Dolby Digital (Dolby AC-3) - The 5.1 channel audio standard for DTV and HDTV in Canada and the USA. It includes six discreet audio channels - Left, Center, Right, Left Surround (or side), Right Surround (or side), and a subwoofer -- LFE, "low frequency effects" -- (considered the ".1" as it is limited in bandwidth). Many televisions process these six channels into a two channel stereo pair and do not provide the full 5.1 channel surround sound.
MP3 - A compression format for dramatically reducing audio file sizes.
Must-carry - This refers to the legal obligation of cable companies to carry analog or digital signals of over-the-air local broadcasters.
IPAQ - A Pocket PC first released by Compaq and now manufactured by Hewlett Packard.
Wideband Video Amplifier - Expands the video signal frequency response to more than 10MHz and allows for a horizontal resolution capability of more than 800 lines, depending on the source.
Color Key - A printer's proofing system developed by 3M that makes separate acetate sheets of CMYK that when stacked give a representation of the offset printing of a color image.
Newton Rings - Concentric multicolored rings caused by the pressing of film to glass. This can be a problem in scanning from negatives or transparencies.
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.
