What do the codes mean? What is a codec? What are they for and how to install them. Everything you need to know about codecs

Majority modern users, who have at least once tried to listen to music or watch a video on a computer, have encountered the fact that in order to open certain types of files in the system, it is not enough to have only an installed software player focused on playing files of a particular format; you also need to install additional tools, called codecs. What are codecs in in a general sense Almost everyone can guess this word, but only a few have a clear understanding of this issue. This means that a full explanation should be given on this matter, touching not only on the main issue of describing such tools, but also how they work and why they were created.

What are codecs?

Let's start with the fact that the very concept of “codec”, used today to describe such tools, is based on combining parts of two other terms - ENCODER and DECODER (in the English interpretation CODEC). Speaking about what codecs are, the conclusion suggests itself: they are special programs or sets of programs that allow you to encode and decode multimedia files (this mainly concerns audio and video).

How does it all work?

But let's see how it works. It is believed that the main purpose of codec sets is the ability to play multimedia files different formats(and today there are so many of them that it’s impossible to list them all). It is clear that not every software player is able to open absolutely all formats, especially since more and more new ones are constantly appearing, and technologies for converting the content of audio or video files are constantly being improved. But what is this transformation?

The media files themselves are too large. Just remember the previously used audio standard in the form of the WAV format. A three- or five-minute video could take up about 100 megabytes, which made storing it on any storage media extremely inconvenient. The same can be said about the previously used AVI video format. Over time, special tools appeared that made it possible to reduce the original size of such files through compression or encoding with or without loss of quality. Actually, the initial contents turned out to be packaged in a special container, similar to what is provided for archives. An encoder is used for packaging. But extract data from compressed file container for subsequent playback can be decoder.

How does encoding and decoding occur?

Now let's see what codecs are in terms of converting media file sizes. For video, redundant data removal technology is often used. For example, a user films some kind of landscape with a camera at a speed of 30 frames per second, but the camera position does not change, just as there are no fundamental changes in the landscape itself. In the same five minutes nine thousand run up identical images, which form the video sequence when saved. It is precisely by removing such unnecessary frames that a significant reduction in volume is achieved.

With audio, the situation is somewhat different, since in this case, for example, frequencies can be cut out beyond the human perceptible limit and, as in the case of the MP3 format, so-called perception coding is used, when frequencies inaudible to the human ear are removed from the original file. In some cases, the bitrate may also be converted. In this case, a distinction is made between encoding with loss of quality (lossy) and without loss (lossless).

Media playback issues on Windows

In general, all processes associated with encoding and decoding audio and video are much more complicated. As for the operating rooms Windows systems, despite all their versatility of use as the main platform, they do not have their own tools for performing such actions. Therefore, you need to install additional codecs. And this is absolutely independent of the player used, unless it itself provides for the installation of the necessary encoding and decoding components.

In addition, own Windows players(standard or classic media players) even if available in the system installed sets Some multimedia formats may not play codecs for the reason that they are simply not oriented towards them (they do not support them). Thus, you also have to choose the optimal player option (which is what is usually observed).

How can I view installed components?

Of course, some essential set, including codecs ( Codec Pack), may be present in the system. But how can you find out what exactly is installed and what else needs to be installed additionally? On systems like Windows XP, view necessary information You can do it in the usual “Device Manager”. On systems higher in rank, this information can be found in the system information section (msinfo32).

If you look at the multimedia item in the components section, you can see the audio and video elements developed by Microsoft (for audio, the MP3 codec from Fraunhofer will also be indicated).

What codecs are best to install for Windows?

Now let's move on to selecting the components necessary for installation. Since the most popular set today is the package K-Lite Codec Pack, codecs present in it should be installed. There is only one problem: which set to choose? You can, of course, give preference to standard, basic or full version, however, according to most experts, the best option There will be an installation of a set that contains absolutely all known codecs, K-Lite Codec Mega Pack.

During the installation process, please note that you should not use the recommended installation. It is better to mark everything that is in the list of codecs and decoders. The action is not mandatory, but who knows when these components might come in handy?

Players used

Finally, having dealt with the main issue, let’s pay a little attention software media playback. The fact that Windows' own players are no good is not even discussed.

As a player, as they say, it is better to use software players like VLC for all occasions. Such players reproduce everything possible and have a variety of additional features and very fine user settings.

If we take into account only listening to music, many users prefer the Jet Audio media combiner. In addition to the usual player, there are also tools for ripping the contents of audio discs (CD Rip), recording music on empty discs, listening to online radio, etc. However, there is no arguing about tastes, so everyone chooses a program to their liking, especially that there are plenty of them created today (and not only for stationary systems, and for mobile platforms, including, by the way, necessary kits encoders and decoders).

