View source for Huffyuv

{{short description|Lossless video codec}}
{{Infobox software
| screenshot             = {{wikidata|property|raw|image}}
| caption                = {{wikidata|qualifier|image|P2096}}
| screenshot size        = 260
| developer              = Ben Rudiak-Gould
| released               = 2000
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}
| latest release date    = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}
| operating_system       = [[Windows]] [[Windows 9X|9x]], [[Windows NT|NT]]
| programming language   = [[C++]]
| genre                  = [[lossless video codec]]<!--File format has a separate infobox-->
| license                = [[GNU GPLv2]]
| discontinued           = yes
}}
'''Huffyuv''' (or '''HuffYUV''') is a [[lossless]] [[video codec]] created by [[Ben Rudiak-Gould]] which is meant to replace uncompressed [[YCbCr]] as a video capture format. The codec can also compress in the [[RGB]] color space.

"Lossless" means that the output from the decompressor is bit-for-bit identical with the original input to the compressor. Lossless only occurs when the compression color space matches the input and output color space. When the color spaces do not match, a low loss compression is performed.

Huffyuv's algorithm is similar to that of [[lossless JPEG]], in that it predicts each sample and then [[Huffman coding|Huffman]]-encodes the error. The predictor is intraframe-only.

== Implementations ==

The original implementation was written for Windows by Ben Rudiak-Gould and published under the terms of the [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]. The Huffyuv 1.1 was released in 2000.<ref>Ben Rudiak-Gould [https://groups.google.com/group/rec.video.desktop/tree/browse_frm/month/2000-05/6eac5bb611697777?rnum=191&_done=%2Fgroup%2Frec.video.desktop%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fmonth%2F2000-05%3F#doc_5a1ee9affa4364c8 Google Groups - rec.video.desktop], Retrieved on 2009-08-11</ref> The implementation is considered very fast, giving a compression throughput of up to 38 megabytes per second on a 416&nbsp;MHz Celeron. The official Huffyuv has not had a new release since 2002.

Huffyuv 2.1.1 with CCESP patch 0.2.5 was released to address problems particularly for compatibility with Cinema Craft Encoder.<ref>[http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76396 Huffyuv 0.2.5 patch], Retrieved on 2009-08-20</ref>

Huffyuv 2.2 is available on some alternative sites,<ref>[http://www.free-codecs.com/download/HuffYUV.htm Huffyuv 2.2.0], Retrieved on 2009-08-20</ref> but is reported to have problems on some computer systems.<ref>[http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8397 Huffyuv 2.2 Crashes Xp], Retrieved on 2009-08-20  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040818194247/http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8397 |date=August 18, 2004 }}</ref>

Huffyuv MT is a multi-threaded version that uses a different [[FourCC]].

There is a currently developed [[Fork (software development)|fork]] of the code named [[Lagarith]] which offers better compression at the cost of greatly reduced speed on uniprocessor systems.<ref>[http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html Lagarith Lossless Video Codec]. Retrieved 2009-01-28</ref><ref>[http://mod16.org/hurfdurf/?p=142 the case against Lagarith]. Retrieved 2013-06-26</ref>

The [[FFmpeg]] project also contains an implementation of HuffYUV which allows HuffYUV files to be created & played on [[Linux]] and [[Mac OS X]]. Additionally, this means that many of the applications which use FFmpeg as a base can also play/create HuffYUV files, including [[VLC media player]], [[MPlayer]] and [[ffdshow]]. FFmpeg also has its own FFmpeg-specific (incompatible with the original) version of HuffYUV which supports a wider variety of colorspaces, including [[Chroma subsampling#4:2:0|chroma-quartered]] and [[Color depth#Deep color (30-bit)|high bit depth]] color spaces up to 48bpp.

== See also ==
* [[Huffman coding]]
* [[Adaptive Huffman coding]]
* [[PPM compression algorithm]]
* [[YCbCr|YCbCr color space]]
* [[Lagarith|Lagarith Lossless Video Codec]]
* [[MSU Lossless Video Codec]]
* [[List of codecs#Lossless compression|List of lossless codecs]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=HuffYUV Detailed technical description of the HuffYUV (HFYU) Codec]

{{Compression formats}}
{{Compression Software Implementations}}

[[Category:Free video codecs]]
[[Category:Lossless compression algorithms]]