Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM, generally only described as PCM) is the format for uncompressed audio in media files and it is also the standard for CD-DA; note that in computers, LPCM is usually stored in container formats such as WAV, AIFF, or AU, or as raw audio format, although not technically necessary.
FFmpeg
Pulse-density modulation (PDM)
Direct Stream Digital (DSD) is standard for Super Audio CD
foobar2000 Super Audio CD Decoder (based on MPEG-4 DST reference decoder)
FFmpeg (based on dsd2pcm)
Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)
Actively used
Most popular
Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)
Apple QuickTime
libalac
FFmpeg
Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)libFLAC
FFmpeg
Monkey's Audio (APE)
Monkey's Audio SDK
FFmpeg (decoder only)
OptimFROG (OFR)
Tom's verlustfreier Audiokompressor (TAK)
TAK SDK
FFmpeg (decoder only)
WavPack (WV)
libwavpack
FFmpeg
True Audio (TTA)
libtta
FFmpeg
Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMAL)
Windows Media Encoder
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Other
DTS-HD Master Audio, also known as DTS++ and DCA XLL
libdca (decoder only)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Dolby TrueHD – Standard for DVD-Audio in Blu-ray (mathematically based on MLP)
FFmpeg
Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), also known as Packed PCM (PPCM) – Standard for DVD-Audio in DVD
FFmpeg
MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 ALS)
SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007)
FFmpeg (decoding only)
MPEG-4 Scalable Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 SLS) – Parts of it are used in HD-AAC.
SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007)
RealAudio Lossless
RealPlayer
FFmpeg (decoding only)
BFDLAC (BFD Lossless Audio Compression). Ongoing development.
FXpansion's BFD3 drum software. (2013-2017)
Oddball
ATRAC Advanced Lossless (AAL) – Extremely unpopular
FFmpeg (lossy decoder only)
Direct Stream Transfer (DST) - Only used for Direct Stream Digital
SSC, DST, ALS and SLS reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001/Amd.10:2007)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Original Sound Quality (OSQ) - Only used in WaveLab
Discontinued
Lossless Audio (LA) – No update for 10+ years
Shorten (SHN) – Officially discontinued.
libshn
FFmpeg (decoding only)
Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (LPAC) – Predecessor of MPEG-4 ALS
Lossless Transform Audio Compression (LTAC) – Predecessor of LPAC
MPEG-1 Audio Layer III HD (mp3HD) – Officially discontinued
RK Audio (RKAU) – Officially discontinued
Adaptive Differential (or Delta) pulse-code modulation (ADPCM, see pulse-code modulation)
Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC, used in MiniDisc devices)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
ATSC/ETSI standards:
Dolby Digital (AC3, ATSC A/52, ETSI TS 102 366)
FFmpeg
liba52 (decoder only)
DTS Coherent Acoustics (DTS, Digital Theatre System Coherent Acoustics, ETSI TS 102 114)
FFmpeg
libdca (decoder only)
Impala FORscene audio codec
ITU standards:
G.719
G.722
FFmpeg
G.722.1 and G.722.1 Annex C
libg722_1
libsiren (part of libmsn and msn-pecan)
G.722.2
3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation
opencore-amr (decoder)
VisualOn AMR-WB encoder
FFmpeg (decoding only)
MPEG-1 Audio and MPEG-2 Audio
layer I (MP1) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
layer II (MP2) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)
FFmpeg
tooLame (encoding only)
twoLame (encoding only)
layer III (MP3) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)
FFmpeg (decoding only)
LAME (encoding only)
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (MPEG-2 Part 7)
