Video Codec - definition
A video codec is software or hardware that compresses and decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, codec is a portmanteau of encoder and decoder, while a device that only compresses is typically called an encoder, and one that only decompresses is a decoder. Common video codecs (also called video format) include MPEG-4/H. 264 and WebM(VP8). Common Audio codecs are AAC and MP3.