Compressed Formats

These are the FOURCCs I know about that refer to compressed formats (the ones that you see displayed when you don't have the right codec installed to play a given AVI file). If you know of any more, please drop me a line.

If you can't find the codec you are looking for here, please take a look on the links page for other sites offering codec information and download. A good place to start is AFreeCodec.com which offers codec downloads, tools, discussion and other useful information. You may also like to look at my help page where this is a list of the codecs I have heard of but have absolutely no information on.

    Links from the "Name" column take you to sites devoted to the described codec and/or places from which the codec can be directly downloaded. Links from the "Owner" column take you to the corporate site of the owning company.

    FOURCC Name/Info Link Owner Description, Products Using the Codec, etc.
    3IV1 3ivx 3IVX MPEG4-based codec. Used by 3ivx Delta 1.0-3.5. FOURCC "3IV0" was also used for a while but never publicly released.
    3IV2 3ivx 3IVX MPEG4-based codec. To be used for "3ivx Delta 4.0."
    8BPS Planar RGB Codec Apple? RLE codec storing RGB image in planar format under Quicktime.
    AASC Autodesk Animator codec Autodesk This codec is part of Autodesk's discontinued Animator Studio for Windows. 
    ABYR ? Kensington? Apparently a low resolution, low frame rate (6fps) codec similar to AJPG which is used in implementing movie capture in some digital cameras.
    ADV1 WaveCodec Loronix Apparently used in various CCTV products.
    ADVJ Avid M-JPEG Avid Technology Also known as AVRn
    AEMI Array VideoONE MPEG1-I Capture Array Microsystems Array's codec used for I frame only MPEG1 AVI files
    AFLI Autodesk Animator codec Autodesk AVI equivalent of Autodesk's native FLI file format (presumably).
    AFLC Autodesk Animator codec Autodesk AVI equivalent of the FLC native file format.
    AJPG ? ? 22fps JPEG-based codec used for movie capture by some digital cameras.
    AMPG Array VideoONE MPEG Array Microsystems Codec for Array VideoONE hardware-based MPEG compression system.
    ANIM RDX Intel ?
    AP41 AngelPotion Definitive AngelPotion Another hacked version of Microsoft's MP43 codec. One source recommends against installing this codec "due to its occasional tendency to modify client structures". Apparently this means that it can destroy or otherwise mess up the  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\avifile section of your registry leaving some tools incapable of playing video any more.
    ASV1 Asus Video Asus Codec supplied with the Asus TNT Video Capture adapter. Supposedly a very simple, DCT-based codec. Complete technical details can be found here.
    ASV2 Asus Video (2) Asus New codec from Asus. Supposedly a very simple DCT codec. Complete technical details can be found here.
    ASVX Asus Video 2.0 Asus Unusual codec which stores audio in the .avi file but puts the video in a companion .asv file. Click here for information on how to play back these files on Windows 2000 PCs.
    AUR2 Aura 2 Codec - YUV 422 Auravision ?
    AURA Aura 1 Codec - YUV 411 Auravision ?
    AVRn Avid M-JPEG Avid Technology Also known as ADVJ in Quicktime files.
    BINK Bink Video RAD Game Tools Pretty popular codec in Windows games. I'm not sure if this is available as a standard Windows codec but the web site makes it sound interesting enough to list here even if it does require non-standard tools to use.
    BLZ0 ? Blizzard MPEG-4 codec used in WarCraft 3 movies.
    BT20 Prosumer Video Conexant Codec optimised for realtime compression of YUV images. Download the ZIP and add VIDC.BT20=btvvc32.drv and VIDC.Y41P=btvvc32.drv to the [drivers32] section of your SYSTEM.INI to enable the codec
    BTCV Composite Video Codec Conexant This, now obsolete, format supported a special data format used by the Brooktree Bt2115 chipset which could perform "software encoded video output" - a kind of software TV-out capability.
    BW10 Broadway MPEG Capture/Compression Data Translation Codec for Broadway hardware-based MPEG compression system.
    CC12 YUV12 Codec Intel ?
    CDVC Canopus DV Codec Canopus Allegedly used with digital video cameras. The Canopus download page has a free software-only version of this codec which will install on machines which are not equipped with their capture hardware. Apparently if you edit the AVI and change the FOURCC to dvsd, it will play with these codecs too.
    CFCC DPS Perception Digital Processing Systems Native format used when capturing AVIs using a DPS Perception adapter.
    CGDI Camcorder Video Microsoft AVI format used by Office 97 camcorder application.
    CHAM Caviara Champagne Winnov ?
    CMYK Uncompressed CMYK Colorgraph Uncompressed 32bpp CMYK as used in printing processes.
    CJPG WebCam JPEG Creative Labs Used by Creative Video Blaster Webcam Go control. See here for info on how to download and install this codec.
    CPLA YUV 4:2:0 Weitek This sounds like an uncompressed format to me. Anyone know?
    CRAM Microsoft Video 1 Microsoft Allegedly identical to MSVC.
    CSCD CamStudio Codec RenderSoft
    Software    		 Open source (GPL license) codec optimised for screen capture applications. Source download is available.
    CVID Cinepak Providenza & Boekelheide Originally owned by Supermac then Radius, now P & B. Complete technical details can be found here.
    CWLT Color WLT DIB Microsoft Apparently WLT is "with lookup table". Presumably, therefore, this is similar to a standard DIB using FOURCC 0?
    CXY1 Conexant YUV 4:1:1 Conexant Uncompressed, planar 4:1:1 YUV format.
    CXY2 Conexant YUV 4:2:2 Conexant Uncompressed, planar 4:2:2 YUV format.
    CYUV Creative YUV Creative Labs Proprietary YUV compression algorithm
    CYUY ? ATI Technologies Proprietary YUV compression algorithm
    D261 H.261 DEC Presumably now owned by Intel.
    D263 H.263 DEC Presumably now owned by Intel.
    davc MPEG-4/H.264 Dicas H.264/MPEG-4 AVC base profile codec. Dicas tell me that this codec will be available for free download from their site some time in June 2004. I am waiting to hear the exact URL for the download.
    DCL1 Data Connection Conferencing Codec Data Connection Ltd. Format used in Data Connection Ltd's conferencing services.
    DIV3 DivX MPEG-4 DivX Low motion codec (optimised for low motion source material?). Several sources tell me that this is an old and illegal codec that should not be used to encode new material.
    DIV4 DivX MPEG-4 DivX Fast motion codec.Several sources tell me that this is an old and illegal codec that should not be used to encode new material.
    DIV5 ? ? Apparently almost as old as DIV3 and DIV4. Changing DIV5 AVI's FOURCC to DIV3 or DIV4 seems to allow them to play just fine.
    DIVX DivX OpenDivX This FOURCC code is used for versions 4.0 and later of the DivX codec. DivX, "the MP3 of video,"  is the popular and market-leading MPEG-4 video codec that is emerging as the standard for full screen, full motion, DVD-quality video over IP-based networks.

