AM Software | List of Codecs by FOURCC

Preface
This page designed to help you find a particular video codec vendor by fourcc,
when you need to play back or convert some existing AVI file.
Also it is important to make right decision whether you'd like to use the codec
to compress your new videos. Some of codecs are more popular, others give you
better picture quality, some codecs are faster but offer low compression ratios etc.
Unfortunately, no ideal codec exists...

The Method and Usablility columns use their own shortcuts
to describe basic compression scheme and possible codec usage.
See Notes for more information.

	Name	Owner	Method	Usability	Notes
3IV0 3IV1 3IV2	3ivx	3IVX	MPEG4	Rare	FOURCC "3IV0" was also used for a while but never publicly released
AASC AFLI AFLC	Autodesk Animator AVI equivalent of FLI/FLC	Autodesk	RLE	Outdated	Discontinued by Autodesk
AP41	AngelPotion	Hacked MS MPEG4	MPEG4	Illegal	Tends to crash some Windows Registry entries on a user PC
ASV1 ASV2	Asus Video	Asus	YUV	Can't encode except capture	Codec supplied with the Asus TNT Video Capture adapter.
CDVC	Canopus DV Codec	Canopus	DV	DV camcorders	Used to allow video editing on a PC without installed DV hardware
CRAM MSVC	Microsoft Video 1	Microsoft	RLE	Outdated, shipped with Windows	Good for training courses video encode
CVID	Cinepak	Providenza & Boekelheide	?	Outdated, shipped with Windows, slow to encode	Originally owned by Supermac then Radius, now P & B About a 10 years ago was the best for photorealistic video encode
CYUV	Creative YUV	Creative Labs	YUV	Rare	Some products by Creative might use it.
DIV3 DIV4	DivX MPEG-4 low motion DivX MPEG-4 fast motion	DivX team	MPEG4	Illegal	This is a binary patch (hack) of the Microsoft MPEG-4 V3 codec
DIVX DX50	DivX 4, DivX 5 etc.	DivX team	MPEG4	Non-compliant with Video for Windows ICM specs	While the "developers" of this codec still claim it is legal and not based on either MS MPEG4 or OpenDivX sources, it does not seem to be true. Even more bad news, the two-pass mode added in this codec makes it incompatible with any video editing application that conforms the standards.
DMB1	Rainbow Runner hardware	Matrox	M-JPEG	Rare	Matrox Rainbow Runner video capture board uses this fourcc. You can use Morgan Multimedia MJPEG software codec to decode dmb1 videos. AVIedit includes built-in decompressor for this.
DSVD DVSD	DV codec	Many vendors of 1394 i/o cards and DV camcorders	DV	home video	Due to high data rate of approx. 3,5 MB/s (12 gigabytes a hour) this codec is not very suitable for video storage and web delivery. On the other hand, this is native data format for DV camcorders and good enough for editing. DirectShow includes a DV decoder filter, while the VFW based applications must install the codec. Popular one is from Mainconcept, Sony, Adaptec, Canopus and other vendors also offer their DV codecs.
ELK0 EQK0	Elsa Quick Codec	Elsa	YUV	Rare	Only ELSA capture cards use this codec.
H260 ... H269	ITU H.26n	Intel	MPEG-like	-	Rather good quality at low data rates. Today these codecs are not very popular (except videoconferencing) and seem to go outdated.
HFYU	HuffYUV	Ben Rudiak-Gould	Huffman	capture	Lossless Huffman codec for YUV and RGB formats. Available in source and DLL forms. Due to fast but low compression you'd better use this codec at analog video capture time or as a intermediate storage compressor for multiple edits.
IV30 ... IV39	Indeo Video 3.x	Ligos	?	Old, shipped with Windows	Developed by Intel, now hosted by Ligos. Version 3.2 IV32 was very popular since it was the best codec shipped with original Windows 95. Compressor uses DCT and frame differencing, which results in color bleeding and blocking artifacts at high compression ratios, while being not very suitable for editing.
IV40 ... IV49	Indeo Video 4.x	Ligos	?	Old, shipped with Windows	see above
IV50	Indeo Video 5.x	Ligos	?	Good quality at high data rates	see above (Personally, I think the only reason why Intel made these codecs was increase of sales of new Pentium and Pentium MMX CPU's. Being slower than other codecs (maybe except Cinepak) and often without any better picture quality, these codecs were like a programming exercise...)
M261 M263	H.261 H.263	Microsoft	-	Rare	Redmond's implementation (as it often happens, it's too unique)
MJPG	Motion JPEG	-	MJPG	Capture, editing	Since the Motion JPEG is de-facto industry standard, many vendors offer their implementations of the codec, including but not limited to MainConcept Paradigm Matrix Pegasus Imaging Morgan Multimedia Also this compression format is used by many digital camera vendors (Olympus, Fujifilm, Canon etc.)
MP41 MP42 MP43	Microsoft MPEG-4 V1, V2 & V3	Microsoft	MPEG4	Frozen	These codecs were developed by Microsoft by draft MPEG-4 specs and were available some time ago with their Windows Media Tools (WMT) and MS NetShow package. However Microsoft has restricted the functionality of these codecs so that only native tools from Microsoft could use these compressors. The DivX team made a binary hack of MS MPEG4 V3 codec and called it DivX ;) Low motion codec. Currently Microsoft adds no more improvements to these codecs, but Windows Media Player still can download them off the mom site.
MRLE	Microsoft RLE	Microsoft	RLE	Old	-
MWV1	Aware Motion Wavelets	Aware Inc.	Wavelet	Editing, capture	While the quality is often better than MJPG at the same data rates, there are no other compatible codecs from different vendors.
TSCC	TechSmith Screen Capture Codec	Techsmith Corp.	?	Screen capture	This codec used by Camtasia software, however if you want the other people able to watch your videos (presumably, training & educational), they must install the codec on their systems.
VDOM VDOW	VDOWave VDOLive	VDONet	Fractal	Low bandwidth	Looks comparable in quality with early MPEG-4 codecs at the same low data rates
VP30 VP31	On2's VP3 codec	On2	MPEG4	Startup	Yet another promising codec...

