What is Codec?

If you have used video converter software to convert your video into another format you may come across various video formats such as MP4, AVI, WMV, MPEG-4, DivX, WebM, and more. For an average user, these are just video formats that can play videos however it is not the case if you are a developer. The truth of the matter is that these extensions that you are seeing are file formats that are defined by their multimedia containers. And the other stuff that you are seeing are codecs that are helping to compress video and audio within those containers. In simple terms If I have to define the container, it means files such as video and audio codecs are contained. Also, the term for defining codecs is that it is compressing or decompressing video and audio files since the data is always huge. Simply, codecs compress all the data located within the container and finally, you can preview it. Let me give you an example so you understand it better. Think, if you have put your images into one archive what will you do, you would simply zip it. Now, the zip is the container that contains the image codecs within itself. Role of Codecs: Why codecs were created? Why codecs were created in the first place, this is a question that might bug you around. The answer is in history, let me explain. If you are taking a photo or video using your camera or cell phone it compresses the video, and in the end, it takes less storage on your device. Not so long ago this was not the case. Blu-ray Disc which has a capacity of 30 to 50 GB of storage and if you have saved a file of that size on your hard disk, you would run definitely out of space. to reduce and save the amount of storage they ended up reducing slightly loss of quality which can decrease lot size. The good news is that this loss of quality was not detectable. Keeping that in mind codecs were created which perform the duties of compressing and decompressing. On your computer and other devices, several codecs are already installed with the default operating system. However, you can install separately another codec if you need. However, for a basic user I would not suggest installing a new codec but instead use streaming apps such as VLC, K-lite codec, and more. The streaming media player has multiple codecs that can fulfill your need of playing videos and audio. Also, do keep in mind that installing and using these streaming apps is far easier than installing a new codec.

A well-designed codec has high efficiency or capacity to maintain quality while reducing file size. Here are some of the best codecs.

What is Container?

As I have explained earlier, based on that you can define that container as a wrapper of the video file format. The video format is the extension that you see at the end of a video on your device. These extensions look like MOV, MP4, AVI, etc. For a better understanding of the container, take an example of a box that contains all the data much like a zip file that I explained earlier. What kind of data is stored within the Container? There are differences between the container, the difference can be between the support of the codecs, subtitles, metadata, and more. Here are some popular containers:

MKV VS MP4: which one is better?

Even though there are a lot of containers available but MKV and MP4 are the most used extension across different devices. I have decided that MKV and MP4 are the best containers that you have to know that their also differences between them so I’ll take a look into them too.

MKV is a format that is not compatible across all devices Therefore constantly has to update in case of a failure in any device. At the same time, mp4 is widely supported across almost every device on the planet. MKV is a format which do not lose compression format a lot while MP4 is losing compression format a lot with each compression. MP4 files usually use a lot of computing power because they contain video, audio, and subtitle data. Illegal distribution of MP4 is easy by removing the metadata.

Conclusion:

Well, you got the idea What is the difference between the video formats, and which one is better? Let me which video format you are using on the daily basis for your project.