    Apparently version 5 also encodes using FOURCC DX50.

    The Microsoft codec pack available here apparently supports Divx 6.
    divx DivX ? Apparently used interchangeably with "DIVX".
    DM4V MPEG-4 Dicas MPEG4 codec compatible with DivX4 and 5.
    dmb1 Rainbow Runner hardware compression Matrox Hardware codec used by Matrox Rainbow Runner video capture product. Apparently a form of Motion JPEG).
    DMB2 ? ? MJPEG codec used by Paradigm.
    DMK2 ? ? Movies generated by a ViewSonic V36 PDA appear to be AVI files using this video codec. Oddly enough, they are named .mpg - go figure.
    DSVD DV Codec ? The DSVD codec is a VFW-based compressor that firewire- and DV-based capture cards use. It is supported by Graphedit (from divx-digest.com), Adobe Premier and StudioDV. VirtualDub doesn't support the format.

    I suspect that this and DVSD are one and the same - perhaps one of my informants typed the FOURCC wrongly?
    DUCK TrueMotion S Duck Corporation Rather nice RGB codec which, strangely enough, appears to have two distinct FOURCCs.
    dv25 DVCPRO Matrox SMPTE 314M 25Mb/s compressed video. A professional variant of DVC (dvsd). Unlike dvsd, it uses 4:1:1 sampling structure for both NTSC and PAL.
    dv50 DVCPRO50 Matrox SMPTE 314M 50Mb/s compressed video. Has twice the data rate (50Mbits/sec) of dv25 and uses 4:2:2 sampling structure.
    DVAN ? ? ?
    DVCS DV Video Microsoft? A generic DV codec along the same lines as DVSD. Microsoft indicates here that this codec should be considered obsolete now that standard FOURCCs for the various DV flavours have been defined.
    DVE2 DVE-2 Videoconferencing Codec InSoft ?
    dvh1 SMPTE 370M Panasonic? SMPTE 370M - data structure for DV based audio, data and compressed video at 100 Mb/s - 1080/60i, 1080/50i, and 720/60p. This is basically a high definition variant of dv25 and dv50.
    dvhd 50Mbps Consumer DV Microsoft? SD-DVCR 1125-60 or SD-DVCR 1250-50. See also dvsl and dvsd.
    dvsd 25Mbps Consumer DV Pinnacle Systems? SD-DVCR 525-60 or SD-DVCR 625-50. See also dvsl and dvhd.

    Implemented in the miroVideo DV300 SW only codec which requires the presence of the 1394 (Firewire) interface card with which it shipped.
    DVSD DV Video Microsoft? Used by Adobe After Effects, Uleads Mediastudio 6 (and probably VideoStudio) as a generic DV FOURCC. Probably the same as "dvsd". Sources indicate that these FOURCCs were used interchangeably in early versions. Microsoft indicates here that this codec should be considered obsolete now that standard FOURCCs for the various DV flavours have been defined.

