The short version
MetaWave is a JPEG 2000 (HTJ2K) codec built only for Apple Silicon. We rewrote the pipeline in Metal, NEON, and tuned it across every M-series chip from M1 to M5. On an M4 Max it decodes FullHD at 7,856 FPS — a 175× delta versus OpenJPEG on the same hardware.
One-liner
"A JPEG 2000 codec rebuilt for Apple Silicon. Real-time 8K on a single MacBook."
Boilerplate (please use as-is)
MetaWave is a software JPEG 2000 (HTJ2K) codec built exclusively for Apple Silicon. By targeting Metal, NEON, the unified memory architecture, and the Neural Engine, MetaWave delivers performance previously associated with hardware codec cards: 7,856 FPS FullHD decode on M4 Max, 130× faster than OpenJPEG on identical hardware.
Founded in 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic, the company serves medical imaging (DICOM/PACS), broadcast, scientific, and spatial-computing customers. The codec ships with HIPAA deployment notes and an FDA 510(k) documentation kit, and supports real-time 8K video decoding on professional Macs.
Numbers we stand behind
Who uses it
- Medical imaging — PACS acceleration, DICOM viewers, digital pathology.
- Broadcast & post — JPEG 2000 contribution feeds, mastering, archive.
- Spatial computing — Vision Pro, real-time 8K stereo decode.
- Scientific & geospatial — microscopy, satellite imagery, GeoTIFF tiles.
Recent
SDK v1.49 — measured 7,856 FPS at FullHD on M4 Max
v1.49 lands across the M-series. New entropy coder, retuned wavelet kernels, and a quietly important fix to our 8K tile scheduler. Real-time 8K decode now runs with about 14× headroom over 60 fps.
Read the notes →A European PACS vendor switches to MetaWave
The customer asked to stay unnamed for now. The result we can share: DICOM image load times down by roughly 87% on the same hospital workstations, and a path to 4K diagnostic displays in a workflow they had previously written off.
Read more →Talk: "JPEG 2000 isn't dead, your implementation is"
A short technical talk we gave at a regional imaging conference. Slides and recording on request — drop us a line.
Request the deck →Where we've been mentioned
We're a small studio. The press list isn't a wall of logos. We'll add coverage here as it comes — when it's real, not when a PR firm types it.
Founders & team
Jakub Jirák
Founder · engineering
Apple platform engineer, codec tinkerer. Writes most of the Metal.
The rest of us
Codec, performance, regulatory
A small team that prefers shipping code to talking about itself. Headshots and bios on request.
Brand assets
Brand guidelines
Logo
- Use the file we send you. Don't redraw it.
- Keep one capital-M of clear space around it.
- Ink (#0E0E10) on bone (#F4EFE6) is the default. Inverted is fine.
- Don't recolour, rotate, stretch, or stack on busy photography.
Colours
#0E0E10
#F4EFE6
#DFFF1B
#FF4D2E
Press contact
press@htmeta.dev
A real person reads it. Same-day reply on weekdays.
Interviews
We'll happily talk on the record about:
- Apple Silicon — what it does well, what it doesn't.
- Medical imaging workflows and FDA / CE submissions.
- Vision Pro and real-time spatial video.
- Metal compute and the practicalities of GPU codec work.
- What it's like to bootstrap a codec company in Europe.
Email press@htmeta.dev with a sentence about the angle. We'll come back the same day.
Technical specs (for fact-checkers)
MetaWave codec
- Standard: ISO/IEC 15444-15 (HTJ2K)
- DICOM transfer syntax: 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.90 / .91
- Supported hardware: Apple Silicon, M1 → M5, all variants
- Max resolution tested: 16K (15360 × 8640)
- Bit depth: 8 to 16 bits per channel
- Colour spaces: RGB, YCbCr, grayscale
- Compression: lossless and lossy modes