeg's website |publisher=ffmpeg.org |access-date=2012-01-04 |archive-date=2010-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918222108/http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html |url-status=live }} Such claims may be enforceable in countries like the United States which have implemented software patents, but are considered unenforceable or void in countries that have not implemented software patents.

Furthermore, many of these codecs are only released under terms that forbid reverse engineering, even for purposes of interoperability. These terms of use are forbidden in certain countries. For example, some European Union nations have not implemented software patents and have laws expressly allowing reverse engineering for purposes of interoperability.Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs

Libraries that depend on libavcodec

  • libavformat (part of FFmpeg)
  • libgegl (optional part of GEGL)
  • libgimp (part of GIMP)
  • libmpcodecs (part of MPlayer)
  • libmpdemux (part of MPlayer)

Applications using libavcodec

{{main category|Software that uses FFmpeg}}

=Video players=

=Audio players=

  • Audacious (Uses in audacious-plugins's ffaudio)
  • Rockbox (Includes only FLAC code)
  • XMMS2

=Multimedia players=

=Video editors=

{{See also|Comparison of video editing software}}

=Audio editors=

=Video converters=

=Video libraries=

  • GPAC{{Cite book|title=Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Conference on Multimedia|arxiv=2107.13385|last1=Wieckowski|first1=Adam|last2=Lehmann|first2=Christian|last3=Bross|first3=Benjamin|last4=Marpe|first4=Detlev|last5=Biatek|first5=Thibaud|last6=Raulet|first6=Mickael|author7=Jean Le Feuvre|chapter=A Complete End to End Open Source Toolchain for the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) Standard |year=2021|pages=3795–3798 |doi=10.1145/3474085.3478320 |isbn=9781450386517 |s2cid=236469263 }}
  • Media Lovin' Toolkit

=Optical disc authoring=

=Graphics libraries=

=3D graphics editors=

  • Blender{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OaAl4PdZs5EC&q=Blender+ffmpeg&pg=PT332 |title=Blender for Dummies |page=320 |date=13 April 2009 |isbn=9780470471586 |access-date=2012-01-17 |last1=Gumster |first1=Jason van |publisher=Wiley |archive-date=2022-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314065036/https://books.google.com/books?id=OaAl4PdZs5EC&q=Blender+ffmpeg&pg=PT332 |url-status=live }}

=VoIP=

=Multimedia streaming server=

=Multimedia frameworks=

=Computer vision libraries=

  • OpenCV{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=seAgiOfu2EIC&q=libavcodec&pg=PA9 |title=Learning OpenCV: computer vision with the OpenCV library |page=9 |date=2008-09-24 |isbn=9780596554040 |access-date=2012-01-17 |last1=Bradski |first1=Gary |last2=Kaehler |first2=Adrian |publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |archive-date=2021-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827165349/https://books.google.com/books?id=seAgiOfu2EIC&q=libavcodec&pg=PA9 |url-status=live }}

=Browser=

  • Google Chrome{{citation |url=http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-May/020001.html |title=whatwg MPEG-1 subset proposal for HTML5 video codec |publisher=Lists.whatwg.org |access-date=2012-01-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219233043/http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-May/020001.html |archive-date=2012-02-19 }}
  • Mozilla Firefox{{Cite web |title=Firefox Source Code Libavcodec |url=https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/media/ffvpx/libavcodec |archive-date= |access-date=2024-01-08 |website=Firefox source code repository}}

=Media center=

=Screen capture=

  • xvidcap{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lfVAJe6El1IC&q=avidemux_libavcodec&pg=PT167 |title=Open Source Development, Communities and Quality: IFIP 20th World Computer |page=167 |date=17 July 2008 |isbn=9780387096834 |access-date=2012-01-17 |last1=Russo |first1=Barbara |last2=Damiani |first2=Ernesto |last3=Hissam |first3=Scott |last4=Lundell |first4=Björn |last5=Succi |first5=Giancarlo |publisher=Springer |archive-date=2021-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829085604/https://books.google.com/books?id=lfVAJe6El1IC&q=avidemux_libavcodec&pg=PT167 |url-status=live }}

=Device utilities=

  • BitPim – utilities for CDMA phones

=CCTV=

  • ZoneMinder – video camera security suite
  • Motion – video camera security/monitoring program

=Games=

=Others=

  • CorePlayer
  • FreeJ
  • Ingex Studio – used by BBC
  • PulseAudio – includes only resamplers code{{citation |url=http://git.0pointer.de/?p=pulseaudio.git;a=tree;f=src/pulsecore/ffmpeg |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713060425/http://git.0pointer.de/?p=pulseaudio.git;a=tree;f=src/pulsecore/ffmpeg |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-13 |title=pulseaudio.git/tree – src/pulsecore/ffmpeg/ |publisher=Git.0pointer.de |access-date=2012-01-17 }}
  • Steam digital distribution service

References

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Compression Software Implementations}}

{{Compression formats}}

Category:Audio libraries

Category:C (programming language) libraries

Category:Free codecs

Category:Free computer libraries

Category:Video libraries

Category:Free software programmed in C