Legend: Compression method
YUV	Based on a colorspace conversion and subsampling Low compression ratios (3:1), high speed, high quality. Many proprietary implementations exist
RLE	Run length encoding Good compression for line art, bad for photos (10:1 to 1:1), high speed, high quality
LZW + Huffman	PKZIP-like compression, low ratios (about 2:1), high speed, lossless
MJPG	Motion-JPEG - same as .jpg files; good compression, high speed, does not use temporal compression, some blocking artifacts on high compression ratios
DV	Digital Video, looks like M-JPEG compression or better, high speed, does not use temporal compression. Used widely in hardware (camcorders etc.)
Wavelet	Good compression, (about 100:1 to 2:1), high speed, less blocking artifacts than DCT-based and MJPG
MPEG4	In most cases based on hacked MS MPEG4 v3 codec, offers very good temporal compression (about 200:1), average speed, blurry and blocking artifacts on high compression ratios

Legend: Usability
Capture	A fast, high quality compressor with often low compression ratio. To provide better editing performance, uses spatial compression, does not use temporal compression, all video frames are key frames
Editing	High quality compressor. Speed and good compression ratio is desirable but not mandatory. Codec should not use temporal compression, all video frames are key frames
Storage	Compression ratio is high, quality is good and high for photorealistic images. Since the really high compression can not be done without temporal compression, it is hard to edit avi files that use such a codec type. Treat it as "one way ticket" (i.e. edit->save).
Web delivery Low bandwidth	File size and download time is more important than picture quality. Your audience will understand that visible compression artifacts are due to strongest compression. The difference vs. Storage is that we intentionally decrease video quality in hope to get the smallest file.
Old	That is, a codec developed in 1990-1995, probably discontinued by vendor. You may have a download link or may not, unless the codec is shipped with Windows. If you intend to give your videos to Windows users only, this would provide them some extra convenience. Note, when you download a codec not from the official vendor web site, you may get in trouble (install a fake, spyware, trojan or virus infected application).
Illegal	Currently only two types of video codecs fail into this category. One is, any shareware or commercial video encoder that places the company logo over the picture, and therefore was hacked someday. The other is DivX and about a ten of its clones, all made from the Microsoft MPEG-4 V3 codec. Unfortunately they use slightly modified (they call "improved"...) versions of the same compression scheme and/or different fourcc, that involves great incompatibility.
Rare	Simply means that you can use the codec, but it is unlikely that anyone else does the same. 'Rare' implies that the codec is not superior, otherwise it could got more popular.