On board audio

Hi,

I've been told that on board audio chips are "codec based", but what exactly
does that mean? Is a codec unique to on board sound, or do regular sound
cards use them as well?

And besides the codec, what exactly are the differences compared to regular
soundcards? For example, I read somewhere that when watching DVD, the
surroundchannels of (some) on board chips can only be accessed by the DVD
player intended to use with that chip, and PowerDVD for example can't make
use of them.

TIA

Halfgaar
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