Learning
Codec and container
A codec encodes and decodes audio or video data. A container holds those streams together with information such as subtitles and metadata. Knowing a file’s container, such as MOV or MP4, does not fully describe how its contents are encoded.
A codec encodes and decodes audio or video data. A container holds those streams together with information such as subtitles and metadata. Knowing a file’s container, such as MOV or MP4, does not fully describe how its contents are encoded. Library of Congress example
First published 18 July 2026 · Revision 1 · Substantive changes to this entry are dated here.