In communication systems, the term refers to components in the transmitter (contains a coder) and receiver (contains a decoder) which transform the data stream between the internal representation and a signal suitable for the physical media between the transmitter/receiver. Such CoDec pairs commonly perform exotic [ErrorCorrection] and insert synchronisation and timestamping features into the stream.
Along similar lines, on desktop computers, the term refers to a library (or a set thereof) which encapsulates access to a certain data format (commonly audio or video). The term is usually used in relation to [MediaPlayer]s, who commonly use [CoDec]s as interchangable backends to support various media formats. For example, to view [DivX] files on your computer you will need a [DivX] CoDec for your MediaPlayer.
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