Video Codecs

Introduction

According to the creator, the video formats can be divided into 5 categories: ITU-T, ISO-MPEG, Microsoft, Apple, and others.

ITU-T

• H.262 same as MPEG-2 Part 2.
• H.263 1995, a low bit-rate compressed format for video-conferencing.

ISO-MPEG

• MPEG-1 is used in VCD.
• MPEG-2 is used in DVD.
• MPEG-4 is defined in MPEG-4 part 2, similar to H.263.
• H.264/AVC is defined in MPEG-4 part 10.
• H.265/MPEG-H HEVC

Microsoft

• WMV including WMV 7, WMV 8, and WMV 9(VC-1).

Apple

• ProRes is used in Apple Final Cut.
• AIC(Apple Intermediate Codec) is used in Apple Final Cut.

Others

• VP8 usually used in Google WebM format.
• Theora open free video codec, usually used in ogg format.
• AVS(Audio Video Standard) is a Chinese codec, competing with H.264/AAC.
• DV, HDV is used in digital video camera.
• RealVideo defined by RealNetworks, based on H.263.
• TSCC(TechSmith Screen Capture Codec) used in TechSmith Screen Capture software such as Camtasia.

Note: Xvid and Divx are not compression methods or standards, but software implementation of MPEG-4 ASP.