Crate mediadecode 

mediadecode

Generic, no_std-friendly type-and-trait spine for media decoders.

The backend-agnostic core of the mediadecode workspace. Defines the unified Packet / Frame types, VideoAdapter / AudioAdapter / SubtitleAdapter traits, and the matching push-style *StreamDecoder traits that concrete decoder backends implement.

This crate ships no decoder code and no FFmpeg dependency. It’s no_std-clean (with optional alloc / std features) and zero heavy deps — downstream crates (colconv, scenesdetect, …) program against this vocabulary regardless of which backend produced the bytes. Adapter implementations live in sibling crates such as mediadecode-ffmpeg.

What’s in the box

• Pixel and sample formats — PixelFormat (~270 variants covering every FFmpeg n8.1 AVPixelFormat slug plus cinema-RAW additions; sourced from videoframe and re-exported here so consumers keep their mediadecode::PixelFormat import). Unknown(u32) preserves the raw wire identifier for lossless round-trip via from_u32 / to_u32. H.273-aligned color enums (ColorMatrix, ColorPrimaries, ColorTransfer, ColorRange, ChromaLocation) and BayerPattern for RAW are similarly re-exported from videoframe.
• Generic packet / frame types — VideoPacket<A, B>, AudioPacket<A, B>, SubtitlePacket<A, B>, VideoFrame<A, B>, AudioFrame<A, B>, SubtitleFrame<A, B> parameterized over an adapter’s per-item extras type A and buffer type B. Plane<B> is the generic plane carrier.
• Adapter traits — VideoAdapter, AudioAdapter, SubtitleAdapter. A backend implements these on a zero-sized type to fix A and B once for the whole pipeline.
• Decoder traits — VideoStreamDecoder, AudioStreamDecoder, SubtitleStreamDecoder. Push-style send_packet / receive_frame / send_eof / flush shape; mirrors FFmpeg’s decoder API while staying backend-agnostic.
• Time primitives — re-exported Timebase / Timestamp / TimeRange from mediatime, so consumers don’t need a separate dep.

API style

Mirrors the mediatime idioms the rest of the findit-studio workspace uses:

• All public fields are private; access is via field() getters, consuming with_field(value) builders, and in-place set_field(value) mutators that return &mut Self.
• const fn everywhere the field type allows.
• Panicking constructors come with try_* fallible counterparts (empty / try_empty, clone / try_clone, …).
• Errors via thiserror over the stable core::error::Error, so failures still implement the Error trait under --no-default-features.

Cargo features

Feature	Default	Effect
std	yes	Enable the standard library and mediatime/default.
alloc	—	Enable owning collections (Vec, String) without std.
serde	—	Serialize / Deserialize impls (forwards to mediatime).
arbitrary	—	Arbitrary impls for fuzzing.
quickcheck	—	Arbitrary impls for quickcheck.

no_std builds: disable defaults and pick alloc if you need Vec-backed payloads:

[dependencies]
mediadecode = { version = "0.2", default-features = false, features = ["alloc"] }

Usage

This crate defines the surface; concrete decoding happens in adapter crates. A backend-agnostic consumer programs against the traits:

use mediadecode::{
  decoder::VideoStreamDecoder,
  frame::VideoFrame,
  packet::VideoPacket,
};

fn decode_one<D: VideoStreamDecoder>(
  decoder: &mut D,
  packet: &VideoPacket<
    <D::Adapter as mediadecode::adapter::VideoAdapter>::PacketExtra,
    D::Buffer,
  >,
  dst: &mut VideoFrame<
    <D::Adapter as mediadecode::adapter::VideoAdapter>::PixelFormat,
    <D::Adapter as mediadecode::adapter::VideoAdapter>::FrameExtra,
    D::Buffer,
  >,
) -> Result<(), D::Error> {
  decoder.send_packet(packet)?;
  decoder.receive_frame(dst)
}

For an end-to-end example using the FFmpeg adapter, see mediadecode-ffmpeg.

Build requirements

• Rust ≥ 1.95, edition 2024.
• No system dependencies — mediadecode is FFmpeg-free and builds anywhere Rust does, including no_std targets with optional alloc.

License

mediadecode is under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0).

See LICENSE-APACHE, LICENSE-MIT for details.

Copyright (c) 2026 FinDIT Studio authors.

Modules

adapter

Adapter traits — the per-kind backend “vocabulary.”

cfa

Color-filter-array (Bayer) descriptions: re-exported from videoframe::frame (videoframe 0.2 dropped the cfa module and moved BayerPattern under frame::bayer, re-exported via frame::*).

channel

Audio channel layout types.

color

Color metadata: re-exported from videoframe::color.

decoder

Decoder traits — push-style streams (FFmpeg / WebCodecs / ProRes RAW via VTDecompressionSession) and pull-style frame sources (R3D / BRAW / ARRIRAW / X-OCN / Canon RAW Light).

frame

Frame types and supporting building blocks.

futurefuture

Async variants of the decoder / frame-source traits — gated behind the future feature.

packet

Compressed Packet types and PacketFlags.

pixel_format

Pixel format identifier: re-exported from videoframe::pixel_format.

subtitle

Decoded subtitle payload.

Structs

TimeRange

A half-open time range [start, end) in a given Timebase.

Timebase

A media timebase represented as a rational number: numerator over non-zero denominator.

Timestamp

A presentation timestamp, expressed as a PTS value in units of an associated Timebase.

Enums

PixelFormat

Pixel format identifier covering FFmpeg + Bayer + cinema-RAW.