yav is a software only video encoder/decoder for NeXT workstations. It will play a video with a reasonable frame size (288x224 pixels) at a reasonable frame rate (greater than or equal to 6 frames/second depending on cpu speed) with a synchronized sound track for a reasonable length of time (greater than 10 minutes depending on disk size). Since the above requirements necessitates a computationally inexpensive algorithm for on the fly decompression, the compressed format is not MPEG. Instead it is a format designed primarily for easy decompression. It sacrifices both compression ratio and quality in order to achieve a large frame size and high frame rate. The encoder is not real time and requires from 2 to 6 minutes to encode a single frame depending on quality. Since the design objective of yav is to implement a software encoder/decoder for low-end workstations in general, yav is not a NeXTstep application. Except for the imaging routines the yav source written in C is completely machine independent and should be easy to port to any UNIX platform. Also included are utilities to convert MPEG format movies to yav format movies. The MPEG convertor is derived from the Berkeley public domain player. Unfortunately, the only video with sound I have was captured from the TV and is not in the public domain. However, a converted MPEG without sound is included. The yav tar file is available by anonymous ftp from cs.orst.edu and isrdgw.isr.recruit.co.jp. Please send comments to: Gary K. Arakaki Media Design Center RECRUIT CO., LTD. INUI Bldg. Kachidoki 1-13-1 Kachidoki Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan email: gary@isr.recruit.co.jp phone: 03-3536-7789