After a year of development, the latest release of GStreamer 1.26 has been presented. GStreamer is a cross-platform set of components used for creating a variety of multimedia applications, including media players, audio video converters, VOIP applications, and streaming systems. The GStreamer code is distributed under the lgplv2.1 license, with ongoing development on components such as Up-Plugins-Base, GST-PLUGINS-Good, GST-PLUGINS-BAD, GST-PLUGINS-UGLY, GST-Libav, and the GSTSP-SERVER streaming server. The new release is backward compatible with the 1.0 branch at the API and ABI level. Binary assemblies for Android, iOS, MacOS, and Windows will soon be available, although it is recommended to use distribution packages on Linux.
Key improvements in GStreamer 1.26 include the addition of an encoder and decoder for the VVC (Versatile Video Coding) video format, also known as the S.266 video compression standard. This new video compression standard, developed jointly by MPEG (ISO/IEC JTC 1) and VCEG (ITU-T) working groups with participation from companies like Apple, Ericsson, Huawei, and Sony, offers high efficiency for transmitting and storing screen resolutions from SD and HD to 4K and 8K. It also supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) and 360-degree panoramic video. Additionally, the release adds an encoder and decoder for the lcevc (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding) standard, which enhances the quality of existing codes H.26x and MP4/ISOBMFF with an additional metadata layer.