Home Theater Glossary

HT MART's Home Theater Glossary

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1080i (1080 interlaced): HD resolution of 1920 pixels x 1080 lines that are interlaced

1080p (1080 progressive): HD resolution of 1920 pixels x 1080 lines that are progressively scanned (2.07 million pixels)

2/3 Pulldown: A frame sequence used to convert 24fps film to 30fps video (actual 29.97 fps). During the telecine process, 12 fields are added to each 24 frames of film (12 fields = 6 frames). Every second film frame is represented by three video fields instead of two, the third field being a repeat of the second field. Some DVD players can perform this function.

3/2 Pulldown: Same as 2/3 Pulldown, but with a different order of video frames being pulled. 2/3 Pulldown is the most common

4:1:1 sampling: A ratio used to describe the sampling frequency of a digitized signal such as DV. The ratio describes luminance (Y) as being sampled 4 times, while red color (R-Y) & blue color (B-Y) are sampled 1 time each. Used to reduce bandwidth.

4:2:2 sampling: The luminance (Y) or black & white information is sampled 4 times while the blue and red color information is only sampled 2 times, so the color info is half the bandwidth of the luminance info. Green is not sent as it can be calculated from the red, blue and luminance info

4:4:4 sampling: All the color information is sent in addition to all the luminance information. Used in RGB computer graphics. 4:4:4:4 adds a fourth key channel.

4:3 (4x3): This is the nearly square aspect ratio for NTSC television screens that have 4 units of width for every 3 units of height

480i (480 interlaced): SD resolution of 480 lines that are interlaced

480p (480 progressive): SD resolution of 480 lines that are progressively scanned

5.1 channel audio: A surround sound system consisting of 5 speakers (left and right front, left and right rear, center channel) plus a low-frequency subwoofer (the .1)

720p (720 progressive): HD resolution of 1280 x 720 lines (0.92 million pixels)

768p (768 progressive): HD resolution of 1368 x 768 lines

16:9 (16x9): This is the aspect ratio for the widescreen format used in HDTV that has 16 units of width for every 8 units of height

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Ambient Light: Any light that leaks into the room created by a source other than the projector, screen or television set.

AC-3 (Adaptive Transform Coder 3 or Audio Codec 3): A 5.1 multichannel Dolby Digital surround sound format commonly used in HDTV. It is a perceptual digital audio coding technique that reduces the amount of data needed to produce high-quality sound.

ACD (All Channels Driven): Multi channel amplifier test

Acoustic Treatments: Decorative panels covered with acoustic fabric that will help eliminate the reflection points and echoes of the mid & high frequencies

ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee): Develops DTV standards & formats

Analog: A continuously variable signal that can carry data by varying the amplitude & modulation of the signal as in analog TV broadcasts & analog TV recording. These variable signals create fluctuations in color and brightness.

Anamorphic: A process where 16:9 widescreen images are compressed (squeezed) horizontally to fit a 4:3 television display with black bars on the top & bottom of the picture. The image will expand to full size when played on a widescreen display.

Antialiasing: The process of smoothing the sharp "aliased" edges of video text and graphics to reduce the "staircase effect" or "jaggies" of an image

Artifact: A type of unwanted noise created by disturbances & errors and appears as a block or pixel that is out of place in the picture & can degrade the viewing experience

Aspect Ratio: The proportion of your TVs width to its height. Some TVs feature aspect ratio control.

ATRAC3 (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3): A Sony format that is similar to AC-3

ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee): An international, non-profit organization developing standards for digital television

AVC (Advanced Video Codec)

Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be carried in a given period of time (usually listed per second as in Mbps)

Bass Traps: These acoustic traps are usually placed in the corner of a room where low frequencies build up & they help to dampen the acoustic energy (sound pressure) out of the sound wave.

