Codecs is a device consisting of coder and decoder. This device is typically used in video conferencing, media streaming, video editing, audio recording and broadcasting, or any analog data to be sent in a digital medium. It converts analog signals or data into a digital format, 1 and 0, and then transmits it to a digital channel[RS1] . On the transmitter side, the coder is converting the analog signal to binary data. On the destination side[RS2] , on the other hand, the digital formatted signal is extracted and reprocessed by the decoder to get the original analog one.

Codecs is categorized into two; the lossy and lossless codecs. A lossy codecs uses lossy compression technologies such as intra-frame and inter-frame. It cannot re-process the original information; instead it gives a facsimile of the original file. The lossless codecs can reproduce the exact file as the original during decompression. Some of the more commonly used lossless codecs compression/decompression techniques are PKZIP, PNG, Apple animation and Lagarith. Some of the most popular codecs compression/decompression technologies used today are PKZIP for data, JPEG, GIF, PNG for still images, MP3 and AAC for audio, Cinepak, MPEG-2/MPEG family, H.264 and VP8 for video.

There are some important things to consider in buying a codecs device. The first is to consider the application range. Take PC audio for instance. The codecs must be applicable or can support PC audio. Each device is optimized for a specific application to get the best result. Another thing to consider is the quality of the sample rate. It must be high quality. Other important things to check are dynamic range (DNR) and signal to noise ratio (S/N). A higher DNR and S/N are indicators of a high-quality codecs[RS3] .