Video Codec - Everything You Need To Know

A video codec is a technology that compresses and decompresses video data, reducing file sizes and bandwidth requirements for efficient storage and streaming. Video codecs use complex algorithms to balance maintaining quality with achieving compression efficiency. The process involves encoding the original media content separately into audio and video streams, compressing them using codecs, combining them into a single file format, transmitting it across networks, decoding and decompressing at the receiving end, and finally presenting the playback. Video containers serve as "wrappers" for various data types related to multimedia, organizing them into a single file structure without affecting quality. Popular video codecs include H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AV1, VP9, and H.266/VVC, each with its own pros and cons depending on specific usage requirements.