    Some versions include only decompression. If you need a compress/decompress DVSD codec, I am told that the MainConcept DV codec is worth a look and you can download a demo version here.
    dvsl 12.5Mbps Consumer DV Microsoft? SD-DVCR 525-60 or SD-DVCR 625-50. See also dvsd and dvhd.
    DVX1 DVX1000SP Video Decoder Lucent ?
    DVX2 DVX2000S Video Decoder Lucent ?
    DVX3 DVX3000S Video Decoder Lucent ?
    DX50 DivX MPEG-4
    version 5    		 DivX Apparently this is used interchangeably with the DIVX FOURCC when using version 5 of the codec.
    DXGM ? Electronic Arts? The movies in the game "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" are encoded in this format. Also used in movies from "Robin Hood" by CinemaWare.
    DXTn DirectX Compressed Texture Microsoft 5 different versions (DXT1 - DXT5) of compressed texture formats exist. Full documentation is to be found in the DirectX SDK. More info can also be found on S3's Texture Compression web site.
    DXTC DirectX Texture Compression Microsoft Another of the DXTn set, I suppose.
    ELK0 ? Elsa Codec used by some Elsa graphics cards. May be a YUV format with reduced colour resolution.
    EKQ0 Elsa Quick Codec Elsa ?
    EM2V Etymonix MPEG-2 Video Etymonix HIgh quality, MPEG-2 I picture codec with user selectable YUV 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 compression. Suitable for use in video editing applications. Free trial version available.
    ES07 Eyestream 7 Codec Eyeball Chat
    ESCP Escape Eidos Technologies Codec used by Eidos Technologies ESCAPE VideoStudio.
    ETV1 eTreppid Video Codec eTreppid Technologies ?
    ETV2 eTreppid Video Codec eTreppid Technologies ?
    ETVC eTreppid Video Codec eTreppid Technologies ?
    FFV1 FFMPEG Codec Michael Niedermayer A lossless video codec based on arithmetic coding developed in the open source ffmpeg project.
    FLJP Field Encoded Motion JPEG D-Vision Field encoded motion JPEG with LSI bitstream format. Morgan Multimedia offers a codec supporting this format.
    FMP4 FFMpeg ? The default MPEG4 format used by tool mencoder. DirectShow filters supporting the codec are available here.
    FPS1 Fraps Codec Fraps Codec used by Fraps screen video capture application.
    FRWA Forward Motion JPEG with alpha channel SoftLab-Nsk A version of motion JPEG as used in the Forward project from SoftLab-Nsk. This format also includes an 8-bit alpha channel per image.
    FRWD Forward Motion JPEG SoftLab-Nsk A version of motion JPEG as used in the Forward project from SoftLab-Nsk. Similar to FRWD but without the alpha information.
    FVF1 Fractal Video Frame Iterated Systems  
    GEOX GEOMPEG4 GeoVision MPEG shipped as part of GeoVision's CCTV surveillance systems.
    GJPG GT891x Codec Grand Tech Shipped as part of the driver package with some dgital cameras from Fuji.
    GLZW Motion LZW [email protected] GIF-like codec written by [email protected].
    GPEG Motion JPEG [email protected] Motion JPEG codec written as a learning exercise by [email protected].
    GWLT Greyscale WLT DIB Microsoft 8bpp greyscale image. WLT apparently means "with lookup table" so it is a palettized format.
    H260 through H269 ITU H.26n Intel Conferencing codecs

    H.263 format video is for POTS-based videoconferencing. Used, for example, in some Osprey products.