Black Level: The intensity of black in a picture

BLE (Black Level Expansion)

Blu-ray Disc (BD): One of the standards for High-Definition DVD that utilizes a blue laser

BNC (Bayonet Neill Concelman): Named after the inventors of this connector

bps (bits per second): This defines the bit rate at which data is transmitted. For example, DTV has a maximum bit rate of 19.4Mbps. Higher bit rates carry more data & therefore result in a higher PQ or sound quality.

Burn-in: An image that shows up repeatedly such as a station logo or game score can actually burn itself into the screen so that you see a semblance of it even when you're on another channel.

CCFL (Cold-Cathode Florescent Lamps)

CD-DA (Compact Disc - Digital Audio)

Chapter: A DVD chapter is a segment or scene in a film that you can typically jump to. There can be up to 999 chapters on a DVD.

Chroma Bug: A visible color artifact that typically appears as a streaked or jagged horizontal lines, notably on diagonal edges & is specific to MPEG and 4:2:0 sampling

Chroma/Chrominance: The part of the video signal that carries the color information (red, green, blue). Hue & saturation are qualities of the chroma

Chroma Crawl (a.k.a. Dot Crawl): Artifacts around the edges of highly saturated colors that appear as a continuous series of crawling dots. This is the result of color information being confused with luma information by the decoder circuits.

CL2 & CL3: Class 2 and Class 3 cable, typically used for wiring audio cables within walls

CLD: Constrained Layer Damping

Coaxial cable: carries multi-channel audio & video information in a shielded cable that is good for long cable runs

Codec: A coder-decoder that converts analog signals into a digital format and vice-versa. Used to reduce the size of large files.

Comb Filter: A component in televisions that separates the color information from the brightness information within the video signal, reducing "dot crawl" & picture moir?.

Component Video: A video system that carries 3 separate analog or digital video signals (see RGB & YCbCr)

Composite Video: An analog video signal that encodes the luminance and chrominance signals together

Compression: The reduction in size of digital data files by removing redundant data & therefore lowering the number of bits required to store & transmit data

Convergence: The alignment of the red, green and blue video lights into a single, converged & clearly focused image. Misalignment tends to create outlines around the images.

CRT (Cathode Ray Tube): Televisions use the CRT for projecting each of the primary colors of light: red, green, & blue. The tube uses an electron gun to paint/scan lines on the back of the screen that is coated with phosphor. The scan lines are aligned so that they combine into one picture. CRT models can suffer from burn-in.

CSS (Content Scrambling System): Used in DVD-Video as an encryption scheme to protect copyrighted materials by periodically scrambling the data using encryption keys

dB (decibels): The rating measurement for sound

DCDi (Directional Correlational Deinterlacing): A technology created by Faroudja to remove the jagged edges along diagonal image lines that result from video interpolation. This technology is typically used in up-scalers/up-converters & it will produce high resolution, sharper images with fewer motion artifacts.

DCR (Digital Cable Ready): A HDTV that is plug-n-play ready for digital cable TV

DD (Dolby Digital): Used to provide multichannel surround sound

DD-Plus (Dolby Digital Plus): A mandatory codec for HD-DVD & an optional codec for Blu-Ray

DEC (Digital Entertainment Center)

De-interlacer (i.e. Line Doubler or Scan Converter): Circuitry that converts an interlaced signal into a progressive format utilized in projectors and fixed-panel displays

DES (Digital Entertainment Systems)

DFP (Digital Flat Panel)

DIAT (Digital Infrared Audio Transmission): IR for audio signals (Sony Technology)

Digital Scaling: Using digital interpolation technology to convert one resolution into another resolution (see Up-Conversion)

Digital Tuner: The decoder that can receive and display digital broadcasts, sometimes incorporated into a set-top box

DivX (Digital Video Express, first known as ZoomTV): Popular long-play video compression codec, sometimes used to compress movies for Internet download or streaming & is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard

DivXHD (DivX High-Definition): Supports resolutions up to 720p

DLP (Digital Light Processing): A Texas Instruments (TI) technology that uses a color wheel and DMDs to control the light output. DLP technology enables high brightness, high contrast and high-resolution digital image projection.

