Open-Source VVC Decoder Set to Accelerate Adoption

The Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF) has announced a new open-source software decoder development initiative for Versatile Video Coding (VVC / H.266), with Ittiam Systems serving as the development partner for the initial implementation. The initiative is intended to accelerate practical VVC adoption by delivering a highly optimised, openly available software decoder that complements emerging hardware decoder support and helps the broader video ecosystem evaluate, integrate and deploy VVC across more devices and applications.

Through this initiative, MC-IF intends to seed an industry-oriented open-source VVC decoder project focused initially on mobile and application-level integration. The planned development roadmap targets a high-performance implementation with Android arm64 optimisation, a stable C/C++ interface, FFmpeg integration and Android JNI access paths. The project is expected to provide a practical baseline for application developers, device ecosystem participants, service providers and technology vendors seeking to experiment with and deploy VVC in real-world workflows.

VVC is the latest-generation international video coding standard, jointly standardised by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC29 (MPEG) and ITU-T Q6/21 (VCEG), and specified as ITU-T H.266 | ISO/IEC 23090-3. It is designed to deliver substantially improved compression efficiency compared with prior-generation standards while supporting a broad range of use cases, including ultra-high-definition video, HDR and wide colour gamut, immersive media, screen content, broadcast, streaming and mobile video.

As video traffic continues to grow and services move towards higher resolutions and richer experiences, VVC provides an important standards-based path to deliver higher quality at lower bitrates, reduce storage and transmission costs and improve the efficiency of video delivery across the ecosystem.

Role of Software Decoders

While hardware decoder integration remains essential for mass-market, power-efficient playback, highly optimised software decoders play a critical role in accelerating codec adoption. Software decoders enable early application integration before broad hardware availability and support controlled deployments and trials. They also provide validation and interoperability reference points and help developers bring VVC playback to existing device classes where hardware support may not yet be available. An efficient open-source implementation can help reduce fragmentation by giving the industry a common, transparent decoder foundation that can be reviewed, tested, optimised and improved collaboratively.

An early preview of the decoder will be available for demonstration at the MC-IF booth in Hall 2, 2.B13 during IBC 2026, giving attendees an opportunity to see the work in progress, discuss the initiative with MC-IF participants and learn how the project can support VVC evaluation and deployment. MC-IF invites application developers, device ecosystem participants, service providers and technology vendors to visit the booth and explore the decoder first-hand.

“As the industry navigates the path towards widespread adoption of VVC, practical open-source tools that enable solution providers across the ecosystem to evaluate, test and deploy the new codec are essential. This open-source software decoder initiative is intended to give the ecosystem a strong, collaborative foundation for bringing VVC to more applications and devices,” said Justin Ridge, President, MC-IF.

“We look forward to helping build a high-performance software foundation that supports broader VVC evaluation and adoption. This project will significantly advance Ittiam’s goal to deliver state-of-the-art video performance to consumer devices,” said Srini Rajam, Chairman and CEO, Ittiam Systems.

The project will be overseen by MC-IF’s implementation and interoperability working group with an open invitation to all MC-IF members who wish to participate. Industry participants interested in joining MC-IF can visit the MC-IF website for membership details.

The collaboration described in this announcement is subject to completion of final agreements between the parties.

Visit https://www.mc-if.org