gecko-dev/media/libtheora

Xiph.org Foundation's libtheora

What is Theora?

Theora was Xiph.Org's first publicly released video codec, intended for use within the Foundation's Ogg multimedia streaming system. Theora is derived directly from On2's VP3 codec, adds new features while allowing it a longer useful lifetime.

The 1.0 release decoder supported all the new features, but the encoder is nearly identical to the VP3 code.

The 1.1 release featured a completely rewritten encoder, offering better performance and compression, and making more complete use of the format's feature set.

The 1.2 release features significant additional improvements in compression and performance. Files produced by newer encoders can be decoded by earlier releases.

Where is Theora?

Theora's main site is https://www.theora.org. Releases of Theora and related libraries can be found on the download page or the main Xiph.Org site.

Development source is kept at https://gitlab.xiph.org/xiph/theora.

Getting started with the code

What do I need to build the source?

Requirements summary:

For libtheora:

• libogg 1.1 or newer.

For example encoder:

• as above,
• libvorbis and libvorbisenc 1.0.1 or newer. (libvorbis 1.3.1 or newer for 5.1 audio)

For creating a source distribution package:

• as above,
• Doxygen to build the API documentation,
• pdflatex and fig2dev to build the format specification (transfig package in Ubuntu).

For the player only:

• as above,
• SDL (Simple Direct media Layer) libraries and headers,
• OSS audio driver and development headers.

The provided build system is the GNU automake/autoconf system, and the main library, libtheora, should already build smoothly on any system. Failure of libtheora to build on a GNU-enabled system is considered a bug; please report problems to theora-dev@xiph.org.

Windows build support is included in the win32 directory.

Project files for Apple XCode are included in the macosx directory.

There is also a more limited scons build.

How do I use the sample encoder?

The sample encoder takes raw video in YUV4MPEG2 format, as used by lavtools, mjpeg-tools and other packages. The encoder expects audio, if any, in a separate wave WAV file. Try 'encoder_example -h' for a complete list of options.

An easy way to get raw video and audio files is to use MPlayer as an export utility. The options " -ao pcm -vo yuv4mpeg " will export a wav file named audiodump.wav and a YUV video file in the correct format for encoder_example as stream.yuv. Be careful when exporting video alone; MPlayer may drop frames to 'keep up' with the audio timer. The example encoder can't properly synchronize input audio and video file that aren't in sync to begin with.

The encoder will also take video or audio on stdin if '-' is specified as the input file name.

There is also a 'png2theora' example which accepts a set of image files in that format.

How do I use the sample player?

The sample player takes an Ogg file on standard in; the file may be audio alone, video alone or video with audio.

What other tools are available?

The programs in the examples directory are intended as tutorial source for developers using the library. As such they sacrifice features and robustness in the interests of comprehension and should not be considered serious applications.

If you're wanting to just use theora, consider the programs linked from https://www.theora.org/. There is playback support in a number of common free players, and plugins for major media frameworks. Jan Gerber's ffmpeg2theora is an excellent encoding front end.

Troubleshooting the build process

Compile error, such as:

encoder_internal.h:664: parse error before ogg_uint16_t

This means you have version of libogg prior to 1.1. A complete new Ogg install, libs and headers is needed.

Also be sure that there aren't multiple copies of Ogg installed in /usr and /usr/local; an older one might be first on the search path for libs and headers.

Link error, such as:

undefined reference to oggpackB_stream

See above; you need libogg 1.1 or later.

Link error, such as:

undefined reference to vorbis_granule_time

You need libvorbis and libvorbisenc from the 1.0.1 release or later.

Link error, such as:

/usr/lib/libSDL.a(SDL_esdaudio.lo): In function ESD_OpenAudio: SDL_esdaudio.lo(.text+0x25d): undefined reference to esd_play_stream

Be sure to use an SDL that's built to work with OSS. If you use an SDL that is also built with ESD and/or ALSA support, it will try to suck in all those extra libraries at link time too. That will only work if the extra libraries are also installed.

Link warning, such as:

libtool: link: warning: library /usr/lib/libogg.la was moved. libtool: link: warning: library /usr/lib/libogg.la was moved.

Re-run theora/autogen.sh after an Ogg or Vorbis rebuild/reinstall