Codecs

Why do I need a codec?

AVI files can be very large if a LEAD Codec is not used. Live video can contain between 24 to 30 frames per second. A TV quality frame (640x480x24bits/pixel) consumes around 921,000 bytes. This equates to 27MB per second of just video data alone. As an example without a LEAD codec, a CD (650MB) can only store 24 seconds of video. Even if size did not matter, storage devices (CD or hard disk) generally are not fast enough to handle this amount of data.

LEAD Video Codecs featuring iCompress
H.264 Codec	MPEG-4 Codec		MPEG-2 Codec	H.263 Codec
MCMW Codec	MCMP/MJPEG Codec		MJPEG2000 Codec	MPEG-2 Transport Demultiplexers
LEAD Audio Codecs featuring iCompress
AAC	Vorbis Codec	AMR

Codecs (Compress-Decompress) are required for encoding (creating) and decoding (playing) audio and video files. With the LEAD iCompress codecs, you can compress large media files with no perceivable loss of quality. Our industry leading compression technology, iCompress, provides you with opportunities to take any video content, and compress it up to only 20% of its original file size, making it easier to stream online, place on popular handheld devices (such as the PSP or iPod) or share with family, friends, or business associates.

LEAD Codecs with iCompress technologies are the unprecedented leader in audio and video compression technology. LEAD codecs deliver the highest quality sound and high definition images to your multimedia formats. Supporting both industry standard formats, as well as integrating our own industry leading compression algorithms, LEAD codecs can produce the highest quality formats at the smallest file size.

LEAD Codecs featuring iCompress - intelligent audio and video compression.

Glossary of Terms

B (Bi-directional) frames: B frames are encoded using both previous and next frames as reference and are better compressed than P frames and I frames.
codec: A codec is technology (software or hardware) that compress and decompress data. By using codecs for compressing audio and video data into smaller packets that do not consume as much hard disk space or network bandwidth, multimedia applications can provide richer and fuller content.
I (Intraframe) frames: I frames are encoded without reference to another frame, providing support for random access. See also P frames and B frames.
interframe: Interframe compressors compress the differences between adjacent frames. Generally, the interframe algorithms provide higher compression ratios than intraframe algorithms. The trade-off to the higher compression ratios of interframe compressions is speed. Inter-frame compressors usually can not compress video in real time, while intraframe compression can do real time compression. LEAD offers the following interframe compressors: H.264, H.263 and MPEG/MPEG-2
intraframe: Each transmitted video image or sample is compressed independently. LEAD offers the following intraframe compressors: MCMP/MJPEG, MJPEG2000 and MCMW
lossless compression: Compression techniques can be categorized into two groups, lossless and lossy. When data has been compressed using a lossless compression technique, the result of the decompression will be bit for bit exactly the same as the original data before compression. Generally, lossless compression can not achieve anywhere near the compression ratios of that of lossy compression. The following LEAD codecs offer lossless data compression: MJPEG2000 and MCMW.
lossy compression: Compression techniques can be categorized into two groups, lossless and lossy. When data is compressed using a lossy compression technique, the result of the decompression will not exactly match the original. Most lossy compression techniques allow you to control how much loss (quality or q-factor). The following LEAD codecs offer lossy compression: H.264, H.263, MPEG/MPEG-2, MCMP/MJPEG, MJPEG2000 and MCMW
P (Predictive) frames: P frames are encoded using the previous frame as reference. P frames are more highly compressed than I frames.
SAD HADAMAR: SAD HADAMARD is a calculation of the sum of absolute difference indirectly by applying HADAMARD transform to the block before calculating SAD increasing the compression ratio. The following LEAD codecs make use of SAD HADAMAR: H264
temporal compression: Temporal compression is the process of only encoding the difference between successive frames, instead of the frames themselves. Any given frame is constructed from the prediction from a previous frame and may be used to predict the next frame. The following LEAD codecs make use of temporal compression: H264
wavelet: Wavelet transforms are mathematical formulas that represent complex structures in an image, thereby compressing an extremely large amount of image data into a relatively small amount of compressed data. This compression technique allows applications to save compressed imagesor videos with higher compression ratios and better quality as compared to any other intraframe compression technique. The following LEAD codecs make use of wavelet compression: H.264, H.263, MJPEG2000 and MCMW