What are the best and most recent audio codecs that I can use with dvdr on my super multi drive on my MacBook Pro to make backups of my purchased non blu ray video collection?
A codec, a short form that takes the first two and three letters of compressor-decompressor or coder-decoder, is a computer program or device that is able to encode and decode information in a digital signal or data stream.
Codecs are software programs that can encode a data signal for storage, encryption or transfer. For example, in the case of audio codecs, audio transmissions are encrypted into digital data for transmission then decoded back to audio for use.
There are different types of codecs for different media types, like audio and video. There are also different grades of codecs, generally when data is compressed and decompressed from audio or video to data and back there is a decrease in quality. This class of codec is referred to as “lossy” indicating some loss. There are also “lossless” codecs that are most often used for large data files.
More important for your question than the type of recordable device you plan to use is the video program that you want to use. Different media players use different codecs. There is a popular QuickTime code called AC3 that plays AC3 audio in AVI files. In order to use this codec, you need to have installed DivX 5.1 to load the file into QuickTime. Then, using Mac OSX, you can put the AC3Codec.Component into the /Library/QuickTime folder. If you are using Mac OSX Leopard you might have noticed problems trying to play .avi video files in DivX, or you might not be getting any sound, if so, there are a couple QuickTime codecs available here http://installingcats.com/2007/11/30/play-avi-divx-codec-movies-on-quicktime-in-mac-os-x-leopard/ as well as detailed instructions for download and use.
There is another codec package called Perian that calls advertises itself as “the Swiss Army Knife for QuickTime”. It is a free download, available at http://perian.org/ that includes support for numerous media file types. There are some media types, for example WMA files that are not supported by Perian, for which you can download Flip4Mac to use with the QuickTime player. You should also visit http://labs.divx.com/codec for the absolute latest in codec releases and check out the advice offered for your specific system requirements.
Kate Dubensky | September 22nd, 2008
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