"WTF?!" or “What the...?” - I think each of us at least once exclaimed something similar at the moment when favorite video When I tried to view it, it was fiddling with only sound and no video. Okay, it’s still some kind of “slobbery” melodrama, but, for example, “Transformers” cannot be perceived without a bright picture. Do you want to know who to blame in such a situation? We'll tell you. It's all codec tricks! After all, it is precisely their absence that is associated similar problems with video files and favorite “movies” that won’t start.

Hello, we are codecs!

I don’t want to sound like a complete smartass, but translated from English, “codec” means a certain program or device that converts data or a signal. For what? So that you and I can enjoy our films! With the help of various codecs, the media player of our PC, laptop, tablet begins to “understand” what exactly we want from it. I don’t believe that you have never heard of codec programs. DivX, VLC, Flash Player, Adobe Reader- they are all responsible for their areas of interest: DivX - for viewing DVD files, Flash Player - for playing Flash animation, Adobe Reader - for operations with PDF files, and so on.

In general, the main idea is this: if you “pack” your system with the necessary codecs, then applications like Windows Media Player will be able to recognize the type of signal coming from the file you specify. There is no need to stare at a “black screen” with only sound or read crashing playback errors when you can easily download K-Lite codecs for free, for example, and kill all relevant problems in the bud.

K Lite codecs are cooler than Chuck Norris

How cool is Chuck Norris? Yes, exactly as strong and versatile as the K-Lite Codec Pack. Don't be offended, old Chuck, you can't play the role of the main violin in the field of video viewing. Note: This is perhaps the only area in which Chuck failed to succeed...

Now let’s move on to the K-Lite codec package itself, which many users are in a hurry to download for free and, having installed it as soon as possible, will once and for all forget about the disappointment of another video file that won’t open. Any file downloaded from the Internet will be tough for K-Lite. Everyone fall down!

Let's immediately pay attention to the versatility of the K-Lite Codec Pack. That's why the codec package is a package that includes not only tools for playing video, but also all kinds of utilities. The latter are designed for avid movie and music lovers. In addition, the developers “gave birth” to their K-Lite Codec Pack in several editions, which suggests a more or less rich package of tools. There are four such editions: Basic, Standard, Full and Mega.

We’ll help you figure out what’s what. If you only watch videos and don’t think about encoding at all, choose the full edition (K-Lite Codec Full): this package contains full set means for playing audio and video files. Basic and standard version limited in the number of codecs, and the Standard version is considered “cooler”, since it has media player Player Classic. “Classics” are always held in high esteem, so to speak. As for the mega-edition, it is quite suitable for those who want to encode video or rip DVD/BD discs.

On the other hand, as in real life and especially in sexual relationships, with huge variety, it’s worth being more selective (or picky). Speaking of codecs, you don't need to install all the features and tools offered: using a well-thought-out installer, select only those components that interest you.

With a convenient and clear installation menu, the whole process will fly by for you. Trust one of the profiles or manually select the K-Lite components to install. And this is where some difficulties may arise - you will come across several tools that perform similar tasks. Why are they so “beautiful”? The reason is simple: sometimes there are several similar developments and it’s hard to say which one will be cooler. In the end, on Good work codecs are also influenced by other factors - the configuration of your PC, the version of the OS you are using, and others.

One of features of K-Lite Codec, which you can download absolutely free, is a test of your system for more earlier versions codecs. “Ageism” or dislike for old people - this is how the intolerance of the K-Lite package towards outdated codecs would be called in a free and democratic America. However, the developers of K-Lite Codec have foreseen everything, and thus tried to minimize errors of incompatibility between codec versions. And in general, your system has no need for “stagnant garbage”.

What else is packed in the K Lite Codec Pack

Firstly, these are decoders for playing all kinds of video. Windows 7 “users” should worry much less about this than Windows users XP. Just latest version By default, Windows is loaded with Microsoft codecs, with which the most popular “sound” and video formats are played. However, this is not a panacea - sometimes integrated codecs are not enough and more “capable” alternative decoders may be required.

To get acquainted with the entire list of K-Lite “contents”, download the program for free, and take advantage of the following amazing components:

The ffdshow decoder library is at your service. The basis for the entire K-Lite codec package, it contains audio and video codecs that do not conflict with each other, which means they are unlikely to cause any errors. Choose to use ffdshow as the default when playing back sound in movies (AC3 and AAC formats) and for processing the LPCM format used on many DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Apply ffdshow post-processing filters to the video stream after the main video processing, that is, its decoding. New decoding settings and changes made are displayed in real time.