    Supposedly, the Vanguard Software H.264 codec, available in beta form here, is pretty good.
    HFYU Huffman Lossless Codec ? Huffman codec for YUV and RGB formats. Available in source and DLL forms. Full technical information can be found here. I am told that further information can also be found here.
    HMCR Rendition Motion Compensation Format Rendition Proprietary motion compensation surface format used by Rendition V2x00 DirectDraw driver.
    HMRR Rendition Motion Compensation Format Rendition Newer, proprietary motion compensation surface format used by Rendition drivers.
    i263 ITU H.263 Intel PictureWorks NetCard Player - another H.263 implementation from Intel. There's a FAQ on this codec here and it can also be downloaded from here.
    IAN Indeo 4 Codec Intel One of a collection of FOURCCs used in Indeo 4.
    ICLB CellB Videoconferencing Codec InSoft ?
    IGOR Power DVD ? ?
    IJPG Intergraph JPEG Intergraph Intergraph's version of a JPEG codec (don't you hate it when I just state the obvious ?)
    ILVC Layered Video Intel ?
    ILVR ITU H.263+ Codec ? ?
    IPDV Giga AVI DV Codec I-O Data Device, Inc. Codec used with I-O Data Device's IEEE1394 Digital Video Control & Capture Board. This codec implements I-O DATA's original indexed AVI architecture.
    IR21 Indeo 2.1 Intel Old Indeo codec
    IRAW Intel Uncompressed UYUV Intel No indication of the pixel format - sorry.
    ISME ? ? May be installed by Roxio DVD Creator 6?
    IV30 through IV39 Indeo 3 Ligos The family of Indeo Video 3 codecs originally developed by Intel but now handled by Ligos.
    IV32 Indeo 3.2 Ligos Fairly widespread Indeo 3 codec
    IV40 through IV49 Indeo Interactive Ligos Indeo 4.1 improves image quality and introduces transparency masks. Ligos also offer a download here but apparently it will cost you.
    IV50 Indeo Interactive Ligos Version 5.0 of the Indeo codec series designed for internet video delivery. Ligos also offer a download here but apparently it will cost you.
    JBYR ? Kensington? ?
    JPEG JPEG Still Image Microsoft ?
    JPGL JPEG Light? ? Proprietary format used by many WebCams which are built around the DIVIO NW 801/802 chip such as the Logitec QuickCam Pro, VideoLogic HomeC@m and other cameras from Askey, Mustek, Microtek, and Tekom.
    KMVC Karl Morton's Video Codec (presumably) ? Shipped as part of the game "Worms" by Team17 Software. Info is allegedly obtainable from [email protected].
    L261 Lead H.26 Lead Technologies ?
    L263 Lead H.263 Lead Technologies ?
    LBYR ? ? ?
    LCMW Motion CMW Codec Lead Technologies ?
    LEAD LEAD Video Codec Lead Technologies Codec supporting standard MJPEG and Lead's proprietary MCMP formats. They state "an alternative to standard compression algorithms, MCMP delivers smaller file sizes and can maintain better image quality than MJPEG with the same or better image quality." Link offers download of a time-expiring version of the codec. No, MCMP isn't a FOURCC.
    LGRY Grayscale Image Lead Technologies Supports 12 and 16bpp grayscale images with additional low and high range information required for medical images. Format public but not finalised when this update was made.
    LJ2K Lead JPEG 2000 Lead Technologies
    Ljpg LEAD MJPEG Codec Lead Technologies Supports color JPEG 4:1:1, 4:2:2, 4:4:4, grayscale JPEG 4:0:0) FOURCCs supported: MJPG, JPEG, dmb1 Lossless JPEG support including 24-bit color and 8,12 and 16-bit grayscale. Link offers download of a time-expiring version of the codec.
    LSVC Lightning Strike Video Codec ESPRE Solutions Old version of the codec now identified as LSVX.
    LSVM Lightning Strike Video Codec ESPRE Solutions Another old version of the codec now identified as LSVX.
    LSVX Lightning Strike Video Codec ESPRE Solutions Multi-bitrate decoder used in the eViewStreamX product.
    LZO1 Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer Codec Markus Oberhumer A fast, lossless codec available in source code format.
    M263 H.263 Microsoft Redmond's codec implementing the H.263 compression standard.
    M261 H.261 Microsoft Redmond's codec implementing the H.261 compression standard.
    M4CC
    m4cc    		 MPEG-4 Divio
    M4S2 MPEG-4
    (automatic WMP download)    		 Microsoft Final fully-compliant ISO MPEG4 decoder, compliant to MPEG-4 version 2 simple profile.
    MC12 Motion Compensation Format ATI Technologies Proprietary format used by ATI in MPEG decoding.
    MCAM Motion Compensation Format ATI Technologies Proprietary format used by ATI in MPEG decoding.
    MJ2C Motion JPEG 2000 Morgan Multimedia Motion JPEG 2000
    mJPG Motion JPEG including Huffman Tables IBM A version of Motion JPEG which includes Huffman tables with each AVI frame. Developed by IBM before the MJPEG standard was finalised.
    MJPG Motion JPEG ? Motion JPEG video. Codecs implementing MJPEG are (or have been) available from
    • http://www.jpg.com/imagetech_video.htm
    • http://www.pmatrix.com
    • Pegasus Imaging
    • Morgan Multimedia (long trial period)

    The format is also used by Matrox in their Rainbow Runner add-on video capture / MPEG playback board for various of their display adapters and by Canon who's cameras generate AVIs using this codec.
    MMES MPEG-2 ES Matrox Matrox MPEG-2 video elementary stream.MPEG-2 main profile or 4:2:2 profile closed GOP IBP or I-frame only decoder.
    MP2A Eval download Media Excel MPEG-2 Audio
    MP2T Eval download Media Excel MPEG-2 Transport Stream
    MP2V Eval download Media Excel MPEG-2 Video
    MP42 MPEG-4
    (automatic WMP download)    		 Microsoft Apparently one of several different and incompatible MPEG-4 codecs. Rumour has it that this codec is downloadable from the Microsoft site somewhere. This codec is distributed as part of Microsoft Windows Media Tools 4. Includes quality improvements over the earlier MPG4.