FAAC (encoder) and FAAD (decoder)
FFmpeg
iTunes
Nero AAC Codec
VisualOn AAC Encoder (a.k.a. libvo_aacenc)
Fraunhofer FDK AAC
libaacplus
MPEG-4 Audio
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), (MPEG-4 Part 3 subpart 4), HE-AAC
FAAC, FAAD2
FFmpeg
iTunes
Nero AAC Codec
MPEG-4 AAC reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
Harmonic and Individual Lines and Noise (HILN, MPEG-4 Parametric Audio Coding)
MPEG-4 reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
TwinVQ
MPEG-4 reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
FFmpeg (decoding only)
BSAC (Bit-Sliced Arithmetic Coding)
MPEG-4 reference software (ISO/IEC 14496-5:2001)
Musepack (a.k.a. MPEGplus)
Musepack SV8 Tools
FFmpeg (decoding only)
IETF standards:
Opus (RFC 6716) – based on SILK vocoder and CELT codec
libopus
FFmpeg (decoding and experimental encoding)
AT&T Perceptual audio coder
QDesign (purchased by DTS)
QDesign Music Codec – used in Apple QuickTime
FFmpeg (decoding only)
PictureTel (purchased by Polycom)
Siren 7
libg722_1
libsiren (part of libmsn and msn-pecan)
Siren 14
libg722_1
Siren 22
NTT TwinVQ
FFmpeg (decoder only)
NTT TwinVQ Encoder, NTT TwinVQ Player
Voxware MetaSound (a variant of NTT TwinVQ)
Windows Media Player (voxmsdec.ax)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Vorbis
aoTuV
FFmpeg
libvorbis
Tremor (decoder only)
Windows Media Audio (WMA)
Windows Media Encoder
FFmpeg
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Special Interest Group
Low Complexity Subband Coding (SBC)
BlueZ
Qualcomm Technologies International (formerly CSR)
aptX (a.k.a. apt-X. used in Bluetooth)
Qualcomm libbt-aptx
aptX HD
Sony
LDAC (used in bluetooth)
(low bit rate, optimized for speech)
Xiph.Org Foundation
Speex, patent freelibspeex
Dialogic ADPCM (VOX)
International Voice Association (IVA) standards:
Digital Speech Standard / Standard Play (DSS-SP)
FFmpeg (decoding only)
Digital Speech Standard / Quality Play (DSS-QP)
ITU standards:
G.711 (a-law and μ-law companding), also known as PCM of voice frequencies
FFmpeg (libavcodec)
G.711.0 (G.711 LLC)
G.711.1 (Wideband extension for G.711)
G.711.1D (Super-wideband extension for G.711.1)
G.718
G.718B (Super-wideband extension for G.718)
G.719
G.721 (superseded by G.726)
G.722 (SB-ADPCM)
FFmpeg
G.722B (Super-wideband extension for G.722)
G.722.1
G.722.2 (AMR-WB)
3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation
opencore-amr (decoder)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
G.723 (24 and 40 kbit/s DPCM, extension to G.721, superseded by G.726)
G.723.1 (MPC-MLQ or ACELP)
FFmpeg
G.726 (ADPCM)
FFmpeg (libavcodec)
G.728 (LD-CELP)
G.729 (CS-ACELP)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
G.729a
G.729d
FFmpeg (decoder only)
G.729.1 (Wideband extension for G.711)
G.729.1E (Super-wideband extension for G.729.1)
Google
internet Speech Audio Codec (iSAC)
WebRTC
Nellymoser Asao Codec
FFmpeg (libavcodec)
PictureTel PT716, PT716plus
PictureTel PT724
RTAudio – used by Microsoft Live Communication Server
SVOPC – used by Skype
OpenLPC – created by Future DynamicsHawkVoice (libHVDI)
Truespeech Triple Rate CODER (TRC) – used in some pocket recorders
ANSI/SCTE
ANSI/SCTE 24-21 2006 (BroadVoice16)
BroadVoice Speech Codec Open Source C Code
ANSI/SCTE 24-22 2013 (iLBCv2.0)
ANSI/SCTE 24-23 2007 (BroadVoice32)
BroadVoice Speech Codec Open Source C Code
IETF RFCs:
Internet Low Bit Rate Codec (iLBC, RFC 3951) – developed by Global IP Solutions/Google
WebRTC
IETF Internet Draft
IPMR Speech Codec (used by SPIRIT DSP and many others)
SILK (used by Skype)
CELT (developed by Xiph.Org Foundation)libcelt
MPEG-4 Audio
MPEG-4 CELP
MPEG-4 HVXC
Skyphone MPLP
Inmarsat
INMARSAT-M IMBE
Inmarsat Mini-M AMBE
Microsoft DirectPlay
Those codecs are used by many PC games which use voice chats via Microsoft DirectPlay API.
