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Image MIME Reference
HTJ2K-Codestream

High-Throughput JPEG 2000 Codestream

image/jphc
VS

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
TGA

A complete technical comparison of High-Throughput JPEG 2000 Codestream and Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature HTJ2K-Codestream TGA
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
High-Throughput JPEG 2000 Codestream
image/jphc
Extension
.jhc
Container None (Raw Codestream)
Compression Lossy / Lossless
Algorithm
High-Throughput JPEG 2000 (HTJ2K)
Color Depth 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 38-bit
Developed by Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
Released 2019
Magic Bytes
FF 4F FF 51
Full HTJ2K-Codestream reference →
Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)
image/x-tga
Extension
.tga.icb.vda.vst
Container Truevision TGA Footer/Header
Compression Uncompressed / Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
NoneRLE
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale or Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha Channel)
Developed by Truevision Inc.
Released 1984
Magic Bytes
54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45 2E 00 (At the end of the file)
Full TGA reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser HTJ2K-Codestream TGA
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
HTJ2K-Codestream

HTJ2K-Codestream Strengths

  • Extremely fast encoding and decoding capabilities due to the parallelizable block coder
  • Minimal file overhead since it lacks container headers and metadata
  • Ideal for streaming applications or embedded systems where parsing a full container is unnecessary
Limitations
  • Lacks standard metadata support (like EXIF, XMP, or ICC color profiles) since there is no container structure
  • Zero native web browser compatibility
  • Difficult to distinguish from standard JPEG 2000 codestreams without deeply parsing the internal marker segments
TGA

TGA Strengths

  • Incredibly simple byte layout allows developers to write custom loaders and exporters in a few dozen lines of code, bypassing the need for heavy external libraries
  • Native support for 8-bit alpha channels ensures flawless transparency masking for real-time 3D rendering
  • Fast, predictable RLE decoding requires almost no CPU overhead compared to DEFLATE (PNG) or DCT (JPEG)
Limitations
  • RLE compression is relatively weak by modern standards, resulting in large file sizes
  • Lacks a standard magic byte header at the beginning of the file, making file-sniffing unreliable for older v1.0 files
  • Zero support in web browsers; must be converted to PNG or WebP for web delivery

When to choose which format

HTJ2K-Codestream
Use HTJ2K-Codestream when…
  • Medical Imaging Pipelines
  • Geospatial Data Streaming
  • Digital Cinema
  • Embedded Systems
TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows

More comparisons

HTJ2K-Codestream vs ACES → TGA vs ACES → HTJ2K-Codestream vs APNG → TGA vs APNG → HTJ2K-Codestream vs AVCI → TGA vs AVCI → HTJ2K-Codestream vs AVCS → TGA vs AVCS → HTJ2K-Codestream vs AVIF → TGA vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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