# OpenH264
> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/OpenH264
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/OpenH264.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenH264
> Source revision: 1334538958
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
{{Short description|Open-source implementation of H.264 format}}
{{Infobox software
| name = OpenH264
| logo =
| logo alt =
| screenshot =
| caption =
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| collapsible =
| author =
| developer = Ethan Hugg {{small|(at [Cisco Systems](/source/Cisco_Systems))}}
| released = {{Start date|2013|12|9|df=yes}} {{small|(as [open-source](/source/open-source) code)}}
| discontinued =
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|edit|reference|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}|df=yes}}
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| programming language = [C++](/source/C%2B%2B), [Assembly](/source/Assembly_language)
| operating system =
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| genre = [Video codec](/source/Video_codec)
| license = [Simplified BSD license](/source/Simplified_BSD_license)[{{cite web
|url=http://www.openh264.org/
|title=OpenH264 Home
|publisher=Cisco
|access-date=2014-01-18
|quote=Cisco has taken our H.264 implementation, and open sourced it under BSD license terms.
}}]
| website = {{URL|https://www.openh264.org/}}
| standard =
| AsOf =
}}
'''OpenH264''' is a [free software](/source/free_software) [library](/source/Library_(computing)) for real-time encoding and decoding video streams in the [H.264/MPEG-4 AVC](/source/H.264%2FMPEG-4_AVC) format.[{{cite web|url=http://www.openh264.org/LICENSE.txt |title=OpenH264 License |access-date=2016-06-27}}"]
==History==
===Move to free-to-use binaries===
On October 30, 2013, [Rowan Trollope](/source/Rowan_Trollope) from [Cisco Systems](/source/Cisco_Systems) announced that Cisco would release both binaries and [source code](/source/source_code) of an H.264 [video codec](/source/video_codec) called OpenH264 under the [Simplified BSD license](/source/Simplified_BSD_license), and pay all royalties for its use to MPEG LA themselves for any software projects that use Cisco's precompiled binaries (thus making Cisco's OpenH264 ''binaries'' free to use); any software projects that use Cisco's source code instead of its binaries would be legally responsible for paying all royalties to MPEG LA themselves, however.
Current target CPU architectures are [x86](/source/x86) and [ARM](/source/ARM_architecture_family), and current target [operating system](/source/operating_system)s are [Linux](/source/Linux), [Windows XP](/source/Windows_XP) and later, [Mac OS X](/source/Mac_OS_X), [Android](/source/Android_(operating_system)) and [iOS](/source/iOS).[{{cite web |url=http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/open-source-h-264-removes-barriers-webrtc |title=Open-Sourced H.264 Removes Barriers to WebRTC |date=2013-10-30 |access-date=2013-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706222941/http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/open-source-h-264-removes-barriers-webrtc |archive-date=2015-07-06 |url-status=dead }}][{{cite web|url=http://www.openh264.org/faq.html |title=Cisco OpenH264 project FAQ |date=2013-10-30 |access-date=2013-11-01}}][{{cite web|url=https://github.com/cisco/openh264/blob/master/LICENSE |title=OpenH264 Simplified BSD License |website=[GitHub](/source/GitHub) |date=2013-10-27 |access-date=2013-11-21}}]
Although the source code for OpenH264 already existed in October 2013 and was used internally by Cisco products, Cisco did not publish its OpenH264 codec immediately. The announced reason was that they needed to separate it from dependencies on other Cisco code that is not intended to be [open-sourced](/source/Open-source_software), confirm that it does not have any [0-day security vulnerabilities](/source/zero-day_attack) that could jeopardize other Cisco products using the same code, and make sure all necessary legal processes are completed.[{{cite web|url=https://github.com/cisco/openh264/blob/master/README.md |title=OpenH264 README file |website=[GitHub](/source/GitHub) |date=2013-11-05 |access-date=2013-11-21}}]
Cisco published the source code of OpenH264 on December 9, 2013.[{{cite web|url=https://github.com/cisco/openh264/commit/59dae50b1069dbd532226ea024a3ba3982ab4386|title=Updated README - cisco/openh264@59dae50|website=[GitHub](/source/GitHub)|publisher=[Cisco](/source/Cisco)|access-date=2016-05-12}}]
===Support in Firefox===
Also on the day of Cisco's free-use announcement, October 30, 2013, [Brendan Eich](/source/Brendan_Eich) from [Mozilla](/source/Mozilla) wrote that it would use Cisco's binaries in future versions of [Firefox](/source/Firefox) to add support for H.264 to Firefox where platform codecs are not available.[{{cite web|url=https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/10/30/video-interoperability-on-the-web-gets-a-boost-from-ciscos-h-264-codec/ |title=Video Interoperability on the Web Gets a Boost From Cisco's H.264 Codec |date=2013-10-30 |access-date=2013-11-01}}] In October 2014, Mozilla launched Firefox 33, the first major release to support OpenH264.[{{cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2014/10/14/firefox-33-arrives-with-openh264-support-sending-video-to-chromecast-and-roku-from-android/|title=Firefox 33 arrives with OpenH264 support, sending video to Chromecast and Roku from Android|publisher=Venture Beat|author=Emil Protalinski|date=14 Oct 2014|access-date=20 Jul 2016}}]
==Capabilities==
OpenH264 is designed to be used in applications that require encoding and decoding video in real time, such as [WebRTC](/source/WebRTC).