How media codecs shape our digital world

Media codecs significantly impact our daily lives. Whether you’re watching a streaming video, joining a video call, or listening to a podcast, codecs ensure smooth, fast, and reliable content delivery. These technologies make digital communication and entertainment more efficient and accessible. By compressing and decompressing audio and video files, media codecs enable high-quality streaming across a wide range of devices and platforms—helping to reduce file sizes, save bandwidth, and maintain playback quality in today’s digital media landscape.

Knowing the types of codecs

Codecs are classified based on function and purpose. Some focus on audio or video, while others function as encoders, decoders, or both. They can be lossy, compressing files by permanently removing some data to reduce file size, or lossless, preserving all original data by removing only unnecessary metadata. Additionally, codecs can be software-based or hardware-based, with hardware codecs designed for optimized performance on dedicated devices.

• Audio codecs: WMA, AC3/EAC3, iLBC, LPCM, MP3, AAC/HE-AAC, ADPCM, etc.
• Video codecs: WMV, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, DivX3, H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, etc.

The table on the left lists the main libraries for HW accelerated encoding/decoding.

Open-source vs. Proprietary options for multimedia applications

Regarding accessibility, codecs can be open-source or proprietary, with licensing requirements that impact their integration into various products and services. Because of these differences, we offer a deep understanding of codec technology to help make the right choice for any multimedia application. For more details, please read our article on the Differences Between GPL and LGPL for Licensed Software.

We also developed Fluster, an open-source tool designed to streamline codec testing. Fluster is a Python-based framework for decoder conformance testing, making verifying codec compliance and functionality easier.

Low-latency and adaptive protocols for real-time applications

Low-latency streaming protocols are essential for real-time applications, where minimizing delay is critical. With expertise in protocols like WebRTC and the newer WebTransport, we enable seamless, low-latency communication for interactive and live-streaming experiences.

Additionally, we specialize in HTTP-based streaming protocols such as HLS and DASH, which are widely used for delivering adaptive, high-quality media over the Internet. This blend of real-time and HTTP streaming protocol experience allows us to create solutions optimized for various streaming needs, from live broadcasts to on-demand content delivery, ensuring a smooth and responsive viewing experience.