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.
1. Audio codec
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. | The audio codecs are used to compress and decompress any audio files, acting as a medium to play the files in many media players such as windows media player. The need for a codec happens when the player is not able to play an audio file because it needs the right codec to decompress and play the audio files. Windows Media Player 11 can play most audio files and supports more audio codecs if need be.)
2. Video Codec
The video codecs have the same function as the audio codecs, except for use with video files. Because of the growth in technology, data can be stored in digital forms, rather than earlier technology when data was stored on tapes, as an analogue signal. The new advancement has given birth to video codec's, and now you can use them to watch videos in different formats.
3. Data Codec's
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.
So in simple terms. A codec is something that works with your media player to help encode and decode a digital signal or a digital data stream.
Source : goarticles by Colin Litchfield
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