A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau (a blending of two or more words) of 'compressor-decompressor' or, more accurately, 'coder-decoder'. Historically a modem was a contraction of modulator/demodulator (modem was called dataset by telcos) and converted digital data from computers to analog for phone line transmission. On the receiving end the analog was converted back to digital. CODECs did… (More on Codec)