Video Codecs

Web Codecs

  • Sorenson Video - high-quality WWW video
  • RealVideo G2 with SVT - main video codec for RealVideo
  • H261 - low-quality videoconferencing
  • H263 (also known as I263) - medium-quality videoconferencing
  • MPEG-4 - high-quality WWW video
  • Photo-JPEG - photographic images
  • ClearVideo - also RealVideo (Fractal) - medium-quality WWW video; discontinued

CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/Kiosk/Presentation Codecs

  • Cinepak - medium-quality CD-ROM video, works on older computers
  • Sorenson Video - high-quality CD-ROM video; requires fast computer
  • Eidos Escape - high-quality CD-ROM video; requires high datarates
  • Indeo 3 - medium-quality CD-ROM video, works on older computers
  • Indeo Video Interactive (4, 5) - high-quality CD-ROM video; requires fast computer
  • Apple Video - very fast, but low-quality (usually for testing)
  • MPEG-1 - high-quality CD-ROM video; requires special hardware or fast computer
  • MPEG-2 - high-quality DVD-ROM video; requires special hardware
  • Apple Animation - from HD, allows lossless fullscreen playback on very high-end systems
  • Power!Video - high-quality video at high data rates; discontinued

Hardware/Capture Codecs

  • Media 100 - codec allows files to be used without capture hardware
  • VideoVision Studio - codec allows files to be used without capture hardware
  • Avid Media Composer - codec allows files to be used without capture hardware
  • Truevision - codec allows files to be used without capture hardware
  • DV - New format where digitizing is done by the camera
  • Apple Component Video - for capture on systems without JPEG hardware

Editing/Storage/Special-purpose Codecs

  • Motion-JPEG (MJPEG) - general-purpose video editing & storage
  • Apple Graphics - very similar to GIF; for images w/ limited colors
  • Apple None - lossless, but inefficient
  • Apple Animation - lossless storage
  • Photo-JPEG - used at 100% as a storage/transfer format, it creates significantly smaller files than animation.

Audio Codecs

  • G.723 - standards-based speech for videoconferencing
  • IMA - 4:1 compression (usually for CD-ROM)
  • MPEG layer III audio - high-quality WWW music
  • QDesign Music Codec - high-quality WWW music at low datarates
  • Qualcomm PureVoice - speech at 14.4 modem datarates
  • RealAudio - several inter-related codecs for WWW audio
  • Windows Media Audio - high-quality WWW music