What are codecs and what are they for?

On the Internet, one often encounters the question "what are codecs". To answer it, let's remember the encoding of digital data.

Each of us at least once viewed the video on a computer, mobile device or player. And listening to audio compositions has become so widespread that now, going out onto the city's streets, it's hard not to meet a man with headphones. At the same time, few people think about the calculations that the CPU and the graphics card have to perform, preparing an image or sound. It would seem, what calculations? The same cassette players, not having processors (not including specialized), remarkably coped with their tasks. However, this comparison is incorrect, since any file is characterized not by the length of the tape in meters, but by the volume in -mega-giga terabytes, and free space on the media is always small. Usually all questions disappear, as soon as the size of a digital video stream is sounded: so, in the standard HDTV 1 minute takes about 3 GB. Therefore, now all the video and audio are processed by special programs that reduce the size of files by removing (compressing, compressing) some of the nonessential data from them. There are many such programs, but only a few have been distributed. For example, video codecs are DivX, Xvid, x264, etc. But in the sphere of sound, the variety is less. Mainly the following codecs for sound are reigned here: Mpeg Layer version 3, AC-3 and uncompressed WAV format. Now, on an average user's computer, it's almost impossible to find an example of an uncompressed stream.

The answer to the question "what are codecs" sounds like this: a codec is a small specialized program or library (dll), which performs the functions of Encoding (compression) and DECODING of files with multimedia streams. Suppose a user opens a video file in the software player. In the structure of each file there is an information block indicating which codec was used to compress. Based on the read information, the player asks the operating system for information about the location of this codec and with its help decodes the stream, displaying the video on the screen. If there is no such codec in the system, then a message about the impossibility of playback is displayed. Special case - only sound or only video works.

Knowing what codecs are, can be useful in order to determine, with the help of which the target file was compressed. To do this, you need to install the program mediainfo, gspot or similar, reading the data block. There are a lot of them, sometimes even applications for working with multimedia files (Format Factory) provide such an opportunity. We move the cursor to the desired file and call the menu. The "Open to" or "Send to" links will have the options you need. Then it's up to small - download and install the specified codecs.

Who understands what codecs are, easily solve the problem of the inoperability of multimedia files. To do this, you do not need to delve into the particular work of this or that encoder or read multipage instructions. The solution is quite simple - download and install a special free set of codecs. Currently, one of the best is the K-Lite Codec Pack. The set exists in several variants, so it's better not to regret a few extra wasted megabytes, and immediately download the Mega Pack. When installing newbies, you can use the recommended parameters for the developer, and experienced users are asked to specify what they need to register in the system. After installing K-Lite, all codecs will be registered and will be able to automatically connect to the players on request. That is, the availability of codecs for the user is absolutely "transparent".

There is another way to play multimedia files. For this purpose special players (PotPlayer, VLC, etc.) serve. The algorithms for decoding are in them.