Lightact can play video files in a variety of different codecs and containers. They are divided into 2 groups:
- Codecs and containers supported by the Windows Media Foundation include the most common containers and codecs. We’ll refer to them as General Purpose Codecs. A more detailed list is available in the table below as well as on this Microsoft docs page. These codecs and containers can be played with Video file reader node and Video playlist reader node.
- Hap group of codecs is a high-performance codec developed and provided by Vidvox. They were designed specifically for the playback of extremely high-resolution videos. Videos encoded with one of Hap codecs can be played by Hap video file reader node and Hap video playlist reader node.
General Purpose Formats and Codecs
Supported file extensions: .avi., mp4., mov., wmv., wma., asf., 3gp., 3g2., 3gp2., 3gpp., m4a., m4v., vob., webm., mts., mpg., mpeg., mkv., flv
Supported codecs: DV Video, H.264, MPEG-4, Windows Media Video, WebM and others
Among the supported codecs, we found that WebM has the best performance.
Nodes that support playback of the above formats and codecs are:
Video file reader node
Video playlist reader node
For a more detailed explanation on how to use these nodes please refer to Video Playback guide. Also, please note, that we are unable to continuously test all possible codec and container combination with Lightact, so you may find some of the above formats or codecs not working as expected. In that case, please let us know.
Hap codecs
Supported file extensions: .avi.
Supported codecs: Hap, HapA and HapQ
When using Hap you will notice the video files are much larger than when using one of General Purpose Codecs. This is because the frames are decoded on the GPU which means the performance is much better. Hap playback in Lightact is based on DirectShow, which gives the best performance on Windows. However, this means you cannot play files in .mov containers as the playback of those is based on QuickTime implementation of Hap. For more information on how to convert the files to Hap .avi files please refer to Converting to Hap user guide.
Nodes that support playback of Hap files are:
Hap video file reader
Hap video playlist reader