Voxware MetaVoice
Windows Media Player (voxmvdec.ax)
Truespeech
Windows Media Player (tssoft32.acm)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
MS GSM
Windows Media Player (msgsm32.acm)
libgsm
FFmpeg (decoder only)
MS-ADPCM
Windows Media Player (msadp32.acm)
FFmpeg
Mobile phone
Generation 2
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) GSM
Full Rate (GSM 06.10, RPE-LTP)
libgsm
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Half Rate (GSM 06.20, VSELP 5.6kbit/s)
Enhanced Full Rate (GSM 06.60, ACELP 12.20kbit/s, compatible with AMR mode AMR_12.20)
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) IS-95 (a.k.a. cdmaOne)
IS-96A (QCELP 8kbit/s)
IS-127 (EVRC 8kbit/s)
IS-733 (QCELP 13kbit/s)
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) IS-54/IS-136 (a.k.a. Digital AMPS)
IS-85 (VSELP 8kbit/s)
IS-641 (ACELP 7.4kbit/s, compatible with AMR mode AMR_7.40)
Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) RCR STD-27 (PDC)
PDC-HR (PSI-CELP 3.45kbit/s)
PDC-FR (VSELP 11.2kbit/s)
PDC-EFR CS-ACELP 8kbit/s (a.k.a. G.729)
PDC-EFR ACELP 6.7kbit/s (compatible with AMR mode AMR_6.70)
Generation 3/4
3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR)
AMR-NB
3GPP TS 26.073 – AMR speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation
opencore-amr (one may compile ffmpeg with—enable-libopencore-amrnb to incorporate the OpenCORE lib)
FFmpeg (by default decoder only, but see above the compiling options to incorporate the OpenCORE lib)
AMR-WB
3GPP TS 26.173 – AMR-WB speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation
opencore-amr (decoder), from OpenCORE (one may compile ffmpeg with—enable-libopencore-amrwb to incorporate the OpenCORE lib)
vo-amrwbenc (encoder), from VisualOn, included in Android (one may compile ffmpeg with—enable-libvo-amrwbenc to incorporate the VisualOn lib)
FFmpeg (by default decoder only, but see above the compiling options).
AMR-WB+
3GPP TS 26.273 – AMR-WB+ speech Codec (C-source code) – reference implementation
Enhanced Voice Services (EVS)
3GPP TS.26.443 – Codec for Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) – ANSI C code (floating-point)
3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2)
Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC, a.k.a. IS-127) – based on RCELP
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Enhanced Variable Rate Codec B (EVRC-B)
QCELP (Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Prediction)
QCELP-8 (a.k.a. SmartRate or IS-96C)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
QCELP-13 (a.k.a. PureVoice or IS-733)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Selectable Mode Vocoder (SMV)
Variable Multi Rate – WideBand (VMR-WB)
Professional mobile radio
APCO
Project 25 Phase 2 Enhanced Full-Rate (AMBE+2 4400bit/s with 2800bit/s FEC)
Project 25 Phase 2 Half-Rate (AMBE+2 2450bit/s with 1150bit/s FEC) – also used in NXDN and DMR
mbelib (decoder only)
Project 25 Phase 1 Full Rate (IMBE 7200bit/s)
mbelib (decoder only)
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
ETS 300 395-2 (TETRA ACELP 4.6kbit/s)
TETRAPOL
RPCELP 6kbit/s
D-STAR Digital Voice (AMBE 2400bit/s with 1200bit/s FEC)
mbelib (decoder only)
Professional Digital Trunking System Industry Association (PDT Alliance) standards:
NVOC – used in China
Spirit DSP RALCWI
DSPINI
SPR Robust
TWELP Robust
Codec2
RL-CELP (used in Japanese railways)
Military
U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) Federal Standard:
