- Messages
- 6,174
There is a lot of stuff so I'll just split it in few posts.
Source is cnet asia site.
A to D
AC-3 - Audio coding 3 (see Dolby Digital).
ACATS - Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service; special FCC committee that recommended DTV standards in 1997.
After color temp - Geek box term. The color temperature at a given brightness level after grayscale calibration. Usually expressed in degrees K; ideally as close to 6,500K as possible.
After grayscale variation - Geek box term. After calibration, the average amount of variation from an ideal of 6,500K, measured over the entire range of the grayscale--typically 20 to 100 IRE in 10-IRE increments.
ALiS - ALiS (alternate lighting of surfaces) technology developed by Fujitsu/Hitachi for plasma panel displays. On a conventional plasma TV, all pixels are illuminated at all times. With an ALiS plasma panel, alternate rows of pixels are illuminated so that half the panel's pixels are illuminated at any moment, somewhat similarly to interlaced scanning on a CRT-type TV. This allows higher native resolution than designs with discrete pixels (typically 1,024x1,024 versus 1,024x768 for 42-inch plasmas), but ALiS has historically suffered in other areas, including black-level performance.
Analog hole - A perceived chink in the armor protecting copyrighted content from unauthorized distribution--for example, over the Internet. Currently HDTV and other high-bandwidth content can be converted from analog to digital format and distributed widely. The MPAA wants to "plug" the analog hole by placing watermark detection capability in analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), which convert analog audio and video into digital form.
Anamorphic - Adopted from the film technique of shooting a wide-screen image on a square 35mm frame, it's the process of compressing wide-screen images to fit into the squarer standard 4:3 television signal. The images are then expanded for viewing in their original format on a wide-screen display device. Wide-screen or letterboxed DVDs that are not anamorphic have less detail when projected on a wide-screen monitor. In other words, a nonanamorphic wide-screen DVD is designed to be shown letterboxed on a standard "square" TV but appears with a black box all around the image when shown on a larger 16:9 wide-screen TV. To fill a 16:9 screen, a nonanamorphic DVD has to be blown up, resulting in loss of resolution and detail. Conversely, a DVD that is anamorphic, enhanced for 16:9, or enhanced for wide-screen delivers 33 percent more resolution than regular letterboxed transfers, is designed to be shown on a 16:9 TV, and does not need to be blown up. When one of these DVDs is shown on a "square" TV, it is often subject to anamorphic downconversion artifacts unless the TV has a vertical compression feature.
Anamorphic downconversion - Processing present in all DVD players that converts the image from an anamorphic DVD for display on a regular 4:3 TV. In the initial setup of a DVD player is a choice between a 16:9 or a 4:3 TV; the 4:3 options engage this processing, which often introduces artifacts such as jaggies and undulations during pans.
Anamorphic squeeze - See vertical compression.
ANSI - American National Standards Institute, a professional measurements and standards group.
ANSI lumens - Light-output specification set in 1993 used mainly to measure brightness of front-projection televisions; more exact than undefined lumens. The average 7-inch, CRT front-projection television is capable of between 150 and 175 ANSI lumens, while 9-inch CRT sets emit between 200 and 240. DLP and LCD projectors range from 600 to 7,000, depending on the model.
Artifact - Any abnormality in a video image; typically results from digital processing, the interlaced-scanning method, the conversion from one video format to another, or signal transmission issues.
Aspect ratio - The relationship between the width and height of an image; the standard DTV wide-screen ratio is 16:9 (1.78:1), as compared to the squarer NTSC ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1).
ATRC - Advanced Television Research Consortium, an organization of several large consumer electronics companies, research facilities, and broadcast entities that developed U.S. high-definition television (HDTV) standards.
ATSC - Advanced Television Systems Committee, a government-sanctioned, industry-led standard-setting body that adopted the official DTV standard for the United States in 1997. The acronym also refers to the DTV and HDTV standards.
ATVEF - Advanced Television Enhancement Forum, a coalition of broadcasters as well as hardware and software makers that created a standard for interactive data broadcasting, most of which would be broadcast as part of HD transmissions. These standards are currently under consideration by Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). The group discontinued operations on November 1, 2003.
