A codec is a program or device that compresses and decompresses digital audio or video so it can be stored or transmitted efficiently. Different codecs balance quality, size, and speed in different ways.
“Codec” is a blend of “coder” and “decoder,” coined in the mid‑20th century in the field of telecommunications. It directly describes the two main tasks: encoding and decoding signals.
Every time you stream music or video, a codec is quietly squashing and rebuilding the sound and image in real time. The word itself is like a tiny algorithm: two jobs—code and decode—merged into one compact label.
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