Essay On Codecs

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Codec Essay Introduction: This Essay will discuss Codecs; it will explain the definition of codecs and their functions and include a brief history on digital signals, equipment and standards. It will also discuss compression and compression formats such as Lossless and Lossy and files such as FLAC and ALAC History of Codecs: Equipment The history of audio recording first started on 6th December 1877 when Thomas Edison made the very first recording of a human voice singing Mary had a little lamb “on the first tinfoil cylinder phonograph” (Schoenherr, 2005). Later that month John Kruesi built the first practical machine using this equipment from a sketch given by Edison, however it was Edison and his tinfoil phonograph which was the first to succeed in recording the human voice. Development of recording devices continued throughout the late 19th century with disc-style gramophones and phonographs being the most popular for recording for not only the human voice but also for music. 1905 Victrola was recognised as the “industry’s premiere disc phonograph” (VLE, 2008). This was also the time when the 78 RPM disc became standard (Holmes, 2006). In the 1920’s a combination of amplified systems, electrical recording and advent of magnetic recording helped drive on the recording industry for the next couple of centuries. For example in 1963 the audio cassette tape format was introduced and became popular amongst audio enthusiasts. Sony then developed the first digital recording device in 1978 and this was used mainly by professional studio users. The first commercial digital audio player which used compact discs became available in 1988 followed by mini discs in 1992. Digital audio players which used the MP3 format became highly successf... ... middle of paper ... ... due to mismatched impedances or reflections in the signal path” (Smith, 2013). Another cause could be an “electromagnetic interference and crosstalk with other signals” (Rouse, 2008) as a result events could happen where a computer can’t perform at its best due to the fact it cannot process some many signals at once and could result in data being lost between network devices Codec Diagram: In this diagram the sound source starts at the microphones the reason there are two mics is because a microphone has only one channel so in order to get a stereo output we have two mics. They then get revamped in terms of converting the signal from analogue to digital through encoders and decoders. The signal travels into a port interface and then travels back around again and again is encoded and decoded for us to then be able to listen to the output through our headphones.

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