Before color temp - Geek box term. The color temperature at a given brightness level before grayscale calibration. Usually expressed in degrees Kelvin; ideally as close to 6,500K as possible.
Before grayscale variation - Geek box term. Before calibration, using the television's best available presets, the average amount of variation from an ideal of 6,500K, measured over the entire range of the grayscale--typically 20 to 100 IRE in 10-IRE increments.
Bit rate - Typically measured in megabits per second (Mbps); used to express the rate at which data is transmitted or processed. For digital television, including digital satellite and cable TV, DVD and HDTV, the higher the bit rate, the more data that is processed and, typically, the higher the picture quality. The DVD format allows up to 9.8Mbps, while HDTV requires 19.25Mbps for full- bandwidth transmission.
Black level - The intensity of black in the television picture, frequently referred to as brightness; adjusted to compensate for ambient room light. Black level is set with a TV's brightness control using a PLUGE test pattern. Setting black level correctly is critical to overall picture quality, particularly the ability to see detail in dimly lit scenes of a movie. The term also refers to the ability of a display to produce an inky, deep black, which is often a problem in fixed-pixel displays.
Broadcast flag - Copy-protection scheme for over-the-air DTV broadcasts that restricts recording of "flagged" shows. Its function applies only to digital outputs on DTV devices, specifically DTV receivers, TVs, and PC-based DTV tuner cards. Forthcoming flag-compliant products will refuse to digitally output/transfer any flagged show to a nonflagged legacy device or software.
Blu-ray - Format for next-generation recordable HD DVD that uses a shorter-wave blue laser and is supported by most major DVD manufacturers. A single-sided, single-layer disc can hold 25GB of data.
Calibration - In televisions, the process of adjusting a picture to comply with standards used in DVD and HDTV production.
CEA - Consumer Electronics Association, the principal industry association for companies that manufacture consumer electronics.
CEDIA - Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association, the industry group for installers of home-theater, multizone audio, phone, security, lighting, and other home equipment.
Chrominance - Technical name for the TV signal that carries the color information (red, green, and blue) needed to produce a color picture; often called chroma.
Chrominance-to-luminance delay - Video artifact caused by the color signal lagging the brightness signal; appears as color smearing on the left edges of some onscreen objects; easiest to see with a test pattern that has a colored vertical stripe running down the middle of a white field.
Color decoder - Component in all televisions that translates color-signal information from the source for display on the TV. ATSC and NTSC require two separate decoder matrices. Practically speaking, many color decoders accentuate red to compensate for a blue color temperature, a phenomenon known as red push.
Color temperature - Sometimes called white balance and expressed in degrees kelvin or just Kelvins, this is the color of gray at different levels from black to white. Since color information overlays the black-and-white information in a TV signal, color temperature affects the entire range of color. The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard is 6,500K, but typically manufacturers ship their TVs with color temperatures ranging from about 7,000K to 12,000K, on the blue side of the color spectrum, to make sets as bright as possible to stand out on a brightly lit showroom sales floor. Some sets have a selectable color temperature.
Comb filter - Component in all televisions that separates the chrominance and luminance from one another in composite-video connections. Good comb filtering enhances fine detail, cleans up image outlines, and eliminates most extraneous colors. Comb filters do not affect S-Video, component-video or digital-video connections.
Component video - The elements that make up a video signal, consisting of luminance and two separate chrominance signals, expressed either as Y R-Y B-Y or Y Pb Pr.
Composite video - Analog video signal that includes vertical and horizontal synchronizing information. Since both luminance and chrominance signals are encoded together, only a single connection wire or jack is needed.
Compression - Method of electronically reducing the number of bits required to store or transmit data. The method adopted for DTV is called MPEG-2. Four full-range channels of programming and data can be compressed into the same space required by a single analog channel.
Contrast ratio - Difference between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks a display can show. The higher the contrast ratio, the greater the ability to show subtle color details and tolerate ambient room light (for example). Most contrast-ratio specs reported by manufacturers are inflated.