DMA (Digital Media Adapters)

DMD (Digital Micromirror Device): A chip with millions of hinged, microscopic mirrors

DMS (Digital Media Server)

Dolby Digital: A digital surround sound technology used in movie theaters & home theaters. Nearly every DVD is encoded for Dolby Digital, & the emerging programming for HDTV also favors this standard.

Dolby Digital EX: This provides up to seven-speakers plus subwoofer (6.1 and 7.1)

Dolby Pro-Logic: A Dolby Laboratory technology for encoding 4 channels (left, right, center, surround) into a stereo (left, right) channel to be decoded into 4 channels with a proper decoder

Dolby Pro-Logic II: A Dolby Laboratory technology for encoding 5 channels (left, right, center, left surround and right surround) into a stereo (left, right) channel to be decoded into 5 channels with a proper decoder

Dolby SR-D (Dolby Surround Digital)

DTS (Digital Theater Sound or Digital Theater Systems): A multichannel audio format that plays up to five speakers plus subwoofer (5.1). The sound quality is very good because of its slightly higher data rates.

DTS 96/24: This audio DVD standard is by DTS, and plays in regular DVD players, although your receiver needs to support it. It also plays video.

DTS ES: DTS' high-end multichannel surround sound format

DTS Neo: 6: This is DTS' bigger standard, playing through up to seven speakers plus subwoofer (6.1 and 7.1).

DTV (Digital TeleVision): Available in 3 common standards... SDTV, EDTV and HDTV

DV (Digital Video)

DVB (Digital Video Broadcasters)

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc): formerly known as Digital Video Disc. A media format that is commonly used in DVD-Video to hold MPEG-2 compressed video and multichannel audio

DVD-A (DVD-Audio): Plays music at a much higher resolution than an audio CD & plays in 5.1 surround sound with room for some video

DVD-Video: The video element of the DVD format

D-VHS (Digital - VHS): A digital format based on half-inch VHS and is used for High-Definition recording and playback

DVI (Digital Visual Interface or Digital Video Interface): A connector that delivers high-resolution, pure digital video signals including hi-def

DVI-D: A DVI connector that only supports digital signals

DVI-I: A DVI connector that supports both digital & analog signals

DVR (Digital Video Recorder): A hard-disk based video recorder such as a TIVO that can save recorded content for later playback (i.e. time-shifting)

DWFC (DryWall Furring Channel): Used to isolate your drywall/sheetrock from the wall studding or ceiling joists so sound travel through the wall to the other side is reduced (a.k.a. R/C)

EDTV (Enhanced/Extended Definition TeleVision): Has a display resolution of 852 x 480 lines (480p) in either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios & includes Dolby Digital sound system. It cannot display true HDTV.

EPG (Electronic Program Guide): Used to display channels and program data on-screen

EQ: Equalization of audio

Faroudja (see DCDi)

FCC (Federal Communications Commission)

Fixed-Panel Display: A display with a fixed resolution composed of small rectangles or square pixels instead of horizontal lines. They flash the entire frame on the screen all at once. They achieve progressive scan through the use of a scan converter.

Flat-panel TV: a thin television technology that typically displays the picture using gas plasma, DLP or LCD technology

Flat-screen TV: a television whose display screen is a flat piece of glass instead of being curved a the corners & edges like traditional sets

FPS (Frames Per Second): Individual frames are displayed at 24fps for film & 30fps for DVD, video & TV in the U.S. 2/3 Pulldown is used to accommodate the difference in frame rates.

Front-projection: Typically a video projector that displays the projected image onto a reflective screen

Ghosting: An unwanted display problem that appears as multiple television images overlaid on top of each other and this creates a double-image or ghosting effect

GOM Fabric: Guildford Of Maine acoustical fabric

GOP (Group Of Pictures): Used in an MPEG file. The GOP layer allows random access because the first picture after the GOP header is an "Intra picture" that doesn't require any reference to any other picture.

