3 Opus is a codec for interactive speech and audio transmission over the Internet.
5 Opus can handle a wide range of interactive audio applications, including
6 Voice over IP, videoconferencing, in-game chat, and even remote live music
7 performances. It can scale from low bit-rate narrowband speech to very high
10 Opus, when coupled with an appropriate container format, is also suitable
11 for non-realtime stored-file applications such as music distribution, game
12 soundtracks, portable music players, jukeboxes, and other applications that
13 have historically used high latency formats such as MP3, AAC, or Vorbis.
15 Opus is specified by IETF RFC 6716:
16 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716
18 The Opus format and this implementation of it are subject to the royalty-
19 free patent and copyright licenses specified in the file COPYING.
21 This package implements a shared library for encoding and decoding raw Opus
22 bitstreams. Raw Opus bitstreams should be used over RTP according to
23 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7587
25 The package also includes a number of test tools used for testing the
26 correct operation of the library. The bitstreams read/written by these
27 tools should not be used for Opus file distribution: They include
28 additional debugging data and cannot support seeking.
30 Opus stored in files should use the Ogg encapsulation for Opus which is
32 https://wiki.xiph.org/OggOpus
34 An opus-tools package is available which provides encoding and decoding of
35 Ogg encapsulated Opus files and includes a number of useful features.
37 Opus-tools can be found at:
38 https://git.xiph.org/?p=opus-tools.git
39 or on the main Opus website:
40 https://opus-codec.org/
42 == Compiling libopus ==
44 To build from a distribution tarball, you only need to do the following:
49 To build from the git repository, the following steps are necessary:
51 0) Set up a development environment:
53 On an Ubuntu or Debian family Linux distribution:
55 % sudo apt-get install git autoconf automake libtool gcc make
57 On a Fedora/Redhat based Linux:
59 % sudo dnf install git autoconf automake libtool gcc make
61 Or for older Redhat/Centos Linux releases:
63 % sudo yum install git autoconf automake libtool gcc make
65 On Apple macOS, install Xcode and brew.sh, then in the Terminal enter:
67 % brew install autoconf automake libtool
69 1) Clone the repository:
71 % git clone https://git.xiph.org/opus.git
74 2) Compiling the source
80 3) Install the codec libraries (optional)
84 Once you have compiled the codec, there will be a opus_demo executable
87 Usage: opus_demo [-e] <application> <sampling rate (Hz)> <channels (1/2)>
88 <bits per second> [options] <input> <output>
89 opus_demo -d <sampling rate (Hz)> <channels (1/2)> [options]
92 mode: voip | audio | restricted-lowdelay
94 -e : only runs the encoder (output the bit-stream)
95 -d : only runs the decoder (reads the bit-stream as input)
96 -cbr : enable constant bitrate; default: variable bitrate
97 -cvbr : enable constrained variable bitrate; default:
99 -bandwidth <NB|MB|WB|SWB|FB>
100 : audio bandwidth (from narrowband to fullband);
101 default: sampling rate
102 -framesize <2.5|5|10|20|40|60>
103 : frame size in ms; default: 20
105 : maximum payload size in bytes, default: 1024
107 : complexity, 0 (lowest) ... 10 (highest); default: 10
108 -inbandfec : enable SILK inband FEC
109 -forcemono : force mono encoding, even for stereo input
110 -dtx : enable SILK DTX
111 -loss <perc> : simulate packet loss, in percent (0-100); default: 0
113 input and output are little-endian signed 16-bit PCM files or opus
114 bitstreams with simple opus_demo proprietary framing.
118 This package includes a collection of automated unit and system tests
119 which SHOULD be run after compiling the package especially the first
120 time it is run on a new platform.
122 To run the integrated tests:
126 There is also collection of standard test vectors which are not
127 included in this package for size reasons but can be obtained from:
128 https://opus-codec.org/testvectors/opus_testvectors.tar.gz
130 To run compare the code to these test vectors:
132 % curl -O https://opus-codec.org/testvectors/opus_testvectors.tar.gz
133 % tar -zxf opus_testvectors.tar.gz
134 % ./tests/run_vectors.sh ./ opus_testvectors 48000
136 == Portability notes ==
138 This implementation uses floating-point by default but can be compiled to
139 use only fixed-point arithmetic by setting --enable-fixed-point (if using
140 autoconf) or by defining the FIXED_POINT macro (if building manually).
141 The fixed point implementation has somewhat lower audio quality and is
142 slower on platforms with fast FPUs, it is normally only used in embedded
145 The implementation can be compiled with either a C89 or a C99 compiler.
146 While it does not rely on any _undefined behavior_ as defined by C89 or
147 C99, it relies on common _implementation-defined behavior_ for two's
148 complement architectures:
150 o Right shifts of negative values are consistent with two's
151 complement arithmetic, so that a>>b is equivalent to
154 o For conversion to a signed integer of N bits, the value is reduced
155 modulo 2^N to be within range of the type,
157 o The result of integer division of a negative value is truncated
160 o The compiler provides a 64-bit integer type (a C99 requirement
161 which is supported by most C89 compilers).