CPTWG - Copy Protection Technical Working Group, a committee formed by consumer electronics and computer industry companies to recommend DVD and DTV copy-protection protocols.
CRT - cathode-ray tube, the original and still the most common display technology for televisions. Invented in 1897 by German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun, the tube uses an electron beam to scan lines on the screen. It does not have an exact resolution as a fixed-pixel display does.
DC restoration - Geek box term. Measurement of how well a television is able to maintain a consistent color of black regardless of the brightness of the rest of the image.
Defeatable edge enhancement - Geek box term. Ability of a TV to not introduce any extra edge enhancement.
Deinterlacer - See line-doubler/tripler/multiplier.
Digital Cable Ready - Official term for an HDTV that conforms to the plug-and-play digital cable TV standard using POD (point of deployment) access cards, also called CableCARDs. With cable systems that comply to the standard, users can plug the cable directly into an HDTV set, then enjoy HDTV and digital cable without having to use a separate set-top box. Sets with interactive functionality are labeled Interactive Digital Cable Ready.
Digital comb filter - Device that separates the luminance and chrominance parts of a video signal in the digital domain, which provides enhanced color purity and reduced dot crawl over the analog variety. See comb filter
Direct view - Any television not based on projection technology. Most often refers to standard CRT televisions, as opposed to rear- or front-projection TVs.
Divx - Digital Video Express. Defunct pay-per-view DVD feature that played back both standard and lower-cost DVDs; Divx-enhanced DVD players had to be connected to a phone line to track additional viewings of discs but was discontinued by its primary promoter, Circuit City, in June 1999. Divx is not to be confused with DivX video format.
DivX - MPEG-4-based compressed digital video format (or codec) used for Internet distribution of movies; often called the MP3 of video. DivX Networks is the name of the company that sells DivX content and is not to be confused with Circuit City's defunct Divx DVD format.
DLP - Digital light processing. A microdisplay technology invented by Texas Instruments, DLP is based on a digital micromirror device (DMD), a chip with millions of hinged, microscopic mirrors attached, each of which corresponds to a single pixel in the projected image. Red, green, and blue light filtered through a color wheel is directed alternately onto the DMD, which switches on and off up to 5,000 times a second. The reflected light is directed through a lens and onto a screen, creating an image. High-end HDTV projectors use a three-chip solution, with separate DMDs for green, red, and blue, and forego the color wheel.
Dolby Digital - Six-channel digital audio standard that is part of the U.S. digital television standard; also called AC-3 or Digital 5.1. The channels consist of front left, front right, front center, surround or rear left, surround or rear right, and a separate subwoofer (the .1).
Downconvert - In DTV, the conversion from a higher-resolution input signal number to a lower one. For example, some DTV receivers can be set to downconvert an HDTV 1080i signal to a standard 480i signal that any TV can display.
DRM - Digital Rights Management. General term that describes a variety of technical and/or legislative efforts for securing and protecting different forms of digital content for the benefit of copyright holders.
DTCP - Digital Transmission Copy Protection. HDTV copy-protection scheme more commonly called 5C.
DTLA - Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator. The licensing organization for the 5C DTCP HDTV copy-protection technology.
DTV - Digital television. Generic term that refers to all digital television formats, including high-definition television (HDTV) and standard-definition television (SDTV).
D-VHS - Digital-VHS. Version of VHS (Video Home System) videocassette standard capable of recording HDTV via a FireWire connection; D-VHS decks are made by JVC and Mitsubishi.
DVI - Digital visual interface. Omnidirectional digital connectivity standard that conveys an uncompressed digital signal from a digital source, such as an ATSC tuner, to a display. HDCP copy protection is often used in conjunction with the DVI connection. DVI connections do not carry audio.
DVR - Digital video recorder. A television recorder such as Replay and TiVo that uses a hard drive, an EPG, and internal processing to drastically simplify programmed recording and playback of recorded programs. A DVR vastly increases recording time compared to VCRs or DVD-recording decks; often enables smart programming, in which the device records an entire series or programming defined by keywords, genre, or personnel; and offers pause control over "live" broadcasts. Also called personal video recorder (PVR) or hard disk video recorder.