Green Glue: A damping compound (polymer) that provides sound isolation and vibration control to remove the ability to propagate sound

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

H.264: A video codec that is part of the MPEG-4 standard (MPEG-4, Part 10). This technology delivers incredible video quality at low data rates (a third to half the data rate of MPEG-2). Part of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray specs.

HD (High Definition): As in HDTV and HD-Tuner

HD Built-in: A television that already has a HD tuner built in to receive HD content from an HD source. Add a HDTV antenna for local over-the-air HD broadcasts.

HD Built-in DCR: Digital Cable Ready, just add a CableCARD or HDTV antenna to receive cable or over-the-air HD content

HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital): A High-Definition CD with 20-bits of information vs. 16-bits for a standard audio CD.

HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection)

HD-DVD (High Density - Digital Versatile Disc): One of the standards for High-Definition DVD that utilizes a blue laser

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface): Carries DVI-quality digital video signals, up to 8 channels of digital audio & HDCP in a single cable. Supports RGB, YCbCr (4:4:4), YCbCr (4:2:2) and all ATSC HDTV standards.

HDMI-CEC: An HDMI control protocol. HDMI supports two-way control communication via CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) which is based on the AV Link protocol.

HD Ready: A television that can display HD resolutions, but first needs a HDTV tuner or cable/satellite/over-the-air HD set top box to receive HD content

HDTV (High-Definition Television): Currently the highest resolution of DTV that is available & offers high-resolution images & a high quality Dolby Digital surround sound system (AC-3). The native aspect ratio is 16:9 widescreen.

HDV (High Definition Video): Long-GOP MPEG-2 format HD video

HTIB (Home Theater In-a-Box): A complete surround sound speaker system that usually includes a receiver & sometimes a DVD player as well

HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer)

I - J

ILA (Image Light Amplifier)

Interlaced: A process that divides & displays a video frame in 2 fields, odd and even, that the human eye then blends together as one image. Interlaced TV screens first scan every odd line from the top of the screen to the bottom and then every even line. Interlaced video at 30fps is therefore displayed in 60 fields. This process can produce unwanted screen flicker.

Keystone (i.e. keystoning): A distortion of the image when a projector is not parallel to the screen or the screen has an angled surface. Therefore the top and bottom or sides of the image are unequal in length & this slant in or out produces a "keyhole" shaped image. Lens shift is preferable to keystone correction.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display): A flat panel technology that uses liquid crystals sandwiched between 2 glass plates that are typically backlit by fluorescent tubes

LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon)

Learning Remote: It is a universal remote control that can learn all of the codes from your other remote controls

Lens Shift: A projector that has an adjustment for moving the lens up, down, right & left within the projector's housing.

Letterbox: When a widescreen image is displayed on a standard 4:3 aspect ratio television, you will see black bars above and below the picture that frame the image within a box. Used to maintain the original theatrical aspect ratio of 16:9 or wider without cutting off part of the image.

LFE (Low Frequency Effects): This channel of the Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound system reproduces the deep bass sounds you hear during movie explosions and other rumbles

LIFI: A revolutionary backlighting source (lamp) created by Luxim. It is used in the Panasonic HD 3xLCD Micro Display rear-projection televisions. They may never wear out and will never fade as they do not use filaments, but instead plasma radio frequencies are sent directly through the lamp to emit a glow. (no lamp replacement necessary)

Line Doubler/Tripler/Multiplier: A technology used to enhance PQ by increasing the number of lines of resolution displayed. A line-doubler overcomes the interlaced problem, because it stores both fields of each frame in a memory buffer and draws them all in one pass (i.e. progressive scan).

Lumens (i.e. ANSI Lumens): A unit of measure for the light output of a projector

MCE (Media Center Edition) of Windows XP operating system

MDTV (MicroDisplay TV)

MLV (Mass Loaded Vinyl): Foam-backed soundproofing floormat.

MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group)

MPEG-2: A video compression method used to condense digital video for broadcast & the standard DVD storage format for movies

MPEG-4: A video encoding standard designed for low-data rate video. It's more efficient than MPEG-2 at DVD and HDTV data rates.

