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Four-Character Codes (FOURCC) (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)

1/6/2010

Microsoft® multimedia technologies use a special set of codes that are four characters in length. These codes, called four-character codes or FOURCCs, are stored in file headers of files that contain multimedia data, such as bitmap images, sound, or video. FOURCCs describe the software technology that was used to produce multimedia data. By implication, they also describe the format of the data itself.

DirectDraw and Direct3D Mobile applications use FOURCCs for image color and format conversion.

FOURCCs are registered with Microsoft by the vendors of the respective multimedia software technologies. Some common FOURCCs appear in the following table.

FOURCC Company Technology

AUR2

AuraVision Corporation

AuraVision Aura 2: YUV 422

AURA

AuraVision Corporation

AuraVision Aura 1: YUV 411

CHAM

Winnov, Inc.

MM_WINNOV_CAVIARA_CHAMPAGNE

CYUV

Creative Labs, Inc.

Creative Labs YUV

DXT1

Microsoft Corporation

DirectX Texture Compression Format 1

DXT2

Microsoft Corporation

DirectX Texture Compression Format 2

DXT3

Microsoft Corporation

DirectX Texture Compression Format 3

DXT4

Microsoft Corporation

DirectX Texture Compression Format 4

DXT5

Microsoft Corporation

DirectX Texture Compression Format 5

FVF1

Iterated Systems, Inc.

Fractal Video Frame

IF09

Intel Corporation

Intel Intermediate YUV9

IV31

Intel Corporation

Indeo 3.1

JPEG

Microsoft Corporation

Still Image JPEG DIB

MJPG

Microsoft Corporation

Motion JPEG DIB Format

MRLE

Microsoft Corporation

Run Length Encoding

MSVC

Microsoft Corporation

Video 1

PHMO

IBM Corporation

Photomotion

RT21

Intel Corporation

Indeo 2.1

ULTI

IBM Corporation

Ultimotion

V422

Vitec Multimedia

24-bit YUV 4:2:2

V655

Vitec Multimedia

16-bit YUV 4:2:2

VDCT

Vitec Multimedia

Video Maker Pro DIB

VIDS

Vitec Multimedia

YUV 4:2:2 CCIR 601 for V422

YU92

Intel Corporation

YUV

YUV8

Winnov, Inc.

MM_WINNOV_CAVIAR_YUV8

YUV9

Intel Corporation

YUV9

YUYV

Canopus, Co., Ltd.

BI_YUYV, Canopus

ZPEG

Metheus

Video Zipper

See Also

Other Resources

Encoded Media