What is encode? What encoding means in technology and electronics

If you work in information technology or electronics, or are simply looking into data conversion work, you have almost certainly come across the term Encode. It refers to the process of encoding, and it helps a great deal in information processing. To better understand what Encode is, read the details in the article below from Mona Media.

What is Encode?

Encode is the process of encoding, also called converting data from one form to another, to meet what is needed when processing information. As a noun, encoding usually refers to data that has already been encoded, such as audio, characters, images or video. The Encode process includes these steps:

• Running a compiler.
• Transferring, decompressing, compressing and storing data.
• Processing data by converting files and applications.

To save space, encoding is often used to store multimedia files on disks. Some basic formats of data after encoding are Wave converted to MP3 (about 1/10 the size of the original Wave) and MPEG compressed into digital video (DV) files (components of disk space).

-> Learn more now: What is Decode? What is the difference between encoding and decoding?

Types of Encode

Encode currently comes in 3 common types: audio encoding, character encoding and image encoding.

• Audio encoding is the process of converting frequency oscillations, amplitude, wavelength, period and propagation speed into another form. Advanced Audio Coding is the most modern audio encoding format today and fixes the weak points of MP3.
• Character encoding is the process of converting plain text into a form people can see but cannot easily read without a way to decode it.
• Image encoding also converts an ordinary image format into another format, so that when it is sent over a network, others cannot see what is inside.

What Encode means in information technology

Encode as character encoding

Have you ever wondered how a computer can read and display the characters you type? It is thanks to the character encoding process of Encode in information technology. To show a character on screen, the computer's memory must hold an encoded format of that character. Computer memory usually stores data as bytes or bits. When you type text, each character takes a specific byte in memory to be converted.

Encode and the Unicode encoding model

The Unicode encoding model assigns each character in each language a code, with a shared concept called a Code Point. Unicode is used like the ASCII standard, giving each character a code point. Compared with other encoding models, Unicode's first 256 code points are the same as ASCII. So it is not surprising that a browser or software can encode the characters of living languages simply and quickly.

What Encode means in electronics

Encode as video file format conversion

In electronics, Encode is the process of converting video file formats, also called video transcoding. The videos we watch on computers and phones have all been converted from the original video so viewers can watch them in many formats.

This solves the problem of devices that only support certain video formats. In electronics, video exists in many forms and carries specific variables, such as MOV containers. Different devices and browsers have different specifications and depend on different variables.

Encoding methods for video

There are many ways to encode video digitally, but the best approach is to avoid encoding altogether by recording video in the required format. For example, if you record in AVI and then convert to MPEG, the encoding adds nothing. Save video as MPEG as soon as you capture it, so you keep high quality and don't need to re-encode.

If encoding cannot be avoided, go from a high-quality source to a lower-quality one to avoid degrading the result. It's usually best to start from a compressed format so uploads to other platforms are fast and cause fewer problems. The last step is editing and encoding the video on certain disk settings.

Video encoding services in the cloud

Some people wonder whether to encode video in the cloud. In practice, encoding in-house has a clear advantage: you get more control over the whole workflow. Compared with a third-party cloud video encoding service, it is also more convenient. Managing all video encoding in-house also lets you handle large video files that need a lot of bandwidth.

Editing and moving video through a cloud encoding system takes quite a lot of time, so you end up working on a poor-quality cloud. In-house encoding has limits too: setting up and maintaining the encoding software needs a large server cluster. That means you need real IT specialists to handle these tasks.

Processing also slows down a lot when encoding large numbers of videos. The cost of setting up, maintaining and developing an encoding system is higher than using a third party's cloud video encoding service. In-house encoding helps you avoid unnecessary tasks, but only when your bandwidth needs are ordinary. There are real risks if you encode too many videos and bandwidth cannot keep up.

In essence, if a video's current format and target format differ, you need encoding to convert it to a suitable format to meet exact specifications. The only challenge with cloud encoding is handling large video files.

This article has covered the basics of Encode. We hope it helps you answer what Encode is and understand the term better.

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