Glossary for Geospatial Science

codec:  Short for compressor-decompressor.  The term applies to any technology used for compressing and decompressing data.  QuickTime Player and Windows Media Player use codec technologies.

Codec can also stand for coder-decoder.  In this context it refers to an analog to digital and digital to analog converter that converts real-world signals to digital form and back again.  Codecs can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both.