Audio parsers and video splitters K-Lite Codec Pack. “Was ist das?!” - the Germans said in such cases. This is a kind of “bonus” of the K Lite codec package. Both the first and second components separate the media stream into separate components (video, sound, subtitles). Parsers work with audio files, and splitters work with video. By launching a video file in its player, the program transmits information to the parser or splitter. He divides it into components - arms separately, legs separately - and turns to the necessary codecs.

Install engines for subtitles and video visualization. With K-Lite Codec, which you can download for free, install a subtitle engine called Direct Vob Sub. Basically, if you use a player like Media Player Classic, the “subtitle” engine is already integrated into it. A separate item in the K-Lite installation wizard is Haali Video Renderer. What it is? An engine that renders video by applying image scaling. Install Haali as an alternative to VMR9, the standard Windows renderer.

Kit additional utilities K-Lite Codec Pack: Codec Tweak Tool, Media Info Lite and Win7DS Filter Tweaker. The Codec Tweak Tool utility can be useful to the user for several reasons. She is able to control installed codecs(turn them off/on), produce backup settings of all K Lite components and more. Media Info Lite is a utility that acts as a sort of solution manager problem situations. If a file cannot be played in any way (what an infection!), this utility determines the type of codecs with which the problematic file was compressed. Moreover, it also displays other information - file resolution, its bitrate and duration. The Win7 DS Tweaker utility is designed to change the default decoders used in Windows 7 when working with Windows Media Player and Media Center. Win7 DS Tweaker forcibly, almost like in the army, allows you to change the used DivX, xVid and H.264 decoders (bypassing the registry editor, which is often involved in any such changes).

According to general definition, Codecs are a device or program capable of encoding and decoding a digital data stream or signal. In simple words we can say that codecs allow you to play and save audio and video files. Most often, codecs are used to create more compact copies of audio and video.

Most famous example codec is mp3. With its help, bulky audio files such as wav are compressed into very small mp3 files, without much loss in quality.

All codecs involve a trade-off between compression ratio and output quality. Moreover, the relationship between them is inversely proportional. In other words, the more data compression, the worse the audio and video quality will become. Due to this feature, there are constant attempts to create more advanced multimedia data compression algorithms. And this is also one of the reasons why there are so many codecs and why their number will constantly grow.

Why do users need codecs?

Why might users need codecs? The answer is simple. Because to play an audio and video file compressed with a specific codec, you will need that codec on your computer so that the media player can decompress the data from the file and then play it.

Out of the box, the bare operating system is capable of playing certain types of media. By default, Windows can play audio CDs, wav files, certain types avi files, as well as Windows wmv files. However, there are many other file formats that will not play on a bare operating system. Like mpeg4. Therefore, it is necessary to install additional codecs on your computer.

Note: Depending on the Windows versions and the availability of SP, the set of supported files and available codecs will differ, but still in most cases this set will not be enough.

It is for this reason that if an audio or video file does not open, this does not always mean that the file was damaged. In most cases, it is enough to download and install the appropriate codecs (some links will be provided towards the end of the article). So if you are faced with such a case, then do not rush to erase video or audio and write about their malfunction on web resources. After all, most likely, the first thing you will be advised to do is download codecs. And, more often than not, this answer will be correct.

There are various tools that help solve this problem such as free program VideoInspector, which detects the codecs used in the video and, if they are not on your computer, helps you find a place to download them.

Although, in each case, you can install the necessary codecs individually for each media file, another method is still more common. We are talking about codec packs that contain a whole collection of the most common codecs. The idea is to provide users with an all-in-one solution, making life easier not only for users but also for media creators who can use the formats that best suit them without any special restrictions.

It is important to note that if you have a 64-bit version operating system, then you need to install 64-bit codecs. IN in this case, it's like with drivers.

Features of using codec packages

The idea of using codec packs sounds quite convenient, but there is one catch, or rather a catch. Some codec packages contain questionable codecs. Usually we're talking about about codecs, which are modified versions existing codecs developed by other companies. This is often done to avoid copyright issues. However, sometimes this is done to expand the functionality of the codec. However, whatever the reason, using such codecs may cause problems on your computer. Everything will depend on how professionally the changes to the codecs were made. And, unfortunately, usually, you will not have the opportunity to find out about this in advance. Therefore, it is either necessary to first test such packages with codecs, or use well-known packages, information about which is easy to find.

It is also worth knowing that such codecs may already be installed on your computer, even if you have not downloaded any packages. This is because most media players include codec packs that are installed with the program. Often, these codec packages can be found in "Control Panel -> Programs and Features", so you can always remove them. If codecs are not visible in the control panel, then they may be available in Windows Device Manager.

In Windows XP, they are located along the path:

Click right click mouse on my computer
Select Properties
Go to the Hardware tab
Select Device Manager
In the left pane of Device Manager, expand Sound, Video, and Game Devices.

