Wide Screen Mode, 16:9 - Records images in a compressed form for playback on a 16:9 TV to show cinematic wide screen images. Also known as letterbox format.
Spatial Sound - Gives a wider stereo effect in some tabletop systems. This feature is especially handy for listening to music from monaural sources and making the sound stage seem wider when listening to the system in a small room.
Native format - Some DTVs will convert the 18 ATSC formats into 1 or 2 formats and will draw only those. For these sets, the `native' format is - 1. the formats the set will draw or - 2. the original format. (These are contradictory definitions, but they reflect current practice. 1 is probably the preferred meaning.)
ATSC - (Advanced Television System Committee technical standard) - This is the name of the technology used by terrestrial digital TV stations in the U.S.
Closed Caption Decoder (CC on Mute) - Allows you to read on-screen subtitles and other information that accompanies selected television programming. Closed captioning allows the hearing impaired to more fully enjoy television viewing and can also be helpful in improving English language skills. You can program closed captioning to activate every time the mute key is pressed on the remote.
DTV - "Digital television." This comprises all the components of digital television, including HDTV, SDTV, datacasting, and multicasting, falling under the standards established by the ATSC.
NTSC - NTSC is the acronym that stands for National Television Systems Committee"and the name of the current analog transmission standard used in the U.S., which the committee created in 1953.
16 Base - The 2048 x 3072 pixels image that is scanned and stored on a Photo CD and suitable for digital imaging and desktop publishing applications.
3:2 pull-down - This is the process of converting a 24 frames/sec image into a 30 frames/sec image. Some line-doublers will reverse this process to acquire the original, and then re-perform it.
Aspect Ratio - the ratio of image width to image height. The term may apply to the display device configuration, or the shape of the content being displayed. (See Letterboxing) HDTV uses an aspect ratio of 16 units wide by 9 units high. Conventional television programming and displays are at an aspect ratio of 4 - 3. Digital SDTV programs may aspect ratios from 4 - 3 to 16 - 9, dependant on content and its source (e.g. upconverted NTSC is likely to be 4 - 3).
Comb filter - A circuit in NTSC sets that separates the color information from the brightness information.
Descreening - A feature of some scanners that allow them to eliminate moir‚ patterns that can occur.
Franklin eBookMan - A line of eBook reader and content playing handhelds developed by Franklin.
Hertz (Hz.) - A scale used for measuring the number of cycles per second.
IEEE1394 - High-bandwidth digital connection that uses MPEG-2 compression. Requires a decoder for playback and offers networking capabilities.
Interlaced Scanning - Some HD televisions and most conventional televisions use the "interlace" method of scanning, in which the picture is transmitted and painted on the screen in two passes. In the first pass, every other line is painted and in the second, the lines in between. Some display types, such as LCD, plasma and DLP cannot display directly images transmitted as interlaced signals and must convert them to a progressive format prior to their display.
Sampling - This is the digital process by which analog information is measured, often millions of times per second, in order to convert analog to digital.
Surround Output Level - Allows adjustment of the rear speaker level relative to the front speaker level according to viewing location and individual preference.
