Glossary

Analog audio

An electrical signal that directly represents sound. Com- pare this to digital audio which can be an electrical sig- nal, but is an indirect representation of sound. See also “Digital audio.”

Aspect ratio

The width of a TV screen relative to its height. Conven- tional 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).

Digital audio

An indirect representation of sound by numbers. 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 “Sam- pling frequency” and “Analog audio.”

DivX*1 DivX is a media technology created by DivX, Inc. DivX media ﬁles contain compressed

video. DivX ﬁles can also include advanced media fea- tures like menus, subtitles, and alternate audio tracks.

Dolby Digital*2

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.

The onscreen display shows which channels are active, for example showing 3/2.1. The 3 being the two front channels and the center channel; the 2 being the surround channels, and the .1 being the LFE channel.

DRM

DRM (digital rights management) technology is used to manage the use of copyright material and protect the rights of copyright holders and content producers.

DTS*3 DTS stands for Digital Theater Systems. DTS is a surround system different from

Dolby Digital that has become a popular surround sound format for movies.

*1. DivX is a compressed digital video format created by the DivX video codec from DivXNetworks, Inc. This player can play DivX video ﬁles burned on discs. When naming ﬁles on a disc prior to burning, keep in mind that by default hey will be played in alphabetical order.

*2. Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. Dolby, Pro Logic and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories.

*3. Manufactured under license under U.S. Patent #’s: 5,451,942; 5,956,674; 5,974,380; 5,978,762; 6,487,535 & other U.S. and worldwide patents issued & pending. DTS and DTS Digital Surround are registered trademarks and the DTS logos and Symbol are trademarks of DTS, Inc. © 1996-2007 DTS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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.

Abbreviation for high deﬁnition, as in HDTV (high-def- inition TV).

HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)

The video encryption technology developed by Intel for HDMI/DVI. It’s designed to protect video content and requires a HDCP-compatible device to display the encrypted video.

HDMI*4

HDMI (High-Deﬁnition Multimedia

Interface) is a high-speed digital interface which has the capability to support standard, enhanced, or high-deﬁni- tion video plus standard to multichannel surround-sound audio on a single digital connection. HDMI features include uncompressed digital video, a bandwidth of up to 5 gigabytes per second and communication between the AV source and AV devices such as DTVs.

ISO 9660 format

International standard for the volume and ﬁle structure of CD-ROM discs.

JPEG

A ﬁle format used for still images, such as photographs and illustrations. JPEG ﬁles are identiﬁed by the ﬁle extension “.jpg” or “.JPG”. Most digital cameras use this format.

MP3

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

*4. HDMI, the HDMI logo and High-Deﬁnition Multimedia Inter- face are trademarks or registered trademarks of HDMI Licens- ing LLC.