Codec, What’s a Codec? A Technophobes Guide to Digital Video Joann Flick Agency for Instructional Technology
A Very Brief Overview of Digital Video Transmission Technologies What the heck… Why you need to know… How to use this information and explain it to others…
Kbps Mbps Modem Codec MPEG ISDN DSL LAN WAN T-1 POTS
POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service AKA dial-up connection What most people use from home to access the Internet (really) Size: soda straw Kbps
ISDN/DSL ISDN: Integrated Systems Digital Network (64 Kbps) DSL Digital Subscriber Line (512 Kbps) Both use regular phone lines to bring higher-speed connectivity Size: garden hose (at least 3 times to 10 times as big as the soda straw)
T-1 A long-distance, point-to-point, dedicated line that usually connects a computer network to the Internet Mbps Size: a drainage pipe (3-10 times the size of the garden hose)
LAN/WAN = Ethernet Using copper wire(twisted pair) or coaxial cable, the most popular way of networking a bunch of computers within a building or campus Fast, broad pipeline: Mbps Size: a drainage culvert (6-60 times the size of the T-1 line)
Wireless LAN Everything a LAN/WAN is, except the wires Uses transmitters and receivers to move data around a network
Cable Broadband Using a digital device, access to the Internet across existing cable TV service lines Hefty bandwidth capacity: up to 500 Mbps Size: A big drainage culvert (twice to 5 times the size of Ethernet)
Datacasting Uses a digital TV signal to send data to a receiving device connected to a computer It’s a DOWNSTREAM delivery system Lots of capacity (10-15 MBPS) Size: drainage Culvert
Codec
Video Codec Codec: Compression-Decompression or Coder-Decoder…a program for compressing all the millions of pixels in a video file so that it can be transmitted, decoded, and viewed. Not every single pixel of every single frame is transmitted, the Codec uses a kind of short hand to transmit enough info to construct the moving image.
Types of Codecs MPEG (1, 2, 4, 7…and more…) Quicktime MP3 (for audio)
Codecs: how do they look? 48k
Codecs: How do they look? 1.5M
48K 1.5 M
Why?
Less information transmitted = less bandwidth consumed