codecs in windows 10 Archives

What are codecs?

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First, it is useful to know the technical definition of codecs. They are programs that encode and decodify multimedia files, which favor compression for storage and unpacking for viewing.

Multimedia files

When using a media file, a codec is used, even without knowing it. Each file with an MP3 or AVI extension, for example, was created with a codec. Currently, to play music or watch a movie, you need a codec to read these media files. But why?

Codec

Listening to and viewing multimedia files At the beginning of personal computing, the main multimedia files used were WAV and MIDI audio. The WAVs recorded the ambient sound and made short clips. MIDIs were sound synthesizers because they used the computer’s sound card to replicate music. The big problem with these formats was that the MIDI files weren’t music, just any computer playback (currently, MIDI sound technology is used in the polyphonic tones of cell phones) and the WAVs were extremely large.

codec

The problem with WAV

But why are WAV files (and still are) so large? To understand this, it is enough to know that the human ear perceives only one sound track and does not listen as much as possible. However, the WAV can perceive and record these inaudible sounds and transform them into information along with the perceivable ones. In this way, WAV sound files have a lot of information, from unnecessary to what we need.

The way to deal with excess information was to develop a program that would take only the useful parts of the WAV files. In this way the MP3 was created, that is, it is a compressed sound file with only the necessary information.

Starting with the video files

Viewing video files It all started in the late 1980s, with the MPEG project, the Motion Picture Expert Group, or the Animated Picture (or Movie) Expert Group. This group developed a system to compress movie files for storage and playback on computers, without excess size or weight. Imagine that in an 800×600 movie, full screen in high resolution, there are 30 different images per second and each image is made on average with about 500,000 dots. Each point is one byte of information, so each second of film would have approximately 15 MB of information. That way, a CD with a capacity of 700 MB would only fit 50 seconds of film!

This group developed a way to encode these images from the film so they didn’t take up as much space. Despite having lost some of its quality, the film was playable on any computer, in addition to providing detailed observation. These files were either MPEG or MPG. MP3 would actually be the third layer of MPEG, the sound layer (that’s why it’s called MP3). The MP4 format would be a fourth layer of MPEG, with videos in high definition.

Understand how it works

The codec is a small program to encode and decode information from a multimedia file. It encodes the original format in a smaller size for storage and then decodes it, converting it back into an image and / or sound for all to see.

Therefore, you must have the codec installed on your computer to view certain multimedia files. A video in AVI format, for example, can be compressed with different codecs, such as XVID or DIVX. And for your computer to read that information, you need to have that code to decode the movie and watch it.

Existing core codecs

Currently, a primary audio codec, MP3, is used. In addition to some different video codecs, such as XVID, DIVX, RMVB, M4V, among many others. Fortunately, there is the K-Lite Codec Pack, a great package with all of these core codecs and many others, all of which are playable with Media Player Classic. The important thing is that with the K-Lite Codec Pack installed, you will hardly find a file format that requires a codec that is not on your computer.

There are different versions of K-Lite. They are:

K-Lite Mega Codec Package: With this package you offer the vast majority of necessary codecs and also the advantage of having the Media Player Classic ready.

K-Lite Codec Pack Full: Bring all the codecs you will need, without Media Player Classic.

Other possible packages

If you are not satisfied with the K-Lite Codec Pack packages, there are other download options in Baixaki. Some are:

Windows Essentials Codec Pack: allows decoding of other file formats, such as APE audio and FLV video.

Real alternative: a package with codecs for viewing files in Real Media, such as RMA audio and RMVB and RMVB video.

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Codecs and bit rates, how much do they influence the quality of MP3s?

The importance of codecs

Everything that has been written about the bit rate is valid
“with the same codec”, ie with the same algorithm
Coding, but the quality of the algorithms is very variable,
since the perception model, fundamental control of the levels of
compression.

Those who are best able to mimic natural perception will get it
the best results since the cutoff frequencies will be
least audible and significant, while a codec with a perceptual model
Unrealistic creates flat and empty passages of important frequencies.

In addition, a bad codec easily introduces “artifacts”; or
Sounds that are not available in the original originate from poor quantization
of some frequencies, especially if the original is not perfect.

Like most things in the computer world, codecs are evolving
In addition to the codec type, it is important that it is current and updated
for increasingly powerful algorithms.

Codecs fall into two categories: “fast”
and slow “. The most important fast codecs include blade,
QDesign and Xing, fast compression, but low to medium quality,
among the slow but high quality Fraunhofer and Lame are these
latest free and especially valid for high bit rates.

You can achieve good results with Fraunhofer coding
Most listeners cannot do this even at 128 Kbit / s and 320 Kbit / s
Distinguish MP3 from the original while compressing with Xing
o Blade with 128 Kbit / s can detect obvious artifacts and only with 256 Kbit / s
Audio reaches the quality of an MP3 compressed with 128 Kbit / s
Fraunhofer.

The just released Xing algorithm had the advantage of lower costs
Rights compared to Fraunhofer and faster coding speed
(It was also the first to implement variable bit rate VBR coding), but
Today’s processor performance is like that. for this
Factor is less important.

The lame algorithm has the advantage that no fees have to be paid
and of remarkable quality, especially at high bit rates – an MP3 from
128 Kbit / s encoded with Lame are less than one compressed with Fraunhofer.
but significantly better than Xing, and 256 Kbit / s Lame has the same quality
Fraunhofer.

At the moment, Lame is the best option for those who
You can afford larger files, while those that need to be careful
about the size, maybe because they have to offer files on an amateur website
or because they have an MP3 player with limited memory, they can pay well
Get a Fraunhofer encoder.

Xing, Blade, and other faster algorithms are not recommended, though
Pay attention to quality.

General quality and bit rate considerations
So that most listeners are of acceptable quality,
using a quality codec like Fraunhofer the bit rate that is normally used
(128 kbps, 1 MB per minute) is usually sufficient, especially if
Songs have a limited frequency range.

For some traces or for more sensitive ears a
highest bit rate, e.g. B. 256 Kbit / s (2 MB per minute, 1/5 of
Corresponding WAV).

64 kbit / s bit rates are always insufficient and with low quality codecs
like Xing or Blade are practically unknown.

Finally, we have to dispel a false myth: it is not possible to point it out
Music genres that need a higher bit rate, classical music too
Sometimes it can be made acceptable at 128 kbps because
Use restricted frequencies, while some rock or pop songs can
suffer because synthesizer tones and human voices are
easily exposed to the “artifact” effect.

Only lyrical music that has always been the most difficult
play and jazz (with cymbals,
Artifacts easy to suffer) certainly not suitable for MP3 and require bit rates
higher.

However, the results vary from song to song and are not
possible to give a general rule. It must be remembered that the audiophile,
The hi-fi musician or hobbyist can almost always
Distinguish an MP3 file with 320 Kbit / s from the original on the audio CD.
So if you have storage space, WAV files or codecs without loss of information
like WMA9 Lossless or FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) always have a quality
Consider MP3, even if they are two to four times larger than
an MP3 with 320 Kbit / s.