MTS (Multichannel Television Sound): An analog surround sound format

NAS (Network-Attached Storage): A hard disk drive that can be used as a media server.

Native Resolution: The resolution at which a flat-panel television is designed to display images without conversion. Input signals that are higher or lower than the specified native resolution must be upconverted or downconverted to display properly.

NTSC (National Television Systems Committee): The current analog transmission standard used in the U.S. that is composed of 525 lines of resolution transmitted within a 6MHz channel at 30fps

OAR (Original Aspect Ratio)

OEL (Organic ElectroLuminescent): A type of screen technology

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display): OLED is an emissive technology that does not require a backlight and therefore use very little power and can be manufactured as thin as 500 nanometers. It works by placing a stack of organic thin films between two charged electrodes. OLED displays are brighter, offer higher contrast and have incredibly fast response times with no artifacting. Backed by Kodak, Dupont, Xerox and Lucent.

OSD (On-Screen-Display)

OTA (Over-The-Air): Television or Terrestrial Broadcasts that are transmitted over the air waves & requires an antenna to receive

P - Q

Pan & Scan: The technique of reframing a picture to conform to a different aspect ratio by cropping parts of the picture. Typically employed in "full-frame" version of DVD movies for viewing on 4:3 sets, where the right or left edges of the widescreen image are cropped off (horizontal offset) and the central focus of a scene is always visible.

PBC (PlayBack Control)

PIP (Picture-In-Picture): A television feature that allows you to watch 2 channels at once... the main program while a second program is display within a small window on the screen

Pixel (Picture ELement): The smallest displayable element that makes up a television picture (i.e. video dot)

Pixel Pitch (i.e. Dot Pitch): The distance between pixels or dots on a CRT display. The lower the pixel pitch, the sharper the image.

PDP (Plasma Displays): A flat-panel technology created by tubes of ionized gas in a plasma state that are sandwiched between 2 panes of glass & excited by electricity to glow different colors.

Plasma TV (see PDP): Plasmas offer excellent brightness, color and resolution but can suffer from burn-in.

Plenum cable: This cable is rated to meet the fire codes & be run through ceilings.

Pluge (Picture Line-Up Generation Equipment): A "pluge pattern" is a test pattern used to calibrate the Black Level (i.e. the brightness) on a video display. Pluge patterns are generated by video calibration equipment such as a synch pulse generator and video calibration DVDs.

PMP (Portable Media Player)

PnP (Plug-and-Play)

Poly-Si (silicon) LCD: An LCD technology that results in increased color saturation

Power Amp: a power amplifier gives your audio system more juice

PQ (Picture Quality)

Progressive Scan: A technology that makes your TV resolution appear greater by essentially drawing (scanning) twice as many lines of picture on the TV progressively (in succession). This smoothes out the picture by displaying all lines of a frame in a single pass. With NTSC, this is repeated 30 times per second (i.e. 30 fps).

Pro-Logic (see Dolby Pro-Logic)

PVA (Patterned Vertical Alignment)

PVR (Personal Video Recorder): Same as a DVR

QAM tuner (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation): A signal format for digital cable channels

Rainbow Effect: On some displays you can see individual colors or color trails when you're supposed to see a blend of colors

R/C (Resilient Channel): Metal channel affixed to wall studs and holds the drywall (a.k.a. DWFC)

Rear Projection: A television system where the picture is projected against a mirror on the inside of the cabinet using CRT, DLP or LCD technology. Some video projectors can also reverse the image to display properly on a rear projection screen.

Receiver: The brains of your sound system. It's the box that takes the video & audio source and splits it into as many channels as you need for your particular speaker and video setup.

Resolution: Measured by the number of pixels displayed & reflects the density of lines & pixels per line that make up the video image.

RF (Radio Frequency): Usually a 75-ohm input connector on a television set that carries both the audio & video within a single cable and is therefore not for very high quality output

RGB (Red Green Blue): RGB is the generic color space used in both the digital video camera & in a CRT's RGB gun, but it has high-bandwidth and the color and black & white information is combined. Generally, RGB is not suitable for transmission or compression (see also YCbCr).

