Portable DVD Player Glossary (1)

Portable DVD player terminology is accurate; the essential vocabulary is:

ATSC
Is An international organization that establishes voluntary technical standards for high definition television (HDTV) and standard definition television (SDTV), the new digital television standards for U.S. These standards have also been adopted by Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, and Argentina.

Anamorphic

Refers to a DVD-Video that is encoded in the 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio format. DVD-Video can accommodate video encoding in either 4:3 aspect ratio or 16:9 aspect ratio. The 16:9 aspect ratio better suits movies that are theatrically shown in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 aspect ratios.

16:9

Video can be stored on a DVD in 4:3 format (standard TV shape) or 16:9 (wide screen). The width-to-height ratio of standard televisions is 4 to 3. New wide screen televisions, specifically those designed for HDTV, have a ratio of 16 to 9. The screen is more rectangular and much wider than a standard TV screen. Some DVD titles are now available in wide screen format.

BD
Is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by thirteen leading consumer electronics and pc companies (Dell, Hitachi, HP, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV). Blu-ray makes it possible to record over 2 hours of HDTV, or more than 13 hours of SDTV on a 25GB disc. Discs of even higher capacity (up to 50GB of data) are expected soon.

Byte
Is an 8-bit data word, where a bit is a binary digit that represents a "0" (zero) or a "1" (one). An example of a byte is "10011011".

CD
Is short for audio Compact Disc (or audio CD). This is the dominant digital audio format for the past 20 years. It is also known as Compact Disc - Digital Audio (CD-DA) or Compact Disc Audio (CD-Audio). It may soon be replaced by the new DVD-Audio and/or Super Audio CD formats.

CD-R
Is a recordable CD format that supports one-time recording.

CD-ROM
Is a computer data storage format based on the CD medium.

Coaxial digital audio output
Is a digital audio connection used to connect a digital source component (such as DVD player, CD player) to a receiver (or pre-amplifier). The data passed is the "raw" digital audio signal. This means of interconnection minimizes the interference and degradation.

DAC
Is an integrated circuit that converts a digital audio signal to an analog audio signal. The output analog audio signal is ready for amplification to drive loudspeakers.

Dashboard
Is an instrument panel on an automobile or airplane containing dials and controls electrical device consisting of an insulated panel containing switches and dials and meters to control other electrical devices (also known as in dash or in-dash).

DivX
Is a video code created at DivXNetworks Inc., known for its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes and has been the center of controversy because of its use in the replication and distribution of copyrighted DVDs. Many newer DVD players are able to play DivX movies.

Dolby
United States electrical engineer who devised the Dolby system used to reduce background noise in tape recording.

DVD-audio
Is a new emerging format for high-resolution, audiophile quality audio and multi-channel music. It is based on the DVD medium, but contains only audio information. DVD-Audio/Video players appeared in the summer of 2000 and can play back both DVD-Audio and DVD-Video, and were once called DVD-Universal players (that is until the introduction of the Super Audio CD format)

DTS
Digital Theater Systems Digital Surround is a DVD audio encoding format similar to Dolby Digital. It requires a decoder, either in the player or in an external receiver. Developed by Digital Theater Systems Inc., it is also used in many movie theaters around the world. Six audio channels are used to create accurate sound field positioning and realistic sound.

DVD-RAM
Is one of the competing DVD recordable formats. This format is supported by Panasonic, which makes the Panasonic DMR-E10 DVD recorder.

DVD
Stands for Digital Versatile Disc (it once stood for Digital Video Disc). DVDs can be one sided or two sided, and each side can have a single layer or two layers of data. Depending on the construction of the DVD disc, DVDs have different capacity for video and audio information. There are several DVD formats: DVD-Video for movies and other video titles, DVD-Audio for audiophile quality audio and multi-channel music, and DVD-ROM for computer data storage.

Gigabyte
Is approximately one million bytes. 4.7 Gigabytes hold enough digital video and multi-channel audio for a two-hour movie.

Full screen
Is the image aspect ratio that completely fills a screen of a conventional analog TVs (the type that you are familiar with), no horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Another way to refer to this is an image aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (a picture that is 1.33 times wider than it is high). This is equivalent to a display that is 4 units wide by 3 units high. This term is used interchangeably with "full frame". This is in contrast to a wide screen TV with 16:9 aspect ratio.

JPEG
Is a commonly used standard method of compressing photographic images. The file format which employs this compression is commonly also called JPEG; platforms with short file extensions may use .JPG or .JPE to identify this format. JPEG/JFIF is the most common format used for storing and transmitting photographs on the World Wide Web.

LCD
Stands for liquid-crystal display. It was created by sandwiching an electrically reactive substance between two electrodes; LCDs can be darkened or lightened by applying and removing current. Large numbers of LCDs grouped closely together can act as pixels in a flat-panel display.

Letterbox
Refers to a DVD-Video that is encoded in the 4:3 (full frame) aspect ratio format. DVD-Video can accommodate video encoding in either 4:3 aspect ratio or 16:9 aspect ratio. Because most movies are theatrically shown in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 aspect ratios, a letterbox (i.e., the black horizontal bars at the top and bottom of the TV screen) presentation is used to preserve the theatrical aspect ratio within a 4:3 aspect ratio screen.