Dolby Digital (5.1)
Dolby Digital, also designated as AC3, is a digital sound format, by which up to six seperate audio channels can be transported. With most of the current DVDs, the sound is stored in the so called "Dolby Digital 5.1" format; the "5" in the title "5.1" stands for three front and two rear surround sound chan- nels, the "1" for the bass sound chanel.
DTS
DTS is the abbreviation for "Digital Theatre System" and and denotes one of the most common sur- round sound formats for DVDs. As with Dolby Digi- tal 5.1, DTS uses three front and two rear surround sound channels as well as a bass sound channel.
17.4What are PAL, NTSC and
SECAM?
PAL
PAL is the abbreviation for "Phase Alternation Line". PAL is the mid and west Europe (Exception: France, see the heading "SECAM") customary and most wide spread colour television standard.
NTSC
NTSC is the abbreviation for "National Television System Committee". NTSC is a colour television standard that is primarily used in the USA and Japan.
SECAM
SECAM is the abbreviation for the french "système en couleur avec mémoire". SECAM is the customary colour television norm in France and many east European countries and at present still the most widely spread system in those countries.
17.5 MP3, WMA, JPEG and MPEG
MP3
MP3 denotes a process and/or format developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for the compression of audio data. In the MP3 format compressed music pieces are only a fraction of their original size, which, for example, on
The structure of an
FOLDER | MP3 | ||
|
|
|
|
WMA
WMA ("Windows® Media Audio") is a data format developed by Microsoft® for audio data.
JPEG
JPEG ("Joint Photographics Expert Group") denotes
a wide spread graphic format, developed by the orga- nization with the same name, with which image data of the colour and grey scales are compressed.
MPEG
MPEG ("Moving Picture Experts Group") refers to a video compression format.
17.6 What are files?
As opposed to audio CDs the title on a
- 36 -