The original name of this codec was Compact Video,[3] which is why its FourCC identifier is CVID.
[2] libavcodec includes a Cinepak decoder and an encoder, both licensed under the terms of the LGPL.
[5][6] However, movies compressed with Cinepak are generally still playable in most media players.
This permitted implementation on relatively slow CPUs (video encoded in Cinepak will usually play fine even on a 25 MHz Motorola 68030, consoles like the Sega CD usually used even slower CPUs, e.g. a 12.5 MHz 68000), but tended to result in blocky artifacting at low bitrates, which explained the criticism leveled at the FMV-based video games.
A skipped block is copied unchanged from the previous frame in a conditional replenishment fashion.