In Windows 7, you can find them along the path:

Open the Start menu
In the search bar, enter "System Information" and select the program in the search area
In the left part of the window that opens, expand the "Components" item
Then expand the "Multimedia" item
You will see two available list"Audio codecs" and "Video codecs".

Please note that the list will consist of the names of libraries with codecs, and not specific codecs. So, most likely, you will also have to look for a description of the contained codecs on the Internet.

In addition, you can also use the list of codecs that can be obtained from Windows Media Player:

Open Windows Media Player
Right click on the control area
Select "Help -> About"
In the window that opens, click on the link "Service technical support"
The generated page with codecs will open in the browser

Where can I find codec packages?

Where can I find free packages with codecs that would not contain questionable codecs and that would allow viewing of most existing formats multimedia? Below is a list of fairly well-known packages that can be downloaded and installed on your computer for free:

K-Lite Codec Pack: (originally included some commercial codecs, but they were removed from the package) http://codecguide.com/
FFDShow Tryouts:
Combined Community Codec Pack:

Most players use DirectShow to play media files. This system uses a variety of DirectShow filters as building material to form a so-called DirectShow graph. Multimedia file is the root of this graph, and programs for processing audio and video are its leaves. During playback, data flows from the root to the leaves.

Each filter in the graph performs a subtask of the entire process. Typical elements in the graph are a source filter (also called a splitter) and audio and video decoders. The source filter is responsible for reading the file format and feeding the data to other filters downstream in the graph.

If DirectShow finds several filters that can perform the same task, it will choose the one that is most suitable for that task. This correspondence is determined simply numerical value, which indicates the filter preference. This value can be changed using special tools.

Modern media players can manipulate which filters are used in the graph, allowing or blocking some of them. If no suitable DirectShow filter is found for decoding a particular audio/video format, then the system, using special filters, will return to using the VFW and ACM codecs (see below).

There is a myth that filters can “conflict” with each other. In fact, most problems arise from the fact that some filters do not perform their tasks correctly. The filters in the K-Lite Codec Pack are selected to provide the user with optimal functionality and minimal chance of problems.

The word "codec" is short for "compressor-decompressor" and refers to a program that can encode and decode certain formats. By this definition, DirectShow is not a codec. Most traditional video editors don't use DirectShow.

The other two systems are VFW (Video For Windows) and ACM (Audio Compression Manager) can be called codecs because they provide both encoding and decoding capabilities. These two codecs are included in most editing tools, such as VirtualDub.

Is it necessary before installation? new version K-Lite Codec Pack to delete the previous one?

Actually, it never hurts. But when K-Lite installation Codec Pack removal procedure previous version is not mandatory. If the new version contains only minor changes, you can simply install it over the old one. This will not lead to any problems and everything will work fine. If more significant changes have occurred in the package, the installer will ask you to remove the previous version.

Have you ever encountered a situation where when playing a movie there is no sound, but there is a picture, or vice versa?

Or, for example, you want to listen to a song, but the player cannot play the audio file and displays an error message.

These problems indicate that the required codecs are missing. They are necessary to play media files.

What are codecs?

Codecs are small programs, which instruct the computer on how to encode or decode a music or video file. Each music or video file format has its own codec (its own program) or several codecs (programs) simultaneously.

The word CODEC comes from the English CODEC, which in turn is an abbreviation for COder/DECoder. Therefore, in Russian, the word CODEC is formed from the first letters ENCODER/DECODER.

When encoded, an audio or video file has significantly smaller size, how original file. Accordingly, on storage media (CD-, DVDs, internal and external hard discs, etc.) you can record much more music and video in a similar encoded form.

However, when playing music and video, these relatively small encoded files need to be decoded using the already mentioned codecs, since only the original large full-size files with music or video content can be played. And if the required codecs for decoding music and video files are not on the computer, then it will be impossible to listen to music or watch videos even if the PC has the required playback programs for this.

Let's give an example

On a licensed CD, each track takes up about 70 MB. If you convert it to MP3 format, then each song will weigh 10 times less - 5-9 MB. Both for encoding into the MP3 format and for its further playback, appropriate audio codecs are required. Thanks to them, the media player will be able to “understand” how to read and play these audio files.

The same situation is with films. For example, many films on the Internet have the extensions .avi, .mkv, .mp4, etc. - to play each of them you need its own corresponding video codec.

The main function of codecs is to pack audio or video into a “container”, which is digital file. As a rule, they compress data in such a way that the file has a minimum final size with the least loss in quality.

There are also codecs that practically do not compress the media file in order to save original quality. Different codecs have their own different encoding algorithms. That is why each music and video file format requires its own codec.

4. Codecs provide software support, and drivers are needed to support the operation of the hardware:

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