CodecWhat is a codec?Many of you have heard of this word ‘Codec’ but have you ever wondered what Codec is? The common definition of codec that we all know is that codec’s are some kind of files that are used to play audio or video files having different formats like avi, 3gp, etc. but only few of us know the exact definition of codec and its true meaning. A Codec is a device that performs encoding and decoding of digital signal. This term can also be referred as Compressor-Decompressor or Coder-Decoder. There are 3 main types of codec’s and each one has its own function. The 3 codec’s are Audio codec’s, Video codec’s and Data Codec’s. An Audio codec is used to compress or decompress digital audio files that act as a medium to play files in players like windows media player, real player, etc. The requirement of codec’s arises when your player is unable to play some audio files because it requires the correct codec to play the audio file. The new Windows Media Player 11 plays almost all audio files and has support for other audio codec’s also. Some of the audio codec’s are Apple Lossless, MPEG-4 ALS), Direct Stream Transfer (DST), FLAC, LA (Lossless Audio), Monkey's Audio (APE), RealAudio Lossless, Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless, etc. Video codec has the same functionality as that of audio codec except that it is used to compress the digital videos. With advancement in technology, data could now be stored in digital forms as compared to earlier times when data was stored on tapes as analogue signal. This new advancement gave birth to video codec’s and now you can find use of video codec’s in VCD and DVD also referred to as Digital Video Codec’s. Some of the video codec’s are AVI (Audio Video Interleave), H.261, H.263, H.263v2, H.264, KVCD, MJPEG, MPEG-1 Video, MPEG-2 Video, MPEG-4, etc.Data codec as the word describes refers to compression/decompression of data with the help of data codec’s as this process is not automatically handled by Quick Time Media operations. The quick time player automatically compresses/decompresses the audio and video tracks with the help of image and audio codec’s but is unable to compress/decompress sprites. Therefore, the main use of data codec is to compress/decompress sprites, arbitrary blocks and 3D models. Thus, A Codec is a device that performs encoding and decoding on digital signal or a digital data stream. |