From H.265 to H.266: evaluating our new fluh266enc
gstreamer, codecs, fluendo-codec-pack, h266-vvcNew Fluendo H.266 encoder. Comparison against H.265 in terms of compression rate and quality.
Fluendo Codec Pack
The legal audio and video codecs pack based on GStreamer
The Fluendo Codec Pack is a comprehensive set of Fluendo codecs, including video and audio decoders, encoders, demuxers, and muxers that provide a complete, legally compliant multimedia solution for hardware or software manufacturers, OEMs, and commercial Linux Distributions.
Built for performance, backed by compliance
Tailored codecs pack configurations
Get the flexibility to create customized audio and video codec pack solutions according to your specific architecture and business requirements.
Full patent compliance
All fluendo codecs included in the Fluendo Codec Pack are available with their respective patent licenses, protecting your business from legal risks and infringement claims.
Seamless integration
Choose your preferred multimedia framework and deploy our high-performance solutions effortlessly across your target platforms.
Tailored codecs pack configurations
Get the flexibility to create customized audio and video codec pack solutions according to your specific architecture and business requirements.
Full patent compliance
All fluendo codecs included in the Fluendo Codec Pack are available with their respective patent licenses, protecting your business from legal risks and infringement claims.
Seamless integration
Choose your preferred multimedia framework and deploy our high-performance solutions effortlessly across your target platforms.
our case studies
From the code to the action
Developments that bring real-world results, these case studies show how our solutions help your business achieve goals and enhance user experiences.
Enhancing user experience in virtual desktops: The power of webcam redirection
The recent surge in global teleworking intensified the market demand for robust DaaS & VDI solutions. A critical issue emerged from the continuous use of video conferencing applications (such as Zoom and Teams), which generated excessive bandwidth consumption, particularly when transmitting uncompressed, raw camera streams. This bandwidth bottleneck degraded the overall user experience and strained corporate networks.
To address this situation, the primary DaaS & VDI service providers implemented a feature to reduce network load by processing and compressing video directly on the endpoint before transmission.
Leading manufacturer of DaaS & VDI endpoints, such as Dell and HP, required an integrated video optimization solution compatible with existing webcam offloading features to replace raw video streams with compressed, high-quality ones. This solution must be legally compliant and highly optimized for the endpoints’ hardware capabilities. Fluendo became the ideal partner, recognized for its expertise in multimedia technologies and codec licensing.
Providing optimized codecs for multimedia redirection in the endpoint
In typical Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) setups, the server handles all video processing—downloading, decoding, and rendering multimedia content before encoding and streaming the recorded display to the endpoint. This process resulted in high CPU/GPU load on the server, increased network bandwidth consumption, and user-facing issues like latency and poor-quality, choppy video playback. To address this situation, the primary DaaS & VDI service providers implemented what is known as MMR (Multimedia Redirection) to offload the decoding process from the server to the endpoint.
A leading manufacturer of DaaS & VDI endpoints required us to support the standard MMR protocols found in the industry, like HTML5 multimedia redirection, Windows Media redirection, Browser content redirection, etc. This solution must be legally compliant and highly optimized for the endpoints’ hardware capabilities to efficiently decode multimedia content, with low-latency playback and minimal hardware requirements.
Chromium multimedia licensing and optimization
A major endpoint manufacturer faced a critical multimedia challenge when the browsers installed on the device were used for multimedia playback in a DaaS & VDI session, when accessing essential business tools, including SaaS platforms and collaborative applications.
Most of the browsers included on the endpoints are Chromium-based, the open-source base for popular browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
The main technical challenge centered on Chromium’s default multimedia limitations. Due to licensing restrictions, the pure, open-source Chromium project does not natively include proprietary codecs such as H.264 for video and AAC for audio. This exclusion prevented users from playing standard multimedia content, directly impacting the platform’s utility and user experience. Furthermore, Chromium utilizes FFmpeg as its primary multimedia framework for multimedia playback; however, this version is a Chromium-only, specific version bundled within the browser itself.
The client required a seamless, legal, and compatible solution to enable H.264 and AAC playback within their Chromium distribution and the specific FFmpeg bundled version.
Fluendo’s expertise in multimedia consulting, GStreamer, and FFmpeg integration was essential to deliver a specialized, legally-compliant, and high-performance multimedia solution for their VDI users.
FEATURES
Why Fluendo Codec Pack stands out
Guaranteed patent compliance
The fluendo codecs included in our suite are available under their respective patent licenses, backed by major industry patent holders such as MPEG LA, Via Licensing, Microsoft, and Dolby.
Hardware-accelerated decoding
Our hardware-acceleration plugins leverage the GPU’s processing power, substantially reducing CPU load when processing high-resolution content. The Fluendo Codec Pack includes specialized optimization for the industry’s most common platforms.
State-of-art formats
Our deep expertise in GStreamer allows us to rapidly implement new specifications directly from patent holders. We guarantee your audio and video codec pack remains a continuously updated repository of mainstream multimedia plugins.
