SEE ALSO: 5 Easiest Ways to Add Captions to Video Free and Fast Types of Video CodecsĪll the codecs may be divided into the following types: Popular video formats or containers are AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, MOV, FLV, etc. Usually, a container comprises a video and audio codecs, plus it can also contain other files like subtitles and chapters. For example, an AVI file can contain video compressed by XviD, or DivX, or MPEG-2 codecs. Inside it, you can find data that has been compressed by using a particular codec. However, there are rare codecs from special video cameras that can be viewed with VLC or a similar player with a proper codec library.Ī video codec isn’t the same as a video format or container. A container is a bundle of files. Of course, a majority of videos are encoded with the help of most popular codecs mentioned above and can be played with almost any multimedia player.

In fact, there is a huge list of codecs that you can find online. A video codec is usually identified by ‘fourcc’, a four character code. It converts uncompressed video to a compressed format to take up less space on your computer and vice versa. In other words, a codec processes raw digital video and stores it in a stream of bytes. What is a Video Codec?Ī video codec is a software or sometimes a piece of hardware that compresses and decompresses digital video.

One more reason might be the lack of necessary codecs to play this particular file on your PC. It may happen because the file wasn’t uploaded correctly by its owner or your Internet connection is not good enough and the file was downloaded with the gaps. When you download video files from the Internet, there is always a chance they won’t play properly or won’t play at all. What is a Video Codec and How to Identify It?

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