Glossary

Additional information

Analog audio

An electrical signal that directly represents sound. Compare this to digital audio which can also 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).

BD-J

BD-J is the Java specification for BD-ROM, allowing content providers to put interactive material linked to specific titles on the disc.

Default Gateway

Default Gateway is a node on a computer network that serves as an access point to another network. A default gateway (such as a computer and router) is used to forward all traffic that is not addressed to a station within the local subnet.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Server

A DHCP server is a server that allocates IP addresses to hosts (network devices). In most cases, a broadband router serves as a DHCP server in a home network.

Digital audio

An indirect representation of sound by numbers. During recording, the sound is measured at discrete intervals 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.

DRM (Digital Rights Management)

DRM is one of several technologies that controls access to and use of digital data, such as music, movies and other copyrighted contents.

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.

Ethernet

Aframe-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). This player supports 100BASE-TX and 10BASE-T.

File extension

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

HDMI

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a high-speed digital interface which has the capability to support standard or high- definition video plus standard to multi-channel surround-sound audio on a single digital connection.

Interactive audio

Interactive audio is Linear PCM (LPCM) audio activated by a BD- ROM application and mixed with the primary audio. It is typically used to provide dynamic sounds associated with interactive applications, such as button sounds.

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.

IP (Internet Protocol) address

A unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard, such as ‘192.168.0.1’. No duplicate numbers are allowed in the network.

LAN cable

A cable that has an 8-pin modular plug on each end and is different from a telephone plug which has 4 pins. A straight cable is used when connecting this player to a home network via a hub. A cross- over cable is used when connecting directly to a PC.

MAC (Media Access Control) address

An address attached to the port of any device. The MAC address cannot be changed.

PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)

A common system of encoding digital audio. Excellent quality, but requires a lot of data compared to formats such as Dolby Digital and MPEG audio. For compatibility with digital audio recorders and AV amplifiers with digital inputs, this unit can convert Dolby Digital, DTS and MPEG audio to PCM. See also Digital audio.

Pop-up menu (BD only)

Acontext-sensitive menu that can be used without interrupting playback of a BD.

Progressive scan video

Also called non-interlaced video, this method of displaying a picture updates all the lines in one pass, resulting in a more stable, flicker- free image than interlaced video (for a given scanning rate). See also Interlaced video.

Regions (DVD-Video and BD-ROM)

These associate discs and players with particular areas of the world. This unit will only play discs that have a compatible region code (i.e., the same code as your player). You can find the region code of your unit by looking on the rear panel. Some discs are compatible with more than one region (or all regions).

Note that the region systems for DVD and BD are not the same.

Sampling frequency

The rate at which sound is measured to be turned into digital audio data. The higher the rate, the better the sound quality, but the more digital information is generated. For example, a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz means 44 100 samples (measurements) per second. See also Digital audio.

Subnet mask

The IP address is divided into the network address part and the host address part. The subnet mask is expressed as ‘255.255.255.0’. In most cases, the subnet mask is automatically assigned by the DHCP server.