Enterprise deployment and support
The codecs pack features ready-to-use installation packages for each major operating system. Every purchase includes one year of dedicated technical support, with flexible options to extend or renew your coverage seamlessly.
Guaranteed patent compliance
The fluendo codecs included in our suite are available under their respective patent licenses, backed by major industry patent holders such as MPEG LA, Via Licensing, Microsoft, and Dolby.
Hardware-accelerated decoding
Our hardware-acceleration plugins leverage the GPU’s processing power, substantially reducing CPU load when processing high-resolution content. The Fluendo Codec Pack includes specialized optimization for the industry’s most common platforms.
State-of-art formats
Our deep expertise in GStreamer allows us to rapidly implement new specifications directly from patent holders. We guarantee your audio and video codec pack remains a continuously updated repository of mainstream multimedia plugins.
Enterprise deployment and support
The codecs pack features ready-to-use installation packages for each major operating system. Every purchase includes one year of dedicated technical support, with flexible options to extend or renew your coverage seamlessly.
About Fluendo Codec Pack
How it works
DECODERS (*)
Audio decoders
- Windows Media Audio (WMA 7, 8, 9, 10, Pro, Lossless, and Speech)
- Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus (AC3 / EAC3 )
- Dolby Audio Professional (EAC3)
- iLBC
- LPCM
- MP3
- AAC / HE-AAC
- ADPCM
Video decoders
- Windows Media Video (WMV 7, 8, 9, and VC1)
- MPEG-4 Video
- MPEG-2 Video
- DivX3
- H.264 / AVC
- H.265 / HEVC
- LCEVC
ENCODERS (*)
Audio encoders
- MP3
- Windows Media Audio (WMA)
- MPEG-4 Audio (AAC)
- Dolby Digital (AC3)
Video encoders
- H.265 / HEVC
- H.264 / AVC
- Windows Media Video (WMV)
- LCEVC
DEMUXERS
- ASF
- MPEG-TS
- MPEG DASH
SOURCES
- Microsoft RTP extensions
- Microsoft MMS
- Microsoft MSB protocol support
SUBTITLES
- TTML subtitle support
DRM
- MPEG DASH Common Encryption (PlayReady, Widevine, and Marlin)
- PlayReady in ASF demuxer
(*) Hardware-based decoding and encoding depend on the actual platform in use.
Multimedia framework
- GStreamer (0.10.3 or higher)
- FFmpeg
- DirectShow
Operating system
- Linux
- Windows (starting from XP)
- OSX (beginning from OS X Snow Leopard, 10.6)
- Android (starting from Android 2.3.1 Gingerbread)
- iOS (starting from iOS 6.0)
CPU Architecture
- Intel (32-bit & 64-bit)
- ARM (32-bit & 64-bit)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Got questions about our product? We’ve got answers! Explore the most common queries to help you make the best decision for your multimedia business. Still have doubts? Talk to one of our experts here.
What is GStreamer?
+GStreamer is an open-source multimedia framework mainly used to create media applications. The GStreamer framework is designed to make it easy to write applications that handle audio, video, or both. It uses plugins providing codecs and other functionalities.
What are media codecs, and how do they work?
+Codec is a portmanteau of coder-decoder. It is a device or computer program for encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. A codec encodes this information for transmission and storage — possibly in encrypted form — while the decoder function reverses the encoding for playback or editing. Codecs are used in videoconferencing, streaming media, and video editing applications.
Why do we need codecs?
+Multimedia files (movies or music, for example) are huge, so they are usually difficult to transfer over the network. To speed up downloads, codecs were built to encode, or shrink, a signal for transmission and then decode it for viewing or editing. Without codecs, video and audio downloads would take three to five times longer than they do now.
What’s the difference between "formats" and "codecs"?
+There’s wide extended confusion when customers/end users ask for particular codecs. Most refer to containers formats instead of audio and video codecs.
A container or wrapper format is a metafile format whose specification describes how different elements of data and metadata coexist in a computer file. Containers “contain” the various components of a video: the stream of images, the sound, and anything else. They’re easy to distinguish because they determine the extension of your video file. For example, if the container format allows you to have multiple soundtracks and subtitles in a video file. Popular container formats include MP4 (.mp4), AVI (.avi), QuickTime (.mov), and Matroska (.mkv). According to the previous explanation, we have the following:
- Codecs are ways of “coding” and “decoding” streams. Their job is typically to compress data (and decompress it when playing it back) so that you can store and transmit files with a smaller size.
- On the other hand, a container holds the grouping of compressed video as defined by the codec. The container takes care of packaging, transport, and presentation.
The container formats have different strengths and weaknesses, with certain formats preferred by certain content providers. Not all containers support all compression standards or allow for secondary features like subtitles and chapters. The container itself doesn’t affect the video quality, but it can limit the compression codecs available.
If you’re choosing a container format for an encoded video, you’ll want to pick one with the right mix of supported compression codecs and features.
Bits & Bytes
Explore our blog, one byte at a time. Our team unpack our latest news, industry insights and in-depth articles to connect you with the multimedia world.Blog
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