Could you explain what a 'codec' programme does? ... Thank you.?

Question

Could you explain what a 'codec' programme does? ... Thank you.?

Answer 1

Codec means enCOder and DECoder. It is usually a .dll file that installs on your system32 folder in windows directory. It is mostly used to run various video and audio formats (because reading different file types require different algorithms to read the file).

Therefore if you have codec installed that is used to run a specific file type, your windows medial player or any other player will run it without reporting an error to you (errors like "Invalid file format" or "cannot read the specific file type").

Basically, every video/audio file tells the media player which dll it requires to run successfully, if found it will play, otherwise report the error to the user.

Answer 2

A codec decodes video files so that you can view them.

Answer 3

Codec basically stands for compression/decompression. They are basically work for media files like music and videos. A codec's function is mainly to reduce the file size of the media file to as small as possible while retaining the quality of the media as closest to the original as possible, and ofcourse be able to read back those files. A basic format for music files are .wav files (Wave files) They are around 30mb - 40mb per song. However using codecs we can reduce this file size to a meere 3mb - 4mb and retaining quite a lot of it's quality.

For example, a very old standard music software will read .wav files. However it wouldn't understand the mp3 format because it doesn't know how to read mp3 files. By installing an mp3 codec with the software, the software will know what to do with the music file and decompresses it to read it. However mp3 files would most probably be obsolete in the near future because as technology improves, so as audio sounds improve. Currently the best format for audio is FLAC ( Free lossless audio codec), which as it's name says, it's losses audio with it's full original sound is still retained, and it may vary from 60mb- 80mb per music file.

Same goes to video files. There are no standard video files like music files (.wav) because video is a compilation of video and audio. Embedding pictures together with music in a continuous stream of data. Examples of formats are (.wmv .mov).

Answer 4

A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal.

Answer 5

A codec decodes video files so that you can view them.

I recommend you get the Combined Community Codec Pack (http://www.cccp-project.net/ ) because it has all the codecs you'll ever need.

Answer 6

CODEC means Codified and Decodified

As a general 'function' it could be performed by hardware, by software or as a combination of bots

Every time you need to adapt digital data from one form to another you will need some kind of CODEC.

The use is common connecting computers to digital communication line, with analog communication line, you'll need a MODEM.

But, actually the main use of CODECs are related with comprcompressing data representation technics used by audio and video signal. As and example MP3 Audio coding (MPEG-1 Layer 3), need a CODEC, as well as Video coding, like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.320, and so on  

Answer 7

it converts say a film from the downloaded format to one that will play on another system.

eg it will convert a film to play on your dvd player to show on your tv.

a good codec file to have is "k-lite codec pack" a free but very good selection of nearly all known codecs.

it's what i use~hope this helps.

Answer 8

Codec stands for Coder/Decoder. It is a software component that encodes or decodes video or audio file formats.  

Answer 9

The word "CoDec" (Compression / Decompression) indicates a complex computing algorythm that is applied to the compression and decompression of data in order to either cram it into a small space or enable it to be moved from A to B more quickly and efficiently.

It's neither specific to video nor audio, even though the use of CoDecs in digital video and audio applications is widespread (eg: MPEG). CoDecs are applied in a wide range of applications where masses of data are involved.