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Glossary—Continued
Dynamic range
The difference between the quietest and loudest sounds
possible in an audio signal (without distorting or getting
lost in noise).
Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks are capable of a very
wide dynamic range, delivering dramatic cinema-like
effects.
File extension
A tag added to the end of a filename to indicate the type
of file. For example, “.mp3” indicates an MP3 file.
HD
Abbreviation for high definition, as in HDTV (high-def-
inition TV).
HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
The video encryption technology developed by Intel for
HDMI/DVI. It’s designed to protect video content and
requires a HDCP-compatible device to display the
encrypted video.
HDMI
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a high-
speed digital interface which has the capability to sup-
port standard, enhanced, or high-definition video plus
standard to multichannel surround-sound audio on a sin-
gle digital connection. HDMI features include uncom-
pressed digital video, a bandwidth of up to 5 gigabytes
per second and communication between the AV source
and AV devices such as DTVs.
ISO 9660 format
International standard for the volume and file structure
of CD-ROM discs.
JPEG
A file format used for still images, such as photographs
and illustrations. JPEG files are identified by the file
extension “.jpg” or “.JPG”. Most digital cameras use this
format.
LFE
LFE refers to the low-frequency effect sounds that are
used in Dolby Digital and DTS. Generally, the subwoof-
ers function more effectively when these sounds are con-
tained in the signal from the disc or other media.
MP3
MP3 (MPEG1 audio layer 3) is a compressed audio file
format. Files are recognized by their file extension
“.mp3” or “.MP3”.
MPEG video
The video format used for Video CDs and DVDs. Video
CD uses the older MPEG-1 standard, while DVD uses
the newer and much better quality MPEG-2 standard.
NTSC (National Television Standards Committee)
This is one broadcasting system for color televisions,
and is used in the U.S., Korea, Central and South Amer-
ica, Japan, and other countries.The system consists of
525 horizontal scan lines, and is divided into 30 frames
per second. It uses an interlacing method which skips
every other scan line to produce an image (field) with
one-half of the full resolution, and displays 60 such
fields per second.
PAL (Phase alternation by line)
This is one broadcasting system for color televisions,
and is used primarily in Europe.This system consists of
625 horizontal scan lines. It uses an interlacing method
with 25 frames (50 fields) per second.The vertical reso-
lution is higher than NTSC, however the frame rate is
lower.
PBC (PlayBack Control) (Video CD only)
A system of navigating a Video CD through on-screen
menus recorded onto the disc. Especially good for discs
that you would normally not watch from beginning to
end all at once—karaoke discs, for example.
PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)
The most common system of encoding digital audio,
found on CDs and DAT. Excellent quality, but requires a
lot of data compared to formats such as Dolby Digital.
Progressive scan video
All the lines that make up a video picture are updated in
one pass (compared to interlace which takes two passes
to update the whole picture).
Regions (DVD-Video only)
These associate discs and players with particular areas of
the world. This unit will only play discs that have com-
patible region codes. You can find the region code of
your unit by looking on the rear panel. Some discs are
compatible with more than one region (or all regions).
Sampling frequency
The rate at which sound is measured to be turned into
digital audio data. The higher the rate, the better the
sound quality, but the more digital information is gener-
ated. Standard CD audio has a sampling frequency of
44.1kHz, which means 44,100 samples (measurements)
per second. See also “Digital audio.”
T-D (Theater-Dimensional)
This is a virtual surround-sound technology that was
developed by Onkyo Corporation. For details, see
page 42.
WMA
WMA is short for Windows Media Audio and refers to
an audio compression technology developed by
Microsoft Corporation. WMA data can be encoded by
using Windows Media Player version 8.