CODEC 101

- CODEC = COde/DECode [COmpressor/DECompressor]

- Codec's are used to record and play audio and video files.

- Lossless - shown as it appears.

- Example: Apple Lossless

- Lossy - compressed and shows only what can be herd or seen by humans.

- Example: MP3 - near CD quility.

- The audible range for the typical human ear is 20 Hertz through 20 kiloHertz.

- Codec's will also eliminate subtle changes in the sound or picture that aren't generally noticed.

- MP3 is short for MPEG-1 Layer 3. The codec was released by Fraunhofer back in 1994.

- AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It was introduced by Microsoft in 1992 as a "wrapper" or container format.
- DVD format is MPEG-2.

- MPEG is an acronym for the Moving Picture Experts Group, a standards development group.

- MPEG-2 is the standard used for DVD's, digital television, and even HDTV encoding.

- Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility - For MPEG only.


- On the Mac to check your codec's go to your hard drive then /Library/Quicktime.

- Divx - MPEG-2 encoder.

- aFreeCodecVT Utility - checks for codec's on your system and claims to be spyware free.

- VLC Media Player - available cross-platform media player.

- H.264 is a variant of the MPEG-4 file format.

- CyberLink Codec PowerPack - $19.95 U.S.

- InterVideo Codec XPack - $19.95 U.S.