Video Codecs
A video codec is software or hardware that compresses and decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, codec is a portmanteau of encoder and decoder.
Formats
Proprietary
| Format | When introduced | Major developers | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| H.261 | November 1988 | Hitachi, PictureTel, NTT, BT, Toshiba | |
| MPEG-1 | December 1991 | Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) | VHS, CD |
| MPEG-2/H.262 | November 1994 | Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG), MPEG | DVD, SDTV |
| MPEG-4/H.263 | March 1996 | VCEG | 3GP, Flash Video, RealVideo |
| MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 | May 2003 | Joint Video Team (JVT): VCEG, MPEG | Blu-ray Discs, YouTube, Netflix, Adobe Flash Player, HDTV |
| HEVC/H.265 | June 2013 | Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC): MPEG, VCEG | The adoption of HEVC has been hampered by its complex licensing structure. |
| VVC | July 2020 | Joint Video Experts Team (JVET): VCEG, MPEG |
Open and Free
| Format | When introduced | Major developers | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| VP8 | May 2010 | On2 Technologies (acquired by Google) | WebRTC, WebM, WebP, YouTube |
| VP9 | June 2013 | WebM, YouTube, Netflix, Google TV | |
| AV1 | March 2018 | Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) | AVIF, Netflix, YouTube, Twitch |
| AV2 | May 2026 | Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) |
Hardware Acceleration
DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) is an API and a corresponding DDI for using hardware acceleration to speed up video processing on Windows. Software codecs and software video processors can use DXVA to offload certain CPU-intensive operations to the GPU.
Decoder device support status: