Json format of the fourcc
FOURCC is short for "four character code" - an identifier for a video codec, compression format, color or pixel format used in media files.
A character in this context is a 1 byte/8 bit value, thus a FOURCC always takes up exactly 32 bits/4 bytes in a file.
Another way to write FOURCC is 4CC (4 as in "four" character code).
The four characters in a FOURCC is generally limited to be within the human readable characters in the ASCII table. Because of this it is easy to convey and communicate what the FOURCCs are within a media file.
Some of the more well known FOURCCs include "DIVX", "XVID", "H264", "DX50". But these are just a few of the hundreds
There are 3 sections
- Audio for Audio codecs
- Video for Video codecs
- Subtitles for subtitles
var fourCC = new FourCC();
var fcc = fourCC.find_fourcc("AVdn");
> "DNxHD"
Any that are missing or wrong please fork and send us a pull request.
Original list based on:
- VLC fourcc tables: http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc/src/misc/fourcc.c
- VLC fourcc header: http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi/vlc.git/?p=vlc.git;a=blob;f=include/vlc_fourcc.h
- Video FourCC Info: https://github.com/jawnsy/Video-FourCC-Info
- Softron FourCC list: https://softron.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/207695697-List-of-FourCC-codes-for-video-codecs
2026 modern-codec update sourced from:
- MP4 Registration Authority codec registry: https://mp4ra.org/registered-types/codecs
- FFmpeg
libavformat/isom_tags.c(MOV/MP4 tags): https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavformat/isom_tags.c - FFmpeg
libavformat/riff.c(AVI/RIFF/WAV tags): https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/libavformat/riff.c - AOMedia AV2 specification: https://av2.aomedia.org/
- AV1 ISOBMFF binding: https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-isobmff/
- Open APV ISOBMFF binding: https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openapv/blob/main/readme/apv_isobmff.md