    Download as part of "Windows Media Codecs 8.0 for IT Professionals."
    MP43 MPEG-4
    (automatic WMP download)    		 Microsoft Yet another MPEG-4 variation from Microsoft. This FOURCC is not, however, listed on Microsoft's codecs site. This codec is distributed as part of Microsoft Windows Media Tools 4. Includes further quality improvements over the earlier MPG4.
    MP4A Eval download Media Excel MPEG-4 Audio
    MP4S MPEG-4
    (automatic WMP download)    		 Microsoft ? The first ISO standard codec for use with the Sharp digital camera implementing a restricted feature set of MPEG4.
    MP4T Eval download Media Excel MPEG-4 Transport Stream
    MP4V Eval download Media Excel MPEG-4 Video
    MPEG MPEG ? MPEG video - presumably MPEG I ?
    MPG4 MPEG-4
    (automatic WMP download)    		 Microsoft MPEG-4 Video High Speed Compressor. Downloadable here, I am told. This codec was shipped with some versions of the Microsoft Netshow encoder (probably 3.0). This codec was based on early drafts of the MPEG-4 spec.
    MPGI MPEG Sigma Designs Editable MPEG codec
    MR16 ? ? ?
    MRCA Mrcodec FAST Multimedia And I thought it stood for "Multi Role Combat Aircraft".
    MRLE Microsoft RLE Microsoft Run length encoded RGB format from Microsoft. Basically the same as the BI_RLE formats but Michael Knapp clarifies:

    "MRLE is just *nearly* the same compression as the existing 4 and 8bit RLE formats but the 'copy bytes-chunk' always has an even byte-length. That means that an empty byte is added if the 'copy chunk' contains an odd number of bytes"
    MSVC Microsoft Video 1 Microsoft Original codec shipped with Video For Windows. Deals with 8bpp and 16bpp images. Quality leaves a lot to be desired (IMHO). Full technical details are available here.
    MSZH AVImszh Kenji Oshima Kenji Oshima also developed a multi-threaded M3JPEG codec based on one by Morgan Multimedia. You can download this here. Algorithm information can be found here. This is supposedly the same thing as ZLIB.
    MTX1
    through
    MTX9    		 ? Matrox Apparently these are MJPG variations registered by Matrox consumer products group.
    MVI1 Motion Pixels MVI1 Codec ? Part of the Motion Pixels player. Install the player and the codec will become available to other multimedia applications. Read more at this site (look for Treasure Quest).
    MVI2 Motion Pixels MVI2 Codec ? As for MVI1, this is part of the Motion Pixels player. Read more at this site.
    MWV1 Aware Motion Wavelets Aware Inc. Wavelet compression-based codec optimised for Intel MMX platforms. Allegedly downloadable from here. Codec filename is icmw_32.dll.
    nAVI Download here ? ?
    NTN1 Video Compression 1 Nogatech/Zoran ?
    NTN2 Video Compression 2 Nogatech/Zoran An evolution of NTN1.
    NVDS NVidia Texture Format NVidia ?
    NVHS NVidia Texture Format NVidia Apparently a texture format introduced for GEForce 3.
    NHVU NVidia Texture Format NVidia Apparently a texture format introduced for GEForce 3.
    NVS0-
    NVS5    		 ? NVidia? Supported by GEForce 2 GTS Pro / 64Mb DDR. Possibly a texture format.
    NVT0-
    NVT5    		 ? NVidia? Supported by GEForce 2 GTS Pro / 64Mb DDR. Possibly a texture format.
    PDVC DVC codec I-O Data Device, Inc. DV codec for I-O DATA Digital Video Capture products.
    PGVV Radius Video Vision Radius ?
    PHMO Photomotion IBM ?
    PIM1 Download here Pinnacle Systems MPEG-1 based codec
    PIM2 ? Pinnacle Systems Pinnacle DC1000 firewire video editing card supports this format.
    pimj Pegasus Lossless JPEG Pegasus Imaging High speed compression and decompression of 24-bit RGB and 8-bit grayscale using Predictor 1 Lossless JPEG. Well suited for medical video. You may find additional information here.
    PIXL Video XL Pinnacle Systems This is apparently an alias for VIXL. You can find more information about it here.
    PJPG PA MJPEG Pierre Albou Non-standard codec based on MJPEG.
    PVEZ PowerEZ Horizons Technology TrueMotion based codec (?) It appears that Horizons Technology has now been acquired by Raytheon and is no longer in the codec business (can someone confirm this - their URL is now redirected). Allegedly, you can download this codec from support.private.com but I'm not going to add a link since this is an adult video company and I don't want to get this site associated with porn.
    PVMM PacketVideo Corporation MPEG-4 PacketVideo Corporation Software MPEG4 codec that supports multiple bitrate encoding/decoding. It is also error resilient allowing transmission over wired/wireless networks.
    PVW2 Pegasus Wavelet 2000 Compression Pegasus Imaging High speed compression and decompression of 24-bit RGB and 8-bit grayscale using Pegasus' proprietary Wavelet2000 wavelet technology. Well suited for low motion, low bandwidth applications. More information is available here.
    qpeq QPEG 1.1 Q-Team ?
    QPEG QPEG Q-Team Q-Team Dr.Knabe's 8-bit output codec with automatic palette switching for seamless edits.
    raw Raw RGB ? Apparently this contains "raw, uncompressed RGB bitmaps".
    RGBT 32 bit support Computer Concepts That's odd. I registered RGBT at the same time as a bunch of other FOURCCs and it was granted. The format I registered is for 16- and 32-bit uncompressed RBG images with a transparency plane. Microsoft's codec site, however, lists Computer Concepts rather than Brooktree (Conexant) as the owner. Hmm...
    rle Apple Animation Apple Yes this really is lower case. This format is used to compress Quicktime files. Available in 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32bit flavors.
    RLE Run Length Encoder Microsoft? I expect this is an equivalent to one of the the BI_RLEx FOURCCs (see the RGB page). The Win2K clock.avi sample uses this format. Final character in the FOURCC is a space.
    RLE4 4bpp Run Length Encoder Microsoft Equivalent to BI_RLE4. See RGB page for more details.
    RLE8 8bpp Run Length Encoder Microsoft Equivalent to BI_RLE8. See RGB page for more details.
    RMP4 MPEG-4 AS Profile Codec Sigma Designs Press release here describes this codec.
    RPZA Apple Video Apple RGB555 block-based codec used in Quicktime files.
    RT21 Real Time Video 2.1 Intel What Indeo was called before the marketing guys got their hands on it. RTV or Real Time Video was the format produced by Intel's ActionMedia II adapter back in the late 80s. When the 80486 came along, this migrated to the software-decodable Indeo formats used today.
    rv20 RealVideo G2 Real RealVideo G2 (6.0 and greater versions of the player and encoder)
    rv30 RealVideo 8 Real
    RV40 RealVideo 10? Real Apparently you need to install RealPlayer 10 to enable playback of any AVI encoded with RV40.
    RVX RDX Intel ?
    s422 VideoCap C210
    YUV Codec    		 Tekram International YUV422 codec shipped as part of the driver package for Tekram's C210 product.
    SAN3 DivX 3 ? A direct copy of DivX 3.11a, apparently. If you use a FOURCC changer tool on these AVIs they will play with the standard DivX codecs.
    SDCC Digital Camera Codec Sun Communications ?
    SEDG Samsung MPEG-4 Samsung MPEG-4 hardware and software codec used in Samsung digital video products.
    SFMC Surface Fitting Method CrystalNet CrystalGram video email codec.
    SMC Apple Graphics Apple 8-bit, block-based codec used in Quicktime files.
    SMSC Proprietary codec Radius ?
    SMSD Proprietary codec Radius ?
    smsv Wavelet Video WorldConnect
    (corporate site)    		 Windows 95 codec installed automatically (and without warning) whenever you receive and play back a file sent from VisualMail. Very low bandwidth format.
    SP40 ? SunPlus Appears to be an uncompressed YUV format of some kind but I have no information on this other than that.
    SP44 ? SunPlus Presumably a precursor to SP54?
    SP54 ? SunPlus Apparently a form of MJPEG but with some header or other missing. Software shipped with a number of low end digital cameras and webcams such as Aiptek's Pocketcam digital still camera, Logitech's ClickSmart and Mustek's gSmart mini 2 use this format. These use SunPlus chipsets so presumably this explains the "SP".

