Look up codec terms quickly, from bitrate and containers to GOPs, transforms, and entropy coding.
Glossary

Codec

Term
Guide

A readable reference page for the words you keep running into when learning about audio and video codecs.

This page is here so readers can jump from beginner explanations into more technical terms without getting lost.
Definitions • Concepts • Jargon Help

How to use this page

Beginner: look up unfamiliar words.

Intermediate: connect terms to real workflows.

Advanced: use it as a quick refresher.

Core terms

Codec

A method or standard used to compress and decompress audio or video data.

Container

A file format that holds one or more media streams, such as MP4, MKV, or WebM.

Bitrate

The amount of data used per second of audio or video, usually measured in kbps or Mbps.

GOP

Group of Pictures. A sequence of related frames including keyframes and predictive frames.

Quantization

The step where precision is reduced to save bits. This is a major source of loss in lossy codecs.

Psychoacoustics

The study of how humans perceive sound, used by codecs to decide what matters most to hearing.