1---
2title: Supported formats
3---
4
5When defining the formats that ExoPlayer supports, it's important to note that
6"media formats" are defined at multiple levels. From the lowest level to the
7highest, these are:
8
9* The format of the individual media samples (e.g., a frame of video or a frame
10  of audio). These are *sample formats*. Note that a typical video file will
11  contain media in at least two sample formats; one for video (e.g., H.264) and
12  one for audio (e.g., AAC).
13* The format of the container that houses the media samples and associated
14  metadata. These are *container formats*. A media file has a single container
15  format (e.g., MP4), which is commonly indicated by the file extension. Note
16  that for some audio only formats (e.g., MP3), the sample and container formats
17  may be the same.
18* Adaptive streaming technologies such as DASH, SmoothStreaming and HLS. These
19  are not media formats as such, however it's still necessary to define what
20  level of support ExoPlayer provides.
21
22The following sections define ExoPlayer's support at each level, from highest to
23lowest. The last two sections describe support for standalone subtitle formats
24and HDR video playback.
25
26## Adaptive streaming ##
27
28### DASH ###
29
30{% include_relative _page_fragments/supported-formats-dash.md %}
31
32### SmoothStreaming ###
33
34{% include_relative _page_fragments/supported-formats-smoothstreaming.md %}
35
36### HLS ###
37
38{% include_relative _page_fragments/supported-formats-hls.md %}
39
40## Progressive container formats ##
41
42{% include_relative _page_fragments/supported-formats-progressive.md %}
43
44## RTSP ##
45
46{% include_relative _page_fragments/supported-formats-rtsp.md %}
47
48## Sample formats ##
49
50By default ExoPlayer uses Android's platform decoders. Hence the supported
51sample formats depend on the underlying platform rather than on ExoPlayer.
52Sample formats supported by Android devices are documented
53[here](https://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html#core).
54Note that individual devices may support additional formats beyond those listed.
55
56In addition to Android's platform decoders, ExoPlayer can also make use of
57software decoder extensions. These must be manually built and included in
58projects that wish to make use of them. We currently provide software decoder
59extensions for
60[AV1]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/av1),
61[VP9]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/vp9),
62[FLAC]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/flac),
63[Opus]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/opus) and
64[FFmpeg]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/ffmpeg).
65
66### FFmpeg extension ###
67
68The [FFmpeg extension]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/ffmpeg) supports
69decoding a variety of different audio sample formats. You can choose which
70decoders to include when building the extension, as documented in the
71extension's [README.md]({{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/ffmpeg/README.md). The
72following table provides a mapping from audio sample format to the corresponding
73FFmpeg decoder name.
74
75| Sample format  | Decoder name(s) |
76|---------------:|----------------------------|
77| Vorbis         | vorbis |
78| Opus           | opus |
79| FLAC           | flac |
80| ALAC           | alac |
81| PCM μ-law      | pcm_mulaw |
82| PCM A-law      | pcm_alaw |
83| MP1, MP2, MP3  | mp3 |
84| AMR-NB         | amrnb |
85| AMR-WB         | amrwb |
86| AAC            | aac |
87| AC-3           | ac3 |
88| E-AC-3         | eac3 |
89| DTS, DTS-HD    | dca |
90| TrueHD         | mlp truehd |
91
92## Standalone subtitle formats ##
93
94ExoPlayer supports standalone subtitle files in a variety of formats. Subtitle
95files can be side-loaded as described on the [media items page][].
96
97| Container format      | Supported        | MIME type |
98|---------------------------|:------------:|:----------|
99| WebVTT                    | YES          | MimeTypes.TEXT_VTT |
100| TTML / SMPTE-TT           | YES          | MimeTypes.APPLICATION_TTML |
101| SubRip                    | YES          | MimeTypes.APPLICATION_SUBRIP |
102| SubStationAlpha (SSA/ASS) | YES          | MimeTypes.TEXT_SSA |
103
104[media items page]: {{ site.baseurl }}/media-items.html#sideloading-subtitle-tracks
105
106## HDR video playback ##
107
108ExoPlayer handles extracting high dynamic range (HDR) video in various
109containers, including Dolby Vision in MP4 and HDR10+ in Matroska/WebM. Decoding
110and displaying HDR content depends on support from the Android platform and
111device. See
112[HDR Video Playback](https://source.android.com/devices/tech/display/hdr.html)
113to learn about checking for HDR decoding/display capabilities and limitations of
114HDR support across Android versions.
115
116When playing an HDR stream that requires support for a particular codec profile,
117ExoPlayer's default `MediaCodec` selector will pick a decoder that supports that
118profile (if available), even if another decoder for the same MIME type that
119doesn't support that profile appears higher up the codec list. This can result
120in selecting a software decoder in cases where the stream exceeds the
121capabilities of a hardware decoder for the same MIME type.
122