    You can download a tool that will convert this to MJPEG here.
    SPIG Spigot Radius ?
    SQZ2 VXTreme Video Codec V2 Microsoft ?
    SV10 Video R1 Sorenson Media Allegedly popular as a Quicktime codec. Used for trailer videos on Star Wars Episode 1 and other games.
    STVA ST CMOS Imager Data (Bayer) ST Microelectronics Data from ST CMOS Imagers that is passed to a codec external to the driver for processing to a displayable format. More info may be available at the ST Vision and Imaging Unit web site.
    STVB ST CMOS Imager Data (Nudged Bayer) ST Microelectronics Data from ST CMOS Imagers that is passed to a codec external to the driver for processing to a displayable format. More info may be available at the ST Vision and Imaging Unit web site.
    STVC ST CMOS Imager Data (Bunched) ST Microelectronics Data from ST CMOS Imagers that is passed to a codec external to the driver for processing to a displayable format. More info may be available at the ST Vision and Imaging Unit web site.
    STVX ST CMOS Imager Data (Extended CODEC Data Format) ST Microelectronics Data from ST CMOS Imagers that is passed to a codec external to the driver for processing to a displayable format. More info may be available at the ST Vision and Imaging Unit web site.
    STVY ST CMOS Imager Data (Extended CODEC Data Format with Correction Data) ST Microelectronics Data from ST CMOS Imagers that is passed to a codec external to the driver for processing to a displayable format. More info may be available at the ST Vision and Imaging Unit web site.
    SVQ1 Sorenson Video 1 Sorenson Media Hierarchicial adaptive multistage vector quantizer with mean removal and interframe motion compensation. Used in Quicktime. Complete technical details can be found here.
    SVQ3 Sorenson Video 3 Sorenson Media Video codec used in Quicktime files. A variant of H.264
    TLMS Motion Intraframe Codec TeraLogic ?
    TLST Motion Intraframe Codec TeraLogic ?
    TM20 TrueMotion 2.0 Duck Corporation Version 2.0 of Duck Corp's Truemotion codec.
    TM2X TrueMotion 2X Duck Corporation Duck Corp's follow-on codec after TM20.
    TMIC Motion Intraframe Codec TeraLogic ?
    TMOT TrueMotion S Horizons Technology Another FOURCC for TrueMotion S. This relates to the version of the codec licensed by Horizons Technology and is not compatible with DUCK.
    TR20 TrueMotion RT 2.0 Duck Corporation Realtime version of TrueMotion.
    TSCC TechSmith Screen Capture Codec Techsmith Corp. Codec used by the Camtasia Screen "camcorder" application.
    TV10 Tecomac Low-Bit Rate Codec Tecomac, Inc. ?
    TVJP ? Pinnacle/Truevision Used by the Targa 2000 board.
    TVMJ ? Pinnacle/Truevision Used by the Targa 2000 board. Morgan Multimedia offers a codec supporting this format.
    TY2C Trident Decompression Driver Trident Microsystems ?
    TY2N ? Trident Microsystems ?
    TY0N ? Trident Microsystems ?
    UCOD ClearVideo eMajix.com Fractal compression-based video codec available as a Video for Windows codec and in the ClearFusion Netscape plugin package.
    ULTI Ultimotion IBM Corp. Shipped with OS/2 but also available for Video for Windows. Link is to a very old version of the codec for Windows.
    v210 10-bit 4:2:2 Component YCbCr AJA Video Systems Uncompressed format supported by AJA Video Systems Xena adapter.
    V261 Lucent VX2000S Lucent ?
    V655 YUV 4:2:2 Vitec Multimedia Component ordering and packing unknown. Can you help?
    VCR1 ATI Video Codec 1 ATI Technologies Codec used by some ATI TV-PC products. The link here allows you to download a version which is not specific to ATI hardware, allowing videos captured on an ATI-enabled system to be played back elsewhere.
    VCR2 ATI Video Codec 2 ATI Technologies Codec used by some ATI TV-PC products. As for VCR1, this link is for a non-ATI specific version of the codec.
    VCR3-9 ATI Video Codecs ATI Technologies Registered for ATI Video Codecs version 3-9. I'm not sure these actually exist but the registrations are valid.
    VDCT VideoMaker Pro DIB Vitec Multimedia 16bpp format - no information on colour space, packing or component ordering.
    VDOM VDOWave VDONet Another streaming video format from VDONet.
    VDOW VDOLive VDONet H.263 internet streaming video format. Allegedly to be used (being used ?) by Microsoft in it's NetShow offering.
