CHAPTER 10 Delivery
File Types
Containers and Codecs
A container functions as a wrapper that holds digital audio information, along with metadata, whereas a codec, an abbreviation of coder/decoder, is an algorithm designed to compress and decompress digital audio information. In other words, containers specify the organization of the data within them (for example, interleaving video/audio data in chunks for streaming purposes), while codecs provide various ways of storing data so the digital information occupies less space.
Codecs employ one of two compression methods, lossless or lossy. Lossless algorithms compress data to about half the size of the original, yet allow that data to be reconstructed perfectly during decoding. Lossy codecs, however, ...
Get Recording Classical Music now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
