imported>Danhash: digital audio

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{{Short description|Device or program that encodes/decodes audio data in some bitstream format}}
An '''audio codec''' is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream (a [[codec]]) that encodes or decodes [[Digital audio|audio]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/faq/codec.mspx |title=Using codecs |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=2009-12-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/glossary/g/codec.htm |title=About.com - Codec |publisher=About.com |access-date=2009-12-21 |archive-date=2015-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405161202/http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/glossary/g/codec.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/codec.cfm | title=Glossary - Codec |publisher=Afterdawn.com |access-date=2009-12-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ubuntu Documentation - What is a codec? |url=https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/musicvideophotos/C/codecs.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219101738/https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/musicvideophotos/C/codecs.html |archive-date=February 19, 2012 |access-date=2009-12-21 |publisher=Ubuntu Documentation Team}}</ref> In software, an audio codec is a computer program implementing an algorithm that [[Audio compression (data)|compresses and decompresses]] digital audio data according to a given audio file or streaming media [[audio coding format]]. The objective of the algorithm is to represent the high-fidelity audio signal with a minimum number of bits while retaining quality. This can effectively reduce the storage space and the [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] required for transmission of the stored audio file. Most software codecs are implemented as [[Library (computing)|libraries]] which interface to one or more [[Media player (software)|multimedia players]]. Most modern audio compression algorithms are based on [[modified discrete cosine transform]] (MDCT) coding and [[linear predictive coding]] (LPC).

In hardware, audio codec refers to a single device that encodes analog audio as digital signals and decodes digital back into analog. In other words, it contains both an [[analog-to-digital converter]] (ADC) and [[digital-to-analog converter]] (DAC) running off the same [[clock signal]]. This is used in [[sound card]]s that support both audio in and out, for instance. Hardware audio codecs send and receive digital data using [[Bus (computing)|buses]] such as [[AC'97]], [[SoundWire]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mipi.org/blog/mipi-soundwire-v1.2-boosts-flexibility-for-integrating-mobile-audio-interfaces | title=MIPI SoundWire v1.2 | Integrating Mobile Audio Interfaces }}</ref> [[I²S]], [[Serial Peripheral Interface Bus|SPI]], [[I²C]], etc. Most commonly the digital data is [[linear PCM]], and this is the only format that most codecs support, but some legacy codecs support other formats such as [[G.711]] for telephony.

==See also==
* [[Comparison of audio coding formats]]
* [[List of codecs]]
* [[List of open-source codecs]]
* [[Transcoding]]
* [[Video codec]]

{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Audio_codec-article.ogg|date=2016-04-03}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Compression Methods|state = collapsed}}
{{Audio broadcasting|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Audio Codec}}
[[Category:Audio codecs| ]]
[[Category:Data compression]]

Audio codec - Revision history

imported>Danhash: digital audio