Source is cnet asia site.
A to D
AC-3 - Audio coding 3 (see Dolby Digital).
ACATS - Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service; special FCC committee that recommended DTV standards in 1997.
After color temp - Geek box term. The color temperature at a given brightness level after grayscale calibration. Usually expressed in degrees K; ideally as close to 6,500K as possible.
After grayscale variation - Geek box term. After calibration, the average amount of variation from an ideal of 6,500K, measured over the entire range of the grayscale--typically 20 to 100 IRE in 10-IRE increments.
ALiS - ALiS (alternate lighting of surfaces) technology developed by Fujitsu/Hitachi for plasma panel displays. On a conventional plasma TV, all pixels are illuminated at all times. With an ALiS plasma panel, alternate rows of pixels are illuminated so that half the panel's pixels are illuminated at any moment, somewhat similarly to interlaced scanning on a CRT-type TV. This allows higher native resolution than designs with discrete pixels (typically 1,024x1,024 versus 1,024x768 for 42-inch plasmas), but ALiS has historically suffered in other areas, including black-level performance.
Analog hole - A perceived chink in the armor protecting copyrighted content from unauthorized distribution--for example, over the Internet. Currently HDTV and other high-bandwidth content can be converted from analog to digital format and distributed widely. The MPAA wants to "plug" the analog hole by placing watermark detection capability in analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), which convert analog audio and video into digital form.
Anamorphic - Adopted from the film technique of shooting a wide-screen image on a square 35mm frame, it's the process of compressing wide-screen images to fit into the squarer standard 4:3 television signal. The images are then expanded for viewing in their original format on a wide-screen display device. Wide-screen or letterboxed DVDs that are not anamorphic have less detail when projected on a wide-screen monitor. In other words, a nonanamorphic wide-screen DVD is designed to be shown letterboxed on a standard "square" TV but appears with a black box all around the image when shown on a larger 16:9 wide-screen TV. To fill a 16:9 screen, a nonanamorphic DVD has to be blown up, resulting in loss of resolution and detail. Conversely, a DVD that is anamorphic, enhanced for 16:9, or enhanced for wide-screen delivers 33 percent more resolution than regular letterboxed transfers, is designed to be shown on a 16:9 TV, and does not need to be blown up. When one of these DVDs is shown on a "square" TV, it is often subject to anamorphic downconversion artifacts unless the TV has a vertical compression feature.
Anamorphic downconversion - Processing present in all DVD players that converts the image from an anamorphic DVD for display on a regular 4:3 TV. In the initial setup of a DVD player is a choice between a 16:9 or a 4:3 TV; the 4:3 options engage this processing, which often introduces artifacts such as jaggies and undulations during pans.
Anamorphic squeeze - See vertical compression.
ANSI - American National Standards Institute, a professional measurements and standards group.
ANSI lumens - Light-output specification set in 1993 used mainly to measure brightness of front-projection televisions; more exact than undefined lumens. The average 7-inch, CRT front-projection television is capable of between 150 and 175 ANSI lumens, while 9-inch CRT sets emit between 200 and 240. DLP and LCD projectors range from 600 to 7,000, depending on the model.
Artifact - Any abnormality in a video image; typically results from digital processing, the interlaced-scanning method, the conversion from one video format to another, or signal transmission issues.
Aspect ratio - The relationship between the width and height of an image; the standard DTV wide-screen ratio is 16:9 (1.78:1), as compared to the squarer NTSC ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1).
ATRC - Advanced Television Research Consortium, an organization of several large consumer electronics companies, research facilities, and broadcast entities that developed U.S. high-definition television (HDTV) standards.
ATSC - Advanced Television Systems Committee, a government-sanctioned, industry-led standard-setting body that adopted the official DTV standard for the United States in 1997. The acronym also refers to the DTV and HDTV standards.
ATVEF - Advanced Television Enhancement Forum, a coalition of broadcasters as well as hardware and software makers that created a standard for interactive data broadcasting, most of which would be broadcast as part of HD transmissions. These standards are currently under consideration by Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). The group discontinued operations on November 1, 2003.
