subject: What is a video codec? [print this page] What is a video codec? What is a video codec?
Watching a movie or listening to music is one of the core activities of an average computer user. However, to better understand how the AVI or mp3 you know so well actually turns up as it does, a better understanding of media players and codecs is required.
Lets take the example of video one step further. When video is recorded, the raw data is extremely large, often almost 14 GB for an hour of video. How then do you get such a huge data file to a standard 700MB or 1 GB movie file size?
To make media easier to store and transfer a process of compression is undertaken to reduce the file size, usually in the standard MPEG-2 format.
When being played, the media is again decompressed by the software. The term codec is derived from this process of compression/decompression. A codec doesnt work by itself, but is instead integrated into the media player.
A common mistake made by most users is to mistake the file format for a codec. For example, AVI is a file format, not a codec. One might require one of many codecs like Xvid, DivX or H264 to be able to play an AVI file.
Till date, the native media player called Windows Media Player which is bundled with Windows has not supported most major codecs. Some of the most popular codecs like Xvid and DivX do not play out of the box.
VLC Media Player Download is one alternative which plays almost everything you can throw at it. Add to that the fact that VLC Player is free to download and at a slim 17MB; almost anyone can download it, even on a slow connection.
Though WMP doesnt natively support many codecs, you can still download codec packs like K-Lite Codec Pack, CCCP or XP Codec Pack which, though comprehensive, are not very user friendly.
VLC Media Player is the only free media player out there which natively supports every imaginable codec. Not only does it encompass universal support, it is also light weight and feature heavy whereas others like GOM player and Real Player have a clunky and resource heavy interface.
With the latest 1.1 version of VLC Player Download, it promises to be even faster with hardware acceleration along with enhanced support for existing codecs to provide for an even smoother playback experience.
