| 1080p: |
| 1,920 pixels per line which has 1,080 horizontal lines - displayed progressively. Progressive Scanning - each line displayed following another. This is the one you want! |
| 1080i: |
| 1,920 pixels per line which has 1,080 horizontal lines - displayed alternately. Interlaced Scanning - all the odd lines are displayed, then followed by all the even lines. |
| 720p: |
| 1,280 pixels per line which has 720 horizontal lines - displayed thru Progressive Scanning - each line displayed following another. |
| 16×9: |
| Standardized aspect ratio of HDTV & Widescreen SDTV. It has a width of 16 units & a height of 9 units. |
| 1920×1080: |
| Refers to a digital sampling structure of 1920 horizontally & 1080 vertically. These images can be scanned either interlaced (1080i) or progressively (1080P). |
| 24P: |
| 24 full frames per second digital video progressively captured. This usually refers to the HD picture format of 1920×1080. |
| 29.97P: |
| 29.97 full frames per second digital video progressively captured. |
| 30P: |
| 30 full frames per second digital video progressively captured. |
| 59.94i: |
| Interlaced video signal where 1/2 of the total lines of the picture are captured & displayed every 1/59.94th of a second. |
| 59.94P: |
| Progressive video signal where all lines of the picture are captured & displayed every 1/59.94th of a second. |
| 60i: |
| Interlaced video signal where 1/2 of the total lines of the picture are captured & displayed every 1/60th of a second. |
| 60P: |
| Progressive video signal where all of the total lines of the picture are captured and displayed every 1/60th of a second. |
| 720p: |
| 1,280 pixels per line which has 720 horizontal lines - displayed thru Progressive Scanning - each line displayed following another. |
| 480p: |
| 720 pixels per line which has 480 horizontal lines which uses Progressive Scanning each line displayed following another. |
| 480i: |
| 720 pixels per line which has 480 horizontal lines displayed alternately. In other words Interlaced Scanning where all the odd lines are displayed, then followed by all the even lines. |
| A/D, ADC: |
| Analog to Digital Conversion. |
| Aspect Ratio (Picture): |
| Ratio of screen width to screen height. Can be Width by Height (Example: 16×9, 4×3) or a calculated ratio (1.33:1, 1.78:1) Some common aspect ratios: 1.33 (4×3) Standard Television or Academy Standard 1.78 (16×9) HDTV 1.85 Academy Flat 2.35 Cinemascope |
| Aspect Ratio (Pixel): |
| Ratio of pixel width to pixel height. Standard NTSC digital video has rectangular pixels. Computers & HDTV have square pixels. Analog: The recording of sound that resembles the original. |
| Bandwidth: |
| Is the width of a range of frequencies, measured in hertz. |
| Bitstream: |
| Name given to a collection of data, (video or audio) that's compressed to a file or transmitted between devices. Blu-Ray: Blu-ray or Blu-ray disc is an optical disc storage medium. It was mainly developed to be use for recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD). Its physical appearance is the same as a DVD or CD. |
| Bonus View: |
| This refers to Blu-ray players with Profile 1.1. They have Built-in persistent memory (64k), local storage capability (256MB), Secondary video decoder (Picture-in-Picture), Secondary audio decoder & virtual file system. |
| Codecs: |
| a method of compressing stored audio/video more efficiently. This allows for either low space usage or quality per megabyte. There are both lossless and lossy compression techniques. BD-ROM has to support MPEG-2, MPEG4, and SMPTE VC-1 video codecs. Audio codecs that have to be supported are Dolby Digital, PCM, and DTS Digital Surround. |
| Component video: |
| This is color video transmitted with the luminance (Y) on one wire & the color signals on other wires, or each color on its own wire. Examples: R,G,B; Y(R-Y)/(B-Y), Y/I/Q,Y/U/V, 4:2:2. |
| Compression: |
| This is the common process for storing digital data in a smaller space than it would normally take to hold the data. |
| Digital media: |
| Refers to both audio and video sources such as audio CD, DVD, and Blu-ray that can store audio and video in the digital format. |
| DRM: |
| Digital Rights Management or DRM is used to try and deter piracy of copyright content such as digital files. |
| fps: |
| Frames per second. |
| Frames: |
| Individual video images that make up a moving sequence. |
| Frame rate: |
| Playback speed as determined in frames per second. |
