The GStreamer project has officially released GStreamer 1.26, a new stable version of its open-source multimedia framework, which introduces several significant enhancements and features.
After a year since the previous version, GStreamer 1.26 brings support for Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC) and H.266 Versatile Video Coding (VVC) codecs. It also includes functionality for closed captions with H.264/H.265 extractor/inserter, video rotation tags, and JPEG XS image codec support for Matroska files.
Noteworthy additions are the integration of new services such as AWS and Speechmatics for transcription, translation, and text-to-speech (TTS), as well as improved support for streaming multimedia. Users can now expect features like splitmux lazy loading and dynamic fragment addition, as well as enhancements for ancillary data streams and hardware accelerated decoding.
GStreamer 1.26 advances the integration with Direct3D12, enabling better compatibility with certain graphics operations, and includes new elements for various codecs and support for dynamic media streams. Significant improvements also extend to the Python bindings, Vulkan, and OpenGL integration, alongside general performance enhancements and bug fixes.
This version is available for download across all supported platforms from the official GStreamer website and will be integrated into the stable repositories of many GNU/Linux distributions shortly.