FS-1015 (a.k.a. LPC-10)
HawkVoice (libHVDI)
FS-1016 (CELP)
HawkVoice (libHVDI)
FS-1023 (CVSD 12kbit/s)
United States Military Standard (MIL-STD)
MIL-STD-188 113 (CVSD 16kbit/s and 32kbit/s)
SoX (libsox)
MIL-STD-3005 (a.k.a. MELP)
Texas Instruments' 2.4 kbit/s MELP Proposed Federal Standard speech coder
NATO
STANAG 4198 (a.k.a. LPC-10e)
STANAG-4591 (a.k.a. MELPe)
BBN NRV – developed in DARPA program
BiM
Continuous Media Markup Language (CMML)
MPEG-4 Part 17 (e.g. 3GPP Timed Text)
ttyrec
ITU-T/ISO/IEC standards:
H.264 lossless
x264 (encoder only)
FFmpeg (decoder only, uses x264 for encoding)
Motion JPEG 2000 lossless
libopenjpeg
IETF standards:
ZRLE (RFC 6143 7.7.6) - used by VNC
SMPTE standards:
VC-2 HQ lossless (a.k.a. Dirac Pro lossless)
libdirac
libschroedinger
Alparysoft Lossless Video Codec (Alpary)
Apple Animation (QuickTime RLE)
QuickTime
FFmpeg
ArithYuv
AVIzlib
LCL (VfW codec) MSZH and ZLIB
FFmpeg
Autodesk Animator Codec (AASC)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
CamStudio GZIP/LZO
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Chennai Codec (EVX-2)
Dxtory
FFmpeg (decoder only)
FastCodec
FFV1 FFV1's compression factor is comparable to Motion JPEG 2000, but based on quicker algorithms (allows real-time capture). Written by Michael Niedermayer and published as part of FFmpeg under to GNU LGPL.
FFmpeg
Flash Screen Video v1/v2FFmpeg
FM Screen Capture Codec
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Fraps codec (FPS1)FFmpeg (decoder only)
Grass Valley Lossless
Grass Valley Codec Option
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Huffyuv Huffyuv (or HuffYUV) was written by Ben Rudiak-Gould and published under the terms of the GNU GPL as free software, meant to replace uncompressed YCbCr as a video capture format. It uses very little cpu but takes a lot of disk space. See also ffvhuff which is an "FFmpeg" only version of it.
FFmpeg
IgCodec
innoHeim/Rsupport Screen Capture Codec
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Lagarith A more up-to-date fork of Huffyuv is available as LagarithLagarith Codec (VfW codec)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
LOCO - based on JPEG-LS
FFmpeg (decoder only)
MagicYUVMagicYUV SDK
FFmpeg (decoder only)
MSU Lossless Video Codec
MSU Screen Capture Lossless
CorePNG - based on PNG
FFmpeg
ScreenPresso (SPV1)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
ScreenPressor - a successor of MSU Screen Capture Lossless
FFmpeg (decoder only)
SheerVideo
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Snow lossless
FFmpeg
TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC)EnSharpen Video Codec for QuickTime
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Toponoky
Ut Videolibutvideo
FFmpeg
VBLEFFmpeg (decoder only)
VMnc VMware screen codec - used by VMware Workstation
FFmpeg (decoder only)
VP9 by Googlelibvpx
FFmpeg (decoder only)
YULS
ZeroCodec
FFmpeg (decoder only)
ZMBV (Zip Motion Block Video) Codec - used by DOSBox
FFmpeg
CinemaDNG Raw (created by Adobe, used by Blackmagic)
DXA
ScummVM Tools (encoder only)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Blackbird FORscene video codec
Cinepak (a.k.a. Apple Compact Video)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Dirac
Schrödinger
dirac-research
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Firebird Original FORscene video codec
H.261 (a.k.a. Px64)
FFmpeg H.261 (libavcodec)
MPEG-1 Part 2 (MPEG-1 Video)
