Glossary

8 Additional Information

Analog audio

An electrical signal that directly represents sound. Compare this to digital audio which can be an electrical signal, but is an indirect representation of sound. See also Digital audio.

Aspect ratio

The width of a TV screen relative to its height. Conventional TVs are 4:3 (in other words, the screen is almost square); widescreen models are 16:9 (the screen is almost twice as wide as it is high).

Bonus Group (DVD-Audio only)

An ‘extra’ group on some DVD-Audio discs that requires a key number to access. See also Group.

Browsable pictures (DVD-Audio only)

A feature of some DVD-Audio discs in which the user can browse still pictures recorded on the disc as the audio is played. See also Slideshow.

Chapter (DVD-Video, DVD-RW)

Just as a book is split up into several chapters, a title on a DVD disc is usually divided into chapters. See also Title.

Digital audio

An indirect representation of sound by num- bers. During recording, the sound is measured at discrete intervals (44,100 times a second for CD audio) by an analog-to-digital converter, generating a stream of numbers. On playback, a digital-to-analog converter generates an analog signal based on these numbers. See also Sampling frequency and Analog audio.

Dolby Digital

Using a maximum of 5.1 channels of audio, this high quality surround system is used in many of the finer movie theaters around the world.

DTS

DTS stands for Digital Theater System. DTS is a surround system different from Dolby Digital that has become a popular surround sound format for movies.

Dynamic range

The difference between the quietest and loudest sounds possible in an audio signal (without distorting or getting lost in noise). Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks are capable of a very wide dynamic range, delivering dramatic cinema-like effects.

File extension

A tag added to the end of a filename to indicate the type of file. For example, “.mp3” indicates an MP3 file.

Group (DVD-Audio only)

A collection of tracks on a DVD-Audio disc. Equivalent to a DVD-Video title. See also Title and Track.

Interlaced video

A method of displaying a picture in which odd- numbered lines are updated in one pass, then even-numbered lines updated in the next. See also Progressive scan video.

MP3

MP3 (MPEG1 audio layer 3) is a compressed audio file format. Files are recognized by their file extension “.mp3” or “.MP3”.

MPEG audio

An audio format used on Super VCDs/Video CDs and some DVD discs. This unit can convert MPEG audio to PCM format for wider compat- ibility with digital recorders and AV amplifiers. See also PCM.