What’s The Difference Between A Codec, Container And Video Format?

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What’s The Difference Between A Codec,Container And Video Format?

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/09/07/whats-the-difference-between-a-codec-container-and-video-format/

By MartinBrinkmann on in Tutorials- Last Update: 7

Do you know that video codecs, video containers andvideo formats are three different things? If not, then this guidemight be for you. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, whichmeans that this will not be as detailed as it could be. Afterwardsyou will be able to distinguish between codecs, containers and videoformats.

Lets start with the video format. A format consistsbasically of a set of rules and parameters that define the video.This is the native resolution, color depth, the frames per secondamong other parameters. Video format examples are the DVD videoformat, the 3GP video format or 1080p and 1080i formats.

A video codec acts as a interpreter for the videoformat or formats it supports. Devices and software use codecs tocompress and decompress video.

It is used by video players to determine how thevideo needs to be played correctly on the system. Many video playerson a computer system come with their own set of binary codecs thatonly they can use. Codec packs on the other hand install codecssystem wide so that applications like Windows Media Player can makeuse of them to play specific video formats.

A container more or less bundles multiple files. Forvideos, this is usually the video and audio track. More advancedcontainer formats can include other data types as well like menus forexample. Popular container formats are avi, mkv or mov.

One advantage of using a container for a video isthat programs can use different codecs for the tracks of the video.It is therefor possible to use one codec for the video and one forthe audio, which is often preferable to using a single codec.

To paraphrase: The video format sets the rules, thecodec interprets them and a container format is a meta format thatbundles multiple files into one container.

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