RISC clips (Resilient Sound Isolation Channel): Rubber mounting clips that attach to DWFC (R/C). Use approximately 1 per 4 sq. feet.

RPTV (Rear-Projection TV): Rear-projection TVs project the picture onto to the TV's opaque screen from inside the box. They use several internal projection formats: CRT, LCD, DLP and LCoS.

SACD (Super-Audio CD): Similar in ways to DVD-Audio, SACDs play much-higher-than-CD-quality audio. They can play multichannel surround sound & sometimes include versions of the audio for play in regular CD & DVD players.

SAP (Second Audio Program): Part of the MTS signal

Scaling: The process of up-scaling or down-scaling the size of an image without changing its shape (see up-conversion)

Screen-door Effect: Sometimes noticeable on less expensive LCDs, you can see the grid of colored pixels that make up the picture on the screen, which makes it look like you're looking at the picture through a screen door.

Screen Gain: The ability of a screen material to direct incident light to an audience. A higher gain screen appears brighter, but has a narrower viewing angle.

SD (Standard Definition): As in SDTV and SD-Tuner... digital television that has 480 lines of resolution

SDI (Serial Digital Interface)

SED (Surface-Conduction Electron-Emitter Display): Developed by Canon Inc. and Toshiba Corp. SED uses a thin strip of Palladium Oxide as an electron emitter to excite phosphors on a screen. SED offers bright, vivid colors and high contrast ratios of traditional CRTs with the thin profile of LCDs and Plasmas, and they have very low power requirements.

STB (Set-Top Box): A device that receives and converts the picture & sound from a broadcast to a connected television

Soffit traps: These acoustic boxes hang along the ceiling edges & reduce excess reverberation and bass build-up

S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface): A digital coaxial cable

SPL (Sound Pressure Level): A SPL meter is used for audio calibration

S-PVA (Super Patterned Vertical Alignment): A Sony Technology

STC (Sound Transmission Coefficient): A standard for measuring the ability of a structure to reject sound frequencies above 125 Hz (higher STC is better for sound rejection)

Subwoofer: Reproduces the LFE channel and reinforces the deep bass sounds. The subwoofer is non-directional so placement is not critical.

Superbit DVD: These DVDs typically use the entire disc for encoding the picture and sound of the original theatrical picture at double their normal bit rate to provide a superior picture and sound.

Surround Sound: the process of expanding the spatial imaging of audio playback to give a 3D audio effect. Typically rated by the number of channels or separate speaker signals as a number followed by a .1 (such as 5.1, 6.1, 7.1). The .1 is the subwoofer.

Surround Speakers: Point towards the viewing audience and bring the sound around you to feel like you are inside the action on the screen, providing a 3D sound effect.

SVCD (Super Video Compact Disc)

SVGA (Super Video Graphics Array): A resolution of 800 x 600 lines

S-Video: A connector that separates the luminance data (Y) from the color data (C)... also known as Y/C and produces a higher quality display than composite video

SXGA (Super Extended Graphics Array): A resolution of 1280 x 1024 lines

SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display): A liquid crystal display device developed by Sony for use in projectors, which achieves a film quality smoothness with Full HDTV (1080p) resolution.

Tactile Transducers (a.k.a. Bass Shakers): These devices plug into an amp & are placed under theater risers or directly under theater seats. They are activated via the LFE channel of the surround sound system & will shake the floor and seats when there is bass rumble on the screen.

TBC (Time Base Corrector): A device used to remove or mask uneven variations in the video sync signals

TFT (Thin Film Transistor): A technology used in Active Matrix LCD flat panel displays in which each pixel is controlled by one to four transistors.

THD (Total Hi-Def): A Warner Brothers hybrid, multiple-layer Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVD disc

Throw Distance: A measure of the size of an image a projector can produce from a specified distance & depends on the projector's lens. Helps you to calculate the distance between the placement of the projector & your screen.