Before color temp - Geek box term. The color temperature at a given brightness level before grayscale calibration. Usually expressed in degrees Kelvin; ideally as close to 6,500K as possible.
Before grayscale variation - Geek box term. Before calibration, using the television's best available presets, the average amount of variation from an ideal of 6,500K, measured over the entire range of the grayscale--typically 20 to 100 IRE in 10-IRE increments.
Bit rate - Typically measured in megabits per second (Mbps); used to express the rate at which data is transmitted or processed. For digital television, including digital satellite and cable TV, DVD and HDTV, the higher the bit rate, the more data that is processed and, typically, the higher the picture quality. The DVD format allows up to 9.8Mbps, while HDTV requires 19.25Mbps for full- bandwidth transmission.
Black level - The intensity of black in the television picture, frequently referred to as brightness; adjusted to compensate for ambient room light. Black level is set with a TV's brightness control using a PLUGE test pattern. Setting black level correctly is critical to overall picture quality, particularly the ability to see detail in dimly lit scenes of a movie. The term also refers to the ability of a display to produce an inky, deep black, which is often a problem in fixed-pixel displays.
Broadcast flag - Copy-protection scheme for over-the-air DTV broadcasts that restricts recording of "flagged" shows. Its function applies only to digital outputs on DTV devices, specifically DTV receivers, TVs, and PC-based DTV tuner cards. Forthcoming flag-compliant products will refuse to digitally output/transfer any flagged show to a nonflagged legacy device or software.
Blu-ray - Format for next-generation recordable HD DVD that uses a shorter-wave blue laser and is supported by most major DVD manufacturers. A single-sided, single-layer disc can hold 25GB of data.
Calibration - In televisions, the process of adjusting a picture to comply with standards used in DVD and HDTV production.
CEA - Consumer Electronics Association, the principal industry association for companies that manufacture consumer electronics.
CEDIA - Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association, the industry group for installers of home-theater, multizone audio, phone, security, lighting, and other home equipment.
Chrominance - Technical name for the TV signal that carries the color information (red, green, and blue) needed to produce a color picture; often called chroma.
Chrominance-to-luminance delay - Video artifact caused by the color signal lagging the brightness signal; appears as color smearing on the left edges of some onscreen objects; easiest to see with a test pattern that has a colored vertical stripe running down the middle of a white field.
Color decoder - Component in all televisions that translates color-signal information from the source for display on the TV. ATSC and NTSC require two separate decoder matrices. Practically speaking, many color decoders accentuate red to compensate for a blue color temperature, a phenomenon known as red push.
Color temperature - Sometimes called white balance and expressed in degrees kelvin or just Kelvins, this is the color of gray at different levels from black to white. Since color information overlays the black-and-white information in a TV signal, color temperature affects the entire range of color. The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard is 6,500K, but typically manufacturers ship their TVs with color temperatures ranging from about 7,000K to 12,000K, on the blue side of the color spectrum, to make sets as bright as possible to stand out on a brightly lit showroom sales floor. Some sets have a selectable color temperature.
Comb filter - Component in all televisions that separates the chrominance and luminance from one another in composite-video connections. Good comb filtering enhances fine detail, cleans up image outlines, and eliminates most extraneous colors. Comb filters do not affect S-Video, component-video or digital-video connections.
Component video - The elements that make up a video signal, consisting of luminance and two separate chrominance signals, expressed either as Y R-Y B-Y or Y Pb Pr.
Composite video - Analog video signal that includes vertical and horizontal synchronizing information. Since both luminance and chrominance signals are encoded together, only a single connection wire or jack is needed.
Compression - Method of electronically reducing the number of bits required to store or transmit data. The method adopted for DTV is called MPEG-2. Four full-range channels of programming and data can be compressed into the same space required by a single analog channel.
Contrast ratio - Difference between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks a display can show. The higher the contrast ratio, the greater the ability to show subtle color details and tolerate ambient room light (for example). Most contrast-ratio specs reported by manufacturers are inflated.