| HDTV or High-Definition Television: |
| It's a method of displaying sharper, wider TV pictures than the present NTSC system. Pictures are shaped into a 16:9 aspect ratio, composed of 1,125 scanning lines, each line with 1,920 pixels. |
| Infrared: |
| Red Light that's invisible to the human eye. |
| Interlacing Scan: |
| A scanning method which uses two fields to create a frame. One containing all the odd lines in the image, the other containing all the even lines of the image. |
| Lossy: |
| Compression method which discards data & degrades the image quality. Result: high degrees of compression are possible. |
| Lossless: |
| A compression scheme that doesn't degrade sound or video quality. It uses a nondestructive method that retains all the original information. |
| MPEG-1: |
| An older digital video compression format developed in the early 1990s by the Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG-1 video was designed for lower-resolution video played from CD-ROM and provides picture quality somewhat comparable to VHS (typically 352×240 resolution). Used for Video CD discs. |
| MPEG-2: |
| A TV-quality digital video compression format developed in the mid-1990s by the Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG-2 video provides high-quality full-screen full-rate video (720×480 resolutions for NTSC) with smaller file sizes than MPEG-1. Used for DVD discs, and also scales to high-definition resolution and bitrates. |
| MPEG-4: |
| video that is designed for a broad range of multimedia applications such as for the web and wireless streaming video. It was developed in the 1990s by the Moving Picture Experts Group. |
| NTSC: |
| National Television Standards Committee. American organization that developed the NTSC video standards which ensure that all TV signals in the United States are compatible. |
| NTSC video: |
| National Television Standards Committee method used in the U.S. States for electronically creating a color TV signal. The color and brightness aspects of the image travel together on the same wire. |
| PAL: |
| This is the phase alternate line—a European video standard which is incompatible with the U.S. NTSC system. |
| PCM: |
| Pulse Code Modulation, a second method of recording hi-fi sound with 8mm and Hi 8 VCRs. Unlike AFM, PCM audio can be edited without affecting the picture. Picture-in-a-picture (PIP): Digital effect where one picture is adjusted smaller and placed over another. |
| Pixels: |
| Tiny dots that make up the image on a display. |
| Posterization: |
| Visual effect of reducing a picture’s different brightness levels down to just one or two, giving the picture a flat poster-like or cartoon-like look. |
| Profiles: |
| “Profiles” are used to catalogue Blu-ray players. Blu-ray Profile 1.0 was the first set of features and functions labeled for discs and players. Then came Profile 1.1, which included picture-in-picture capability, plus players had a second audio and video codec, along with 256MB of non-volatile memory. The last is Profile 2.0 (BD-Live). It has Internet access for bonus content, and players have 1GB of non-volatile memory. No matter what Profile a players processes, it will play all Blu-ray discs, but do not support the extra features. Progressive scan: Method of making a computer image by drawing all the scan lines sequentially from top to bottom. |
| Region codes: |
| This is very similar to DVD regional codes in that it PREVENTS certain regions of the world to play the Blu-ray disc. So Blu-ray disc players which are sold in some parts of the world may ONLY play discs which are encoded for that region.The main reasoning behind such a system is to allow the movie studios total control of when a disc is released in different parts of the world. Often it lets these studios add extra features or bonus material unique to each region. Regions for Blu-ray standard: A: East Asia (except Mainland China and Mongolia), Southeast Asia, North America, South B: Africa, Europe (except Russia), Southwest Asia, Oceania dependencies. C: Central Asia, East Asia (Mainland China and Mongolia only), South Asia, central Eurasia, plus their dependencies. Resolution: Picture sharpness, usually measured in “lines”. The greater the number of lines, the sharper the image. |
| True color: |
| Ability of a graphics card or electronic device to display millions of colors, as opposed to just a select 64 or 256 from a palette. |
