libavcodec
libavcodec is a code library developed as part of the FFmpeg project. Many free and open source media players and encoders use it to support various audio and video formats, including all standard consumer formats. libavcodec can be used on all standard operating systems (Windows, OS X, and Linux).
FFmpeg Development
Due to constant development of FFmpeg none of its components, including libavcodec, have standard releases like most software. Rather, there are regular stable updates. Because of this, there will be times that the current libavcodec version used by a particular program will have only partial support for new formats. In many cases, though, libavcodec offers support for new formats and standards before they're widely supported in most consumer software.
Video and Audio Support
Several formats, including FFmpeg's FFV1 lossless format, can be encoded (created) as well as decoded (read). Others can only be decoded at this time. Since libavcodec is constantly under development, we only give a partial list here. For complete information on libavcodec visit the FFmpeg project homepage.