#video decoder

If you’ve used (or still using) MX Player for watching videos on your Android device, then chances are you’ve come across the H/W and S/W video decoders. Definition First of all let’s understand what a video decoder is and what purpose it serves. Video decoder, as its name implies, allows a device to process a video file in order to be viewed on that device. The responsibility of decoding the video is typically delegated to a hardware component, the multimedia chipset to be exact, which specifically meant to handle this task – hence the term Hardware Decoding or H/W for short. There are, however, some instances that the video decoding is passed on to the device’s processor. Although the video decoding is still handled by a hardware component – in this case the CPU – the process actually requires a software, thus being called Software Video Decoding or S/W. Playback Quality Just to set things clear, neither H/W nor S/W can magically turn a low quality video file in to a high definition clip. Therefore, the quality of media playback is, first and foremost, dependent on the actual video file. Read more in our articles including "What are H/W and S/W Video Decoders?" and "Best Budget Tablets for Back-to-School 2026 | Under P10,000".