FAQ

Why are you doing this?

Multimedia encoding & the digital compression space is an incredible field that many tech enthusiasts, professionals, & laymen have no easy entry point to. Wikipedia has a vast amount of information on many of the individual topics covered here but doesn't offer a cohesive way to engage with the entire sphere of knowledge as a whole. While this site started as a lighthearted guide (you'll see the remnants of this strewn about the various wiki entries), it has quickly become an endeavor to unite digital compression aficionados to make the knowledge more accessible for all.

But alternatives exist. Why not contribute there?

While this is true, this is easier said than done.

• Multimedia Wiki is not as active as it used to be, & a new effort makes sense to carry past efforts forward.

• guide.encode.moe is stagnant and mostly focused on fansub, docs & personal experiences that are scattered around the Internet.

• There are sources littered about that explain pieces of the larger puzzle, but these serve as small drops in a bucket of vast incoherency & don't meaningfully remedy the steep learning curve for understanding multimedia compression without background knowledge.

How do I get started as a contributor?

See our Contribution Guide page in the sidebar.

Why "Codec Wiki"?

This wiki is mostly going to be focused on multimedia compression, & the term "Codec" is already widely recognized & understood. While other topics like video filtering & general compression algorithms may be covered, the main focus remains multimedia compression.