CPTWG - Copy Protection Technical Working Group, a committee formed by consumer electronics and computer industry companies to recommend DVD and DTV copy-protection protocols.
CRT - cathode-ray tube, the original and still the most common display technology for televisions. Invented in 1897 by German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun, the tube uses an electron beam to scan lines on the screen. It does not have an exact resolution as a fixed-pixel display does.
DC restoration - Geek box term. Measurement of how well a television is able to maintain a consistent color of black regardless of the brightness of the rest of the image.
Defeatable edge enhancement - Geek box term. Ability of a TV to not introduce any extra edge enhancement.
Deinterlacer - See line-doubler/tripler/multiplier.
Digital Cable Ready - Official term for an HDTV that conforms to the plug-and-play digital cable TV standard using POD (point of deployment) access cards, also called CableCARDs. With cable systems that comply to the standard, users can plug the cable directly into an HDTV set, then enjoy HDTV and digital cable without having to use a separate set-top box. Sets with interactive functionality are labeled Interactive Digital Cable Ready.
Digital comb filter - Device that separates the luminance and chrominance parts of a video signal in the digital domain, which provides enhanced color purity and reduced dot crawl over the analog variety. See comb filter
Direct view - Any television not based on projection technology. Most often refers to standard CRT televisions, as opposed to rear- or front-projection TVs.
Divx - Digital Video Express. Defunct pay-per-view DVD feature that played back both standard and lower-cost DVDs; Divx-enhanced DVD players had to be connected to a phone line to track additional viewings of discs but was discontinued by its primary promoter, Circuit City, in June 1999. Divx is not to be confused with DivX video format.
DivX - MPEG-4-based compressed digital video format (or codec) used for Internet distribution of movies; often called the MP3 of video. DivX Networks is the name of the company that sells DivX content and is not to be confused with Circuit City's defunct Divx DVD format.
DLP - Digital light processing. A microdisplay technology invented by Texas Instruments, DLP is based on a digital micromirror device (DMD), a chip with millions of hinged, microscopic mirrors attached, each of which corresponds to a single pixel in the projected image. Red, green, and blue light filtered through a color wheel is directed alternately onto the DMD, which switches on and off up to 5,000 times a second. The reflected light is directed through a lens and onto a screen, creating an image. High-end HDTV projectors use a three-chip solution, with separate DMDs for green, red, and blue, and forego the color wheel.
Dolby Digital - Six-channel digital audio standard that is part of the U.S. digital television standard; also called AC-3 or Digital 5.1. The channels consist of front left, front right, front center, surround or rear left, surround or rear right, and a separate subwoofer (the .1).
Downconvert - In DTV, the conversion from a higher-resolution input signal number to a lower one. For example, some DTV receivers can be set to downconvert an HDTV 1080i signal to a standard 480i signal that any TV can display.
DRM - Digital Rights Management. General term that describes a variety of technical and/or legislative efforts for securing and protecting different forms of digital content for the benefit of copyright holders.
DTCP - Digital Transmission Copy Protection. HDTV copy-protection scheme more commonly called 5C.
DTLA - Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator. The licensing organization for the 5C DTCP HDTV copy-protection technology.
DTV - Digital television. Generic term that refers to all digital television formats, including high-definition television (HDTV) and standard-definition television (SDTV).
D-VHS - Digital-VHS. Version of VHS (Video Home System) videocassette standard capable of recording HDTV via a FireWire connection; D-VHS decks are made by JVC and Mitsubishi.
DVI - Digital visual interface. Omnidirectional digital connectivity standard that conveys an uncompressed digital signal from a digital source, such as an ATSC tuner, to a display. HDCP copy protection is often used in conjunction with the DVI connection. DVI connections do not carry audio.
DVR - Digital video recorder. A television recorder such as Replay and TiVo that uses a hard drive, an EPG, and internal processing to drastically simplify programmed recording and playback of recorded programs. A DVR vastly increases recording time compared to VCRs or DVD-recording decks; often enables smart programming, in which the device records an entire series or programming defined by keywords, genre, or personnel; and offers pause control over "live" broadcasts. Also called personal video recorder (PVR) or hard disk video recorder.