A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau (a blending of two or more words) of 'compressor-decompressor' or, more accurately, 'coder-decoder'.

Codecs are often designed to emphasize certain aspects of the media, or their use, to be encoded. For example, a digital video (using a DV codec) of a sports event, such as baseball or soccer, needs to encode motion well but not necessarily exact colors, while a video of an art exhibit needs to perform well encoding color and surface texture.

Generally speaking, codecs consist of audio codecs and video codecs.

Audio Codecs

In software, a codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. The object of a codec algorithm is to represent the high-fidelity audio signal with minimum number of bits while retaining the quality. This can effectively reduce the storage space and the bandwidth required for transmission of the stored audio file.

List of Audio Codecs

• Media Player Codec Pack

  The Media Player Codec Pack is a simple to install package of codecs/filters/splitters used for playing back music and movie files.Audio file types supported include DTS, APE, FLAC, TTA, WV, Vorbis, MO3, IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD, UMX. Video file types supported include 3GPP, AVI, MKV, OGM, MPG, MPEG, VOB, DAT, FLV, PS, TS, NUV.

• True Audio DirectShow Codecs Suite

  The True Audio DirectShow codecs pack provides access to simple, reliable and effective TTA decoding/encoding support, the ability to playback of the TTA-related media files. It makes adding TTA support to your application, cost effective, practical and straight forward.

• Monkey's Audio

  Monkey's Audio is a fast and easy way to compress digital music. Unlike traditional methods such as MP3, OGG, or LQT that permanently discard quality to save space, Monkey's Audio only makes perfect, bit-for-bit copies of your music.

• Vista Codec Package

• OggKate

• Win7codecs

• Cole2k Media Codec Pack Standard

• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack Update

• MediaCoder

• Sharp G.726 Audio Codec

Video Codec

A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression.

List of Video Codecs

• x264 Video Codec

  x264 is a free library for encoding H264/AVC video streams. It is released under the terms of the GNU GPL.

• VSS Video Codec

  VSS Video Codec allows users to compress video data with highest compression ratio, sufficient coding speed, efficient rate control and flexibility. That makes VSS Video Codec very useful for a wide range of video coding tasks.

• Etymonix MPEG-2 Video Codec

  The Etymonix MPEG-2 I-frame Video Codec for Win95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP is a software-only video compressor/decompressor based on the standard Video for Windows (VfW) architecture.

• DivX Pro Codec

• Nero AAC Codec

• x264 Video Codec

• ffmpegX

• Cinepak Codec

• VP7 Video Codec Personal Edition

• Ligos Indeo Codec