Format, Codec, Container File

nirvanray wrote on 9/5/2015, 9:07 AM

For a layman all these three terms-----Format, Codec, Container File might seem same.

But I as a film-maker want to be aware of the differences.

The google pages /results are bit complicated and overboard with techhnical jargos,

Can anyone be kind enough to explain them please?

Regards.

Anirban

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 9/6/2015, 3:03 PM

Hi Anirban

The following should help:-

Format - specifies the actual internal structure of the file - ie how the data is stored in the file.

Codec - short for Compressor-Decoder - the 'program' that takes the data and manipulates it in such a way as to take up less space in the file - compression, then when the file is read the data is restored back to its full size - decoding

Container file - a standad format file, sometimes known as a 'wrapper', which can contain other format files - eg MOV and MP4 are container files and can contain files encoded with for example the h.264 or Mpeg-2 codec.

HTH

John EB