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Codecs & Formats
The datatypes project contains the code necessary to parse, packetize, depacketize, decode, render and format various datatypes which can be streamed and played within the Helix DNA Server and Client. In addition, datatype modules in conjuction with filesystem modules, can also act as intrefaces to external data providers such as CD/DVD players, video capture cards, format SDKs, other media engines or buffer resident media data. While datatype components plug into Helix DNA Client and into Helix DNA Server to provide datatype specific functionality, this project also hosts its own framework (DtDriver) which provides standalone SDK that enables datatype and filesystem modules to be leveraged in a number of ways including universal meta-data and media-data extraction, decoding, transcoding, decryption, transcryption and transformatting at faster than real-time speeds.
Supported Codecs & Formats
Helix currently contains support for streaming and playback within Helix for the following datatypes:
- 3GPP-Rel6 file parsing and 3GPP-Rel6 audio and video playback
- 3G2 audio depacketizers and QCelp decoder hooks
- AAC and aacPlus decoder - More info
- AAC and aacPlus playback from .3gp, .m4a, .aac or .ra files and 3GPP, ISMA or ice-cast streams
- AMR-NB and AMR-WB audio playback from .3gp and .amr files and 3GPP streams
- APE audio playback from .ape files
- FLAC audio playback from .flac, .ogg, .oga files
- ASX metafile parsing and playback
- FLASH4.0 playback from .swf files and Helix flash streams
- FLASH8.0 playback via integrated Flash Netscape plugin
- H.261 video from standard RTP streams
- H.263 video from .3gp files and standard RTP streams
- H.264 video from .3gp files and standard H.264 RTP streams
- I420 video rendering
- MJPEG video playback from .avi files
- MP3 audio playback from .mp3 files, standard RTP streams and shout-cast streams
- MP3 playlist parsing and playback
- Helix MP3 Decoder - More Info
- Helix MP3 Encoder - Documentation
- MKV file parsing
- MPEG1/2 file parsing
- MPEG4 audio and video playback from .mp4 or .3gp files and ISMA or 3GPP streams - More info
- Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora
- Uncompressed PCM from .wav, avi, .aiff or .au files and standard RTP streams
- PCM a-law and u-law from .wav, avi or .au files and standard RTP streams
- RAM metafile parsing and playback
- RGB video from .avi files
- RealAudio/RealVideo Codecs
- RealAudio 8 for Devices - More Info
- RealAudio and RealVideo playback from RealMedia file format and RealMedia streams (see also RealFormat-SDK)
- RealEvents and RealImageMap from .rm files and RealMedia streams
- RealText from .rt files and RealText streams
- SDP file parsing
- SMIL1.0/2.0 multimedia - More info
- Still images (JPEG, GIF, PNG, WBMP)
- Text - plain from .txt files
- TimedText from .3gpp files
- VC1 playback from .asf and .wmv files or Windows Media RTSP streams
- WindowMediaAudio9 (WMA9) and WindowsMediaVideo9 (WMV9) playback from .asf, .wmv, and .wma files or Windows Media RTSP streams (see WindowsMedia Integration Group page)
- .bin file writing from any supported file format
- .m4a file writing from .m4a, .3gpp, .mp4, .aac or .ra files and encoder/transcoder
- .mpg file writing from .mpg files and transport streams
- .rm or .ra file writing from .rm, .ra, AAC-.3gpp, AAC-.mp4 or .aac files and encoder/transcoder
- .rmc container file writing for any supported linear datatype
- .xml file writing from any supported file format
Additional modules hosted by the datatype project:
- DtDriver Framework SDK Developer Guide
- dtdrive command tool
Future Projects
We are looking for developers interested in the following:
- DVB-H/MBMS 3GPP Extended File Format add-on
- ISO Base/3GPP File Format moovie fragment support add-on
- QuickTime (.mov) file format support add-on
- AAC Parametric Stereo support add-on
- 3GPP TimedText Streaming Support add-on
- DVD Playback
- Universal Meta-Data Extraction
- Thumbnail Frame Extraction
- Visualizations
- Video Capture Card/TV-Tuner support