Video Formats#

Below you can find an alphabetically sorted list of the video extensions/formats that ImageIO is aware of. If an extension is listed here, it is supported. If an extension is not listed here, it may still be supported if one of the backends supports the extension/format. If you encounter the latter, please create a new issue so that we can keep below list up to date and add support for any missing formats.

Each entry in the list below follows the following format:

<extension> (<format name>): <plugin> <plugin> ...

where <plugin> is the name of a plugin that can handle the format. If you wish to use a specific plugin to load a format, you would use the name as specified. For example, if you have a MOV file that you wish to open with FFMPEG and the <plugin> is called FFMPEG you would call:

iio.imread("image.mov", format="FFMPEG")

Format List

Note

To complete this list we are looking for each format’s full name and a link to the spec. If you come across this information, please consider sharing it by creating a new issue.

  • .264 (raw H.264 video): pyav

  • .265 (raw HEVC video): pyav

  • .3g2 (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .3gp (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .A64 (a64 - video for Commodore 64): pyav

  • .a64 (a64 - video for Commodore 64): pyav

  • .adp (Xilam DERF): pyav

  • .amr (3GPP AMR): pyav

  • .amv (AMV): pyav

  • .asf (ASF (Advanced / Active Streaming Format)): pyav

  • .avc (raw H.264 video): pyav

  • .avi (Audio Video Interleave): FFMPEG

  • .avr (AVR (Audio Visual Research)): pyav

  • .avs (raw AVS2-P2/IEEE1857.4 video): pyav

  • .avs2 (raw AVS2-P2/IEEE1857.4 video): pyav

  • .avs3 (raw AVS3-P2/IEEE1857.10): pyav

  • .bmv (Discworld II BMV): pyav

  • .cavs (raw Chinese AVS (Audio Video Standard) video): pyav

  • .cdg (CD Graphics): pyav

  • .cdxl (Commodore CDXL video): pyav

  • .cgi (raw Ingenient MJPEG): pyav

  • .chk (WebM Chunk Muxer): pyav

  • .cif (raw video): pyav

  • .cpk (Sega FILM / CPK): pyav

  • .dat (Video CCTV DAT): pyav

  • .dav (Video DAV): pyav

  • .dif (DV (Digital Video)): pyav

  • .dnxhd (raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3)): pyav

  • .dnxhr (raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3)): pyav

  • .drc (raw Dirac): pyav

  • .dv (DV (Digital Video)): pyav

  • .dvd (MPEG-2 PS (DVD VOB)): pyav

  • .f4v (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .flm (Adobe Filmstrip): pyav

  • .flv (FLV (Flash Video)): pyav

  • .gsm (raw GSM): pyav

  • .gxf (GXF (General eXchange Format)): pyav

  • .h261 (raw H.261): pyav

  • .h263 (raw H.263): pyav

  • .h264 (raw H.264 video): pyav FFMPEG

  • .h265 (raw HEVC video): pyav

  • .h26l (raw H.264 video): pyav

  • .hevc (raw HEVC video): pyav

  • .idf (iCE Draw File): pyav

  • .ifv (IFV CCTV DVR): pyav

  • .imx (Simbiosis Interactive IMX): pyav

  • .ipu (raw IPU Video): pyav

  • .ism (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .isma (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .ismv (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .ivf (On2 IVF): pyav

  • .ivr (IVR (Internet Video Recording)): pyav

  • .j2k (JPEG 2000): pillow J2K-FI JPEG2000-PIL pyav

  • .kux (KUX (YouKu)): pyav

  • .lvf (LVF): pyav

  • .m1v (raw MPEG-1 video): pyav

  • .m2t (MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)): pyav

  • .m2ts (MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)): pyav

  • .m2v (raw MPEG-2 video): pyav

  • .m4a (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .m4b (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .m4v (iPod H.264 MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14)): pyav

  • .mj2 (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .mjpeg (raw MJPEG video): pyav

  • .mjpg (Loki SDL MJPEG): pyav

  • .mk3d (Matroska / WebM): pyav

  • .mka (Matroska / WebM): pyav

  • .mks (Matroska / WebM): pyav

  • .mkv (Matroska Multimedia Container): FFMPEG pyav

  • .mods (MobiClip MODS): pyav

  • .moflex (MobiClip MOFLEX): pyav

  • .mov (QuickTime File Format): FFMPEG pyav

  • .mp4 (MPEG-4 Part 14): FFMPEG pyav

  • .mpc (Musepack): pyav

  • .mpd (DASH Muxer): pyav

  • .mpeg (MPEG-1 Moving Picture Experts Group): FFMPEG pyav

  • .mpg (Moving Picture Experts Group): pillow FFMPEG pyav

  • .mpo (JPEG Multi-Picture Format): pillow MPO-PIL

  • .mts (MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)): pyav

  • .mvi (Motion Pixels MVI): pyav

  • .mxf (MXF (Material eXchange Format) Operational Pattern Atom): pyav

  • .mxg (MxPEG clip): pyav

  • .nut (NUT): pyav

  • .obu (AV1 Annex B): pyav

  • .ogg (Ogg): pyav

  • .ogv (Ogg Video): pyav

  • .psp (3GP (3GPP file format)): pyav

  • .qcif (raw video): pyav

  • .rcv (VC-1 test bitstream): pyav

  • .rgb (Silicon Graphics Image): pillow SGI-PIL

  • .rm (RealMedia): pyav

  • .roq (raw id RoQ): pyav

  • .sdr2 (SDR2): pyav

  • .ser (SER (Simple uncompressed video format for astronomical capturing)): pyav

  • .sga (Digital Pictures SGA): pyav

  • .svag (Konami PS2 SVAG): pyav

  • .svs (Square SVS): tifffile pyav

  • .ts (MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)): pyav

  • .ty (TiVo TY Stream): pyav

  • .ty+ (TiVo TY Stream): pyav

  • .v (NC camera feed): pyav

  • .v210 (Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit): pyav

  • .vb (Beam Software SIFF): pyav

  • .vc1 (raw VC-1 video): pyav

  • .vc2 (raw Dirac): pyav

  • .viv (Vivo): pyav

  • .vob (MPEG-2 PS (SVCD)): pyav

  • .webm (Matroska): FFMPEG pyav

  • .wmv (Windows Media Video): FFMPEG

  • .wtv (Windows Television (WTV)): pyav

  • .xl (Commodore CDXL video): pyav

  • .xmv (Microsoft XMV): pyav

  • .y4m (YUV4MPEG pipe): pyav

  • .yop (Psygnosis YOP): pyav

  • .yuv (raw video): pyav

  • .yuv10 (Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit): pyav