Glossary
■Dolby TrueHD
Dolby TrueHD is an advanced lossless audio technology developed for high-definition disc-based media including Blu-ray Disc. Selected as an optional audio standard for Blu-ray Disc, this technology delivers sound that is bit- for-bit identical to the studio master, offering a high- definition home theater experience. Supporting bitrates up to 18.0 Mbps, Dolby TrueHD can carry up to 8 discrete channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio simultaneously. Dolby TrueHD also remains fully compatible with the existing multichannel audio systems and retains the metadata capability of Dolby Digital, allowing dialog normalization and dynamic range control.
■Deep Color
Deep Color refers to the use of various color depths in displays, up from the 24-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification. This extra bit depth allows HDTVs and other displays go from millions of colors to billions of colors and eliminate on-screen color banding for smooth tonal transitions and subtle gradations between colors. The increased contrast ratio can represent many times more shades of gray between black and white. Also Deep Color increases the number of available colors within the boundaries defined by the RGB or YCbCr color space.
■DTS
Digital surround sound system developed by DTS, Inc., which provides 5.1 channel audio. With an abundance of audio data, it is able to provide authentic-sounding effects.
■DTS-HD High Resolution Audio
DTS-HD High Resolution Audio is a high resolution audio technology developed for high-definition disc-based media including Blu-ray Disc. Selected as an optional audio standard for Blu-ray Disc, this technology delivers sound that is virtually indistinguishable from the original, offering a high-definition home theater experience. Supporting bitrates up to 6.0 Mbps for Blu-ray Disc, DTS- HD High Resolution Audio can carry up to 7.1 discrete channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio simultaneously.
■DTS-HD Master Audio
The lossless high quality audio format created for next generation optical disc such as Blu-lay Disc. It is selected as an audio standard for Blu-ray Disc. Supporting bitrates up to 24.5 Mbps for Blu-ray Disc, DTS-HD High Master Audio can carry up to 7.1 discrete channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio simultaneously.
■DTS Neo:6
Neo:6 decodes the conventional 2-channel sources for 6- channel playback by the specific decoder. It enables playback with the full-range channels with higher separation just like digital discrete signal playback. Two modes are available: Music mode for playing music sources and Cinema mode for movies.
■HDMI
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the first industry supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. When used in combination with HDCP (High- bandwidth Digital Content Protection), HDMI provides a secure audio/video interface that meets the security requirements of content providers and system operators.
■MP3
One of the audio compression methods used by MPEG. It employs the irreversible compression method, which achieves a high compression rate by thinning out the data of hardly audible part to the human ears. It is said to be capable of compressing the data quantity by about 1/11 (128 kbps) while maintaining a similar audio quality to music CD.
■MPEG-4 AAC
An MPEG-4 audio standard. As it allows compression of data at a bit rate lower than that of MPEG-2 AAC, it is used among others for mobile telephones, portable audio players and other low-capacity devices requiring high sound quality. In addition to the above types of devices, MPEG-4 AAC is also used to distribute contents on the Internet, and as such is supported by computers, media servers and many other devices.
■PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)
A signal that is changed to digital format without compression. A CD is recorded with 16-bit sound at 44.1 kHz, while DVD recording is anywhere from 16 bits at 48 kHz to 24 bits at 192 kHz, which makes it a higher quality sound than CD.
■WMA
An audio compression method developed by Microsoft Corporation. It employs the irreversible compression method, which achieves a high compression rate by thinning out the data of hardly audible part to the human ears. It is said to be capable of compressing the data quantity by about 1/22 (64 kbps) while maintaining a similar audio quality to music CD.
■x.v.Color
A color space standard supported by HDMI. It is a more extensive color space than sRGB, and allows the expression of colors that could not be expressed before. While remaining compatible with the color gamut of sRGB standards, “x.v.Color” expands the color space and can thus produce more vivid, natural images. It is particularly effective for still pictures and computer graphics.