The aom_codec_decode() function is at the core of the decode loop. It processes packets of compressed data passed by the application, producing decoded images. The decoder expects packets to comprise exactly one image frame of data. Packets MUST be passed in decode order. If the application wishes to associate some data with the frame, the user_priv member may be set.

Frame Iterator Based Decoding

Decoded frames are made available to the application through the aom_codec_get_frame() iterator. The application initializes the iterator storage (of type aom_codec_iter_t) to NULL, then calls aom_codec_get_frame repeatedly until it returns NULL, indicating that all images have been returned. This process may result in zero, one, or many frames that are ready for display, depending on the codec.