    VDTZ VideoTizer YUV Codec Darim Vision Co. Codec used to store YUV AVIs captured with Darim Vision's VideoTizer product.
    VGPX VideoGramPix Alaris Alaris VGPixel 32-bit AVI compression driver. It seems that this codec is installed along with the software for the "Alaris Wee Cam."  The codec doesn't appear to be available separately but, allegedly, works fine if you install the Wee Cam software even without the camera. You may also find some information at http://www.alaris.com/vg_tech/vg_tchtx.htm and http://www.videogram.com.
    VIFP VFAPI Codec ? Take a look at http://www.doom9.org where you may find more information.
    VIDS ? Vitec Multimedia YUV 4:2:2 CCIR 601 for V422 (no, I don't understand this either)
    VIVO Vivo H.263 Vivo Software Vivo's version of the videoconferencing "standard" H.263 compression format (version 2.0.0).
    VIXL Video XL Miro (now part of Pinnacle Systems) Used my MiroVideo products such as the DC10, DC20, DC30, etc. A motion JPEG format that is accelerated in hardware with the Zoran chipset. You can find more information about it here.
    VLV1 ? VideoLogic Codec probably used in VideoLogic's Captivator product line
    VP30 VP3 On2 On2 tell me "On2's VP3 codec will encode video into a VP3 file in multiple bit rates (roughly 220 Kbps, 330 Kbps, and 440 Kbps) and at optimum frame rates (usually 29.97 fps). This multiple bit rate file allows the TrueCast server to scale dynamically and smoothly as bandwidth congestion increases and decreases, providing the viewer with a consistent and reliable experience, without choppiness or interruption."
    VP31 VP31 On2 The successor to VP30. This algorithm was open sourced by On2 in 2001-2002 and is the basis for the Theora Video Codec. Technical details are available here.
    VP40 VP40 On2 Another in On2/Duck's line of video codecs.
    VP50 VP50 On2 ..and another
    VP60 VP60 On2 ..and another
    VP61 VP61 On2 ..I can feel a pattern developing.
    VP62 VP62 On2 ..I wonder which one will be next?
    VQC1 VideoQuest Codec 1 ViewQuest Digital video camera codec. ViewQuest offer lots of driver downloads on their site so you may find this in one of those packages.
    VQC2 VideoQuest Codec 2 ViewQuest Codec apparently used in Kodak DVC325 digital camera. Check the ViewQuest site download page - you may find the codec there somewhere.
    VQJC ? ? ?
    vssv VSS Video Vanguard Software Solutions Real-time or near-real-time encoding with high compression ratios and good image quality.
    VUUU ? ? ?
    VX1K VX1000S Video Codec Lucent ?
    VX2K VX2000S Video Codec Lucent ?
    VXSP VX1000SP Video Codec Lucent ?
    VYU9 ATI YUV ATI Technologies Planar YUV format supported by some ATI capture systems?
    VYUY ATI YUV ATI Technologies Packed YUV format supported by some ATI capture systems?
    WBVC W9960 Winbond Electronics ?
    WHAM Microsoft Video 1 Microsoft Yet another FOURCC describing Microsoft's MSVC/CRAM codec.
    WINX Winnov Software Compression Winnov Software codec used by some Winnov Videum products.
    WJPG Winbond JPEG ? Format supported by AverMedia USB TV-tuner/capture device.
    WMV1 Windows Media Video 7 Microsoft
    WMV2 Windows Media Video 8 Microsoft
    WMV3 Windows Media Video 9 Microsoft You may find other useful information here.
    WNV1 Winnov Hardware Compression Winnov Hardware codec used by Winnov Videum products.
    x263 Download here Xirlink Another H.263 codec. This one is apparently used by an IBM-branded webcam.
    X264 XiWave H.264 XiWave XiWave's planned implementation of the ITU H.264 video codec standard known as MPEG Part 10. Typically offers up to two times the compression ratio of existing MPEG-4 and four times that delivered by MPEG-2.
    XVID XVID MPEG-4 XVID Codec is available in source form from XVID web site. Can also be downloaded as part of the Gordian Knot Codec Pack.
    XLV0 XL Video Decoder NetXL Inc. ?
    XMPG XING MPEG XING Corporation Editable (I frame only) MPEG codec
    XWV0-
    XWV9    		 XiWave Video Codec XiWave XWV3 is currently used to describe Xi-3 Video. Others are unused.
    XXAN ? Origin? Codec useing Huffman and RLE encoding paired with basic interframing. This format is used in Wing Commander 3 and 4 movies.

