Video is a visual medium that uses a sequence of images or frames to create the illusion of movement. These frames are played at a rapid speed, typically 24 frames per second, to create the illusion of continuous motion.
Analog video uses physical signals to capture and display images, while digital video uses binary code to represent and store images. Digital video typically has a higher quality and can be easily edited and shared, while analog video is prone to degradation and can be more difficult to manipulate.
Video compression is the process of reducing the size of a video file without significantly affecting its quality. This is done by removing redundant or unnecessary information from the video, such as frames that are similar to each other or areas of the image that do not change. This allows for smaller file sizes and faster streaming or downloading.
Codecs, or compression/decompression algorithms, are essential for playing video files. They encode the video data during compression and decode it during playback. Without codecs, video files would be extremely large and difficult to play back.
Video encoding is the process of converting a raw video file into a compressed format, while decoding is the process of converting a compressed video file back into a raw format for playback. This involves using codecs to compress and decompress the video data, as well as other techniques such as color space conversion and audio compression.