Video Codec Libraries
The goal of this list is to list the potential encoders and decoders that are available to use, and review what the potential licensing and/or patent issues there might be with each of them. We will be focusing only on codecs that may be suitable for review. The hope is to identify what could be included in precompiled applications without requiring any licensing costs, or side effects (like GPL).
| Priority | Source | Codecs | Encoder | Decoder | Description | License |
|---|
| x | https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-video-codec-sdk | h264/h265 (See patent licenses), vp8, vp9 and av1 | x | x | Hardware see Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix | NVIDIA Developer | DesignWorks_SDKs_Samples_Tools_License_distrib_use_rights_2017_06_13.pdf |
| x | x264, the best H.264/AVC encoder - VideoLAN | h264 (See patent licenses) | x | x | software | GPL - |
| x | x265, the free H.265/HEVC encoder - VideoLAN | h265 (See patent licenses) | x | x | software | GPL - |
| x | https://developer.apple.com/documentation/videotoolbox | h264/h265/Prores (See patent licenses) | x | x | Hardware support Mac only | ? | AV1 | x | x | Hardware (more limited hardware support, see Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix | NVIDIA Developer ) | |
| x | https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libvpx/ | vp8 and vp9 | x | x | software | https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libvpx/+/refs/heads/main/LICENSE https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libvpx/+/refs/heads/main/PATENTS |
| SVT-AV1 | AV1 | x | x | Software | https://gitlab.com/AOMediaCodec/SVT-AV1/-/blob/master/LICENSE.md?ref_type=heads https://gitlab.com/AOMediaCodec/SVT-AV1/-/blob/master/PATENTS.md?ref_type=heads |
| xiph/rav1e: The fastest and safest AV1 encoder. (github.com) | AV1 | x |
| rust based encoder | BSD |
| https://github.com/videolan/dav1d | AV1 |
| x | Software |
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| x | Intel® Media SDK | h264, h265, VP9, VC-1, MVC, and Motion JPEG (MJPEG) | x | x | hardware windows and linux libraries. | End User License Agreements (intel.com) - note this still may not cover the licensing. |
| x | Intel® Media SDK | AV1 - on ARC series GPU |
| x |
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| nvJPEG2000 Documentation — nvJPEG2000 0.6.0 documentation (nvidia.com)
| jpeg-2000 |
| x | Hardware - see Accelerating JPEG 2000 Decoding for Digital Pathology and Satellite Images Using the nvJPEG2000 Library | NVIDIA Technical Blog - see also Karleener/FreeDcpPlayer: Free Dcp Player Nvidia GPU based for independent filmmakers (github.com) | Software License Agreement — nvJPEG2000 0.6.0 documentation (nvidia.com) |
| x | ffmpeg DNxHD encoder/decoder | DNxHD DNxHR | x | x | This seems to be the only open-source library for DNxHD. | lgpl - FFmpeg/dnxhdenc.c at master · FFmpeg/FFmpeg (github.com) - this was developed as part of ffmpeg, with sponsorship by BBC Research. See also: ⚓ T91 Help evaluate/understand Avid DNxHD codec situation (apertus.org) |
| ffmpeg Prores_ks |
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Patent Licenses
Audio Codecs
TODO -
Other External Libraries
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