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Glossary & Acronyms: E-K
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EDTV: stands for Enhanced Definition Television, which is a subset of the new ATSC's Digital Television (or Digital TV) specification. The EDTV format is essentially 480 lines of resolution in progressive scanning, or 480p (the "p" stands for progressive scanning). The complete Digital TV standard consists of no less than 18 different picture formats. Also see High Definition Television, Standard Definition Television.
Enhanced Definition Television: see EDTV.
Energy Star® compliant: Equipment with the "Energy Star®" logo are Energy Star compliant, meaning that they use significantly less power in the "standby" mode.
Extended Surround: refers to the new surround sound formats that use a back surround channel for complete 360° surround sound effects. Dolby Digital EX is an extended surround format for movie theaters, while THX Surround EX and DTS Extended Surround (DTS-ES) are two extended surround formats for home theater. Read more about Extended Surround on this page.
frequency: see this page. Also see full frequency.
full frame: refers to an image aspect ratio that completely fills a screen of a conventional analog TVs (the type that we're all used to), without any horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Another way to refer to this is an image aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (a picture that is 1.33 times wider than it is high). This is equivalent to a display that is 4 units wide by 3 units high. This term is used interchangeably with "full screen". This is in contrast to a widescreen TV with 16:9 aspect ratio. See 4:3 full frame/aspect ratio.
full frequency or full range: refers to audio signals or channels that are capable of reproducing the entire human-audible sound frequency spectrum, ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. See also low frequency effects, Hz, frequency.
full screen: refers to an image aspect ratio that completely fills a screen of a conventional analog TVs (the type that we're all used to), without any horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Another way to refer to this is an image aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (a picture that is 1.33 times wider than it is high). This is equivalent to a display that is 4 units wide by 3 units high. This term is used interchangeably with "full frame". This is in contrast to a widescreen TV with 16:9 aspect ratio. See 4:3 full frame/aspect ratio.
Gigabyte: One Gigabyte is approximately one million bytes. 4.7 Gigabytes holds enough digital video and multi-channel audio for a two-hour movie.
HAVi: stands for Home Audio and Video interface. This is an emerging standard for possibly connecting home audio and video products and components in a "plug-and-play" fashion that supports interoperability.
HDCD®: see High Definition Compatible Digital.
HDTV: stands for High Definition Television, which is a subset of the new ATSC Digital Television (or Digital TV) specification. HDTV commonly refers to either 1080i or 720p formats. The 1080i format consists of 1080 lines of resolution in interlace scanning (the "i" is for short for interlaced scanning), whereas the 720p format is comprised of 720 lines of resolution in progressive scanning (the "p" stands for progressive scanning). The complete Digital TV standard consists of no less than 18 different picture formats. Also see EDTV and SDTV.
Hi-Fi VHS: refers to the standard VHS format with Dolby Surround Pro-Logic encoded in the stereo audio channels. An A/V receiver with Dolby Surround Pro-Logic decoding is required to take advantage of Hi-Fi VHS.
High Definition Compatible Digital® (HDCD®): looks like an ordinary audio CD, expect it is enhanced for better dynamic range using 20-bit word length. A regular audio CD has 16-bit word length. Longer word lengths means more resolution is used to capture the characteristics of the original audio signal. There are over 3,000 audio CD titles with HDCD enhancement. Look for the HDCD logo as shown on this page. Read more about HDCD. Visit the HDCD web site.
High Definition Television: see HDTV.
home theater: refers to a system of audio and video components working together to re-create the theatrical movie experience in the comfort and privacy of your home. A typical DVD-based home theater system consists of: (1) DVD player, (2) television, (3) A/V receiver, (4) five speakers (center speaker, left speaker, right speaker, and a pair of surround speakers), and optionally (5) subwoofer. In conjunction with or in place of the DVD player, you can also use a Hi-Fi VHS VCR or a LaserDisc player. However, today's state-of-the-art home theaters feature a DVD player, since DVDs offer superior video and unsurpassed surround sound. For a quick overview of the benefits of DVD, read this page.
horizontal lines of resolution: the number of horizontal scanning lines that defines the video picture. For example, most DVD players output 480 lines of horizontal resolution. In comparison standard VHS outputs 260 horizontal lines of resolution, while standard broadcast analog TV is comprised of approximately 330 lines of horizontal resolution. Higher number of lines of horizontal resolution generally means a better, more detailed picture.
Hz: short for Hertz, Hz is a unit of measure of the frequency, or pitch, of sound. High frequency characterizes high-pitch, just as low frequency characterizes low pitch. Also see frequency, full frequency.
isolated music score: this refers to the just the music score of a movie soundtrack, without any dialogue and without any sound effects (e.g., foley sound effects or otherwise).
jog/shuttle: this is a ring dial control on either the face plate or remote control of a DVD player or VCR. It controls the frame-by-frame advance feature, where at each turn of the jog/shuttle dial translates into individual frame advances. Depending on the manufacturers, some (i.e., Sony) will use this same control to control the slow motion effects as well.
Glossary & Acronyms: A-C | D | E-K | L-M | N-S | T-Z | #
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