The HAP Codec

Everyone's favorite open source codec developed by VIDVOX

HAP and it's original varieties (Hap, Hap Alpha, Hap Alpha-Only, Hap Q, Hap Q Alpha) can be encoded and decoded using many applications – like FFMPEG or ShutterEncoder. 

HAP is performatively very good and it can be tuned to specific systems to take advantage of processor cores (chunk count = number of cores to encode / decode).

Supported Playback Applications Include : Isadora, MadMapper, TouchDesigner, QLab

HAP Oral History

VIDVOX built the original version of the codec, and if you wanted to encode to HAP you could install that version to your system and anywhere you can encode Quicktime, you could encode HAP. Simultaneously, the core versions of HAP were included as part of FFMPEG. Eventually, the original codec that you'd use for Adobe CC wasn't working anymore and Disguise took it over and made their own Adobe CC Integration (hap-encoder-adobe-cc git repo). Last checked, the Disguise version also didn't work when installed vanilla-style. You can probably manually install it, but it's no longer supported (FFMPEG continues to work). 

HAP In 2025

If you're encoding HAP's original varieties, you can use FFMPEG or an FFMPEG top like ShutterEncoder. Works great. 

If you're encoding to HAPr varieties (or want to encode original/any variety in CC), you need to use AfterCodecs or Jokyo. Both have CC integrations or stand-alone versions. Unfortunately, neither adds support for FFMPEG. 

HAPr is supported more and more, but is not yet supported using MadMapper – Jokyo has a great breakdown on their main page showing which applications support which versions of HAP. 

Why HAPr? Faster encode. Better colors. Much better with gradients and banding. Cleaner alpha, etc.