THX: Not a surround sound format; rather it's a certification rating for high-quality systems that meet very high standards for audio reproduction

TOSLink (Toshiba Link): Optical cable that carries digital signals & delivers multi-channel audio. Uses fiberoptic cable that is not susceptible to electrical interference.

TSTN (Triple Super Twist Neumatic): A technology used in Active Matrix LCD flat panel displays in which each pixel has its own transistor switch

UDF (Universal Disc Format)

UHDV (Ultra High Definition Video): Resolution: 7,680 pixels x 4,320 pixels (16:9) (approximately 33 megapixels) 16 times current 1080p HDTV

UHV (Ultra High-definition Video): see UHDV

Ultra-HD (a.k.a. Full-HD): The format for 1080p at 1920 x 1080 lines is sometimes referred to as this

UMD (Universal Media Discs): A proprietary 60mm wide optical disc format developed by Sony that can hold up to 1.8GB. Using the MPEG-4 codec, each UMD can contain up to two hours of DVD-quality video & they feature advanced encryption.

Up-Conversion (a.k.a. up-scaling): The conversion (upconvert) from a lower resolution input signal to a higher resolution signal

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)

UXGA (Ultra Extended Graphic Array): A resolution of 1600 x 1200 lines

VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval): The part of a TV transmission that is blanked or cleared of viewable content, to allow time for the TV's electron gun to move from the bottom to the top of the screen as it scans images. The 21 empty lines of control signals in this blank area are now used to broadcast closed-captioned and text formatted information.

VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

VCD (Video Compact Disc)

V-Chip: An electronic component used for parental control of television broadcasts by filtering via ratings criteria

VCR (Video Cassette Recorder)

VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association)

VGA (Video Graphics Array): Has a resolution is 640 x 480 lines

VHS (Video Home System): An analog format capable of delivering 240 lines of video resolution

Video Processors: These are usually known as scan-converters, scalers, line-doublers or quadruplers

Viewing Angle (i.e. viewing cone): Projection screens do not reflect light equally in all directions. For best viewing results, you must be seating within the viewing cone (see Screen Gain).

VMD (HD Versatile Multilayer Disc): A less expensive Hi-Def DVD technology

VOD (Video On Demand)

WCG-CCFL (Wide Color Gamut-Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light): LCD TV backlight (Sony technology)

Widescreen format: the 16:9 aspect ratio of the projected image takes on the shape of a rectangle instead of the typical "square" of television broadcasts & provides a viewing experience similar to that of theatrical movies

WMVHD (Windows Media Video High-Definition)

Wobulation: A resolution-doubling technology developed by HP

WSXGA (Wide SXGA): A resolution capable of creating a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio image with 1600 x 900 to 1920 x 1080 lines

WXGA (Wide XGA): A resolution capable of creating a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio image with 1280 x 720 to 1366 x 768 lines

X10: A proprietary technology that enables electronic devices to send and receive commands to and from each other

XDS (Extended Data Services): Such as Closed-Captioning

XGA (eXtended Graphics Array): Has a resolution of 1024 x 768 lines

XGA-2 (XGA - 2nd Generation): Has a resolution up to 1600 x 1200 lines

Y - Z

Y/C Connector: a 4-pin DIN connector used on S-VHS and S-Video sources

YCbCr (i.e. YPbPr): "Y" stands for the luma or brightness, which is the full black & white picture information. "Cb" (the blue component) and "Cr" (the red component) stand for the color differences (hues) with reduced color information & reduced bandwidth. Typically the native digital format of a DVD is a YCbCr component video signal.

YUV: The analog luminance and color difference components of a color image. It was originally developed for backward compatibility with B&W TV. YUV allows the encoding of luminance (Y) information at full bandwidth & chrominance (UV) information at reduced bandwidth.
Y (or Luma)= 30% Red + 59% Green + 11% Blue Analog Luminance
U (or Cb)=R-Y the red signal component minus the luma
V (or Cr)=B-Y the blue signal component minus the luma

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