Following is a list of popular speech, audio and video codecs. A codec is a hardware circuit that performs the conversion from analog signals to digital data, and it is also software and/or hardware that further compresses the digital data into less space (for more details, see
codec). See
lossy compression,
data compression formats,
video format,
SD formats and
HD formats.
Speech Codecs Are Specialized
Speech codecs are audio codecs that look for sound and language patterns. In addition, since the human voice falls into more limited audio range than music, a speech codec is able to achieve the highest voice compression.
SPEECH CODECS
Name Purpose
A-Law PCM telephony in Europe
µ-Law PCM telephony in U.S.
DV Audio MiniDV audio
GSM 6.10 GSM cellphone
G.711 A/V conferencing (ITU)
G.722 A/V conferencing (ITU)
G.723.1 VoIP, A/V conferencing (ITU)
G.728 A/V conferencing (ITU)
G.729 A/V conferencing (ITU)
AMR-NB GSM, 3GPP (ETSI narrowband)
AMR-WB GSM, 3GPP (ETSI wideband)
ACELP.net General speech (VoiceAge)
ACELP.wide High quality (VoiceAge)
Ogg Speex Low bitrate
MUSIC CODECS
Name Origin
MP3 MPEG
AAC MPEG
AAC Protected MPEG with DRM
WMA Windows
WMA Protected Windows with DRM
WMA Lossless Windows high quality
RA, RAM RealNetworks
AIFF Mac
AU Sun
ACELP.live VoiceAge
Ogg Vorbis Mid to high bitrates
FLAC CD quality
Apple Lossless High quality
DSD High quality (SACD)
DVD-Audio High quality
AptX Bluetooth audio
MOVIE/VIDEO CODECS
Name Origin
MPEG-1 Video CD
MPEG-2 DVD/TV standard
MPEG-4 Enhanced MPEG-2
H.264 Enhanced MPEG-4
H.265 (HEVC) Enhanced H.264
VP8 Google
VP9 Google
AV1 Alliance for Open Media
M-JPEG Motion JPEG
DV DV tape camcorders
HDV DV tape camcorders
HDCAM Tape camcorders
AVCHD Tapeless camcorders
XDCAM Tapeless camcorders
DNxHD Avid post-production
ProRes Apple post-production
FLV Flash video
VC-1 SMPTE
AVI Windows
DivX DivXNetworks
WMV Windows
RM, RV RealNetworks
Indeo Intel
Cinepak SuperMac Technologies
Sorenson Sorenson Media
Ogg Theora Xiph.Org
Daala Xiph.Org & Mozilla
VIDEOCONFERENCING CODECS
Name Origin
H.261 ITU
H.263 ITU
MOVIE SOUNDTRACK CODECS
Name Origin
MP2 MPEG-2
Dolby Digital Dolby Labs
DTS DTS, Inc.
Conversion and Compression
Compressing audio and video is a two-stage process. The first stage converts the signals from the source into an uncompressed digital format. At that point, one of several compression algorithms is used to further compress the digital code.