Elecard MPEG-1 Decoder/Encoder
FFmpeg
MainConcept MPEG-1
TMPGEnc
H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 (MPEG-2 Video)
Canopus ProCoder
Cinema Craft Encoder
Elecard MPEG-2 Video Decoder/Encoder
FFmpeg
InterVideo Video Decoder
MainConcept MPEG-2
TMPGEnc
H.263
FFmpeg H.263 (libavcodec)
MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile)
3ivx
DivX
Elecard MPEG-4 Decoder/Encoder
libavcodec
HDX4
Nero Digital
Xvid
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC or MPEG-4 Part 10 (MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding), approved for Blu-ray
CoreAVC (decoder only; limited to below Hi10P profile)
Elecard AVC Decoder/Encoder (baseline and main profile)
MainConcept
Nero Digital
QuickTime H.264
Sorenson AVC Pro codec, Sorenson's new implementation
OpenH264 (baseline profile only)
x264 (encoder only; supports some of Hi422P and Hi444PP features)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
MPEG-4 AVC variants:
MPEG-4 Web Video Coding or MPEG-4 Part 29 – a subset of MPEG-4 AVC baseline profile
Scalable Video Coding
XAVC
HEVC
x265 (encoder only)
Indeo 2 (RTV 2.1)/3/4/5FFmpeg (decoder only)
OMS Video
On2 Technologies TrueMotion VP3/VP4, VP5, VP6, VP7, VP8; under the name The Duck Corporation: TrueMotion S, TrueMotion 2, TrueMotion RT 2.0
FFmpeg (decoder only)
RealVideo
FFmpeg
Snow Wavelet Codec
Sorenson Video, Sorenson Spark
FFmpeg
Theora
FFmpeg (decoding only)
libtheora
VC-1 (SMPTE standard, subset of Windows Media Video)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
VP9 by Google
Windows Media Video (WMV)
WAX (Part of the Windows Media Series)
FFmpeg
Guobiao standards (GB/T)
Audio Video Standard (AVS)
AVS1-P2 (GB/T 20090.2-2006)
FFmpeg (decoding only)
AVS1-P7 (AVS-M; under-development)
AVS-S-P2 (under-development)
AVS2-P2 (a.k.a. IEEE 1857.4; under-development)
uAVS2 Encoder
uavs2d (decoder only)
SVAC (GB/T 25724-2010)
Motion JPEG
FFmpeg
Morgan Multimedia M-JPEG
Pegasus PICVideo M-JPEG
MainConcept M-JPEG
ISO/IEC standard
Motion JPEG 2000 (ISO/IEC 15444-3, ITU-T T.802)
libopenjpeg
FFmpeg
DV (IEC 61834)
FFmpeg
MPEG-4 SStP (ISO/IEC 14496-2)
Redcode RAW (used in RED cameras) – a modified version of JPEG 2000libredcode
Apple ProRes 422/4444
FFmpeg
Apple Intermediate Codec
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Apple Pixlet
FFmpeg (decoder only)
AVC-Intra
x264 (encoder only)
FFmpeg (decoder only)
AVC-Ultra – a subset of MPEG-4 AVC Hi444PP profile
XAVC-I
SMPTE standard
VC-2 SMPTE standard (a.k.a. Dirac Pro. SMPTE ST 2042)
Schrödinger
dirac-research
VC-2 Reference Encoder and Decoder – developed by BBC (a.k.a. Dirac)
FFmpeg (the encoder only supports VC-2 HQ profile)
VC-3 SMPTE standard (SMPTE ST 2019)
Avid DNxHD
FFmpeg
VC-5 SMPTE standard (SMPTE ST 2073)
GoPro CineForm
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Grass Valley HQ/HQA/HQX
Grass Valley Codec Option
FFmpeg (decoder only)
NewTek NT25
NewTek SpeedHQ
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Multiview Video Coding
Bink Video, Smacker video
FFmpeg
libavcodec
Nintendo Mobiclip video codec
CRI Sofdec codec - a MPEG variant with 11-bit DC and color space correction; used in Sofdec middleware
CRI P256 - used in Sofdec middleware for Nintendo DS
Indeo Video Interactive (aka Indeo 4/5) - used in PC games for Microsoft Windows
FFmpeg (decoder only)
Hap/Hap Alpha/Hap Q
VIDVOX hap codec
FFmpeg
DXV Codec
Resolume DXV Codec
FFmpeg (decoder only)
VESA Display Stream Compression (DSC)