    The codec filename is xanlib.dll and a player, xanmovie, is available on the the Kilrathi Saga and Crusader game CDs.
    Y411 YUV 4:1:1 Microsoft Supposedly 16bpp packed but 4:1:1 is usually 12bpp - odd. This is an uncompressed YUV format.
    Y41P Brooktree YUV 4:1:1 Conexant This is an uncompressed YUV 411 format I registered about 7 years ago. I've stumbled on a few AVIs that use it, though, so I am listing it here. Download the ZIP and add VIDC.BT20=btvvc32.drv and VIDC.Y41P=btvvc32.drv to the [drivers32] section of your SYSTEM.INI to enable the codec
    Y444 ? ? Format provided by the Windows 2000 drivers for the iRez Stealth Fire camera. Seems to be a copy of IYU2.
    Y8 Grayscale video ? Probably a duplicate of the uncompressed Y800 format. The 2 last characters are spaces. See also GREY which appears to be another duplicate
    YC12 YUV 12 codec Intel ?
    YUV8 Caviar YUV8 Winnov ?
    YUVP ? ? An uncompressed YCrCb 4:2:2 format using 10-bit precision components ordered Y0 U0 Y1 V0. I have no idea how the 10 bit samples are packed - sorry.
    YUY2 Raw, uncompressed YUV 4:2:2 Microsoft (probably) Yes, I know this isn't a compressed format but I get so many questions about where to find a codec for YUY2 AVIs that it's here to allow people to find the answer easily. I'm told "VirtualDub has been able to decode YUY2 internally since V1.3a. Newer versions of Ben Rudiak-Gould's Huffyuv codec will also convert YUY2 or UYVY data to RGB"
    YUYV ? Canopus Compressed YUV format. Some of the software on the Canopus download page may include this codec (I'm guessing - please tell me if this is true).
    YV12 YUV 4:2:0 Planar Microsoft or Apple? Uncompressed format commonly used in MPEG video processing. You can find more informatio on the YUV formats page.
    YV16 YUV 4:2:2 Planar Elecard Uncompressed format similar to YV12 but with twice the chroma resolution.
    YV92 ? Intel Codec used by Intel's Smart Video Recorder product. Apparently a compresssed YVU9 format.
    ZLIB ? ? A generic lossless codec that you can download from here. Apparently also contains the MSZH codec. Algorithm info can be found here. May be the same algorithm used in compressing PNG images.
    ZPEG Video Zipper Metheus ?
    ZyGo ZyGoVideo ZyGo Digital Video codec usually packaged in Quicktime files. Investigations suggest that it may be a variant of H.263.
    ZYYY ? ? ?

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