Bennetts - The Electrical Experts

DVD
Officially known as the Digital Video Disc, though marketers unofficially refer to it as the Digital Versatile Disc. DVD uses a 5-inch disc with anywhere from 4.5 Gb (single layer, single-sided) to 17 Gb storage capacity (double-layer, double sided). It uses MPEG2 compression to encode 720:480p resolution, full-motion video and Dolby Digital to encode 5.1 channels of discrete audio. The disc can also contain PCM, DTS, and MPEG audio soundtracks and numerous other features. An audio-only version, DVD-A uses MLP to encode six channels of 24-bit/96-kHz audio.

DVB-T
DVB-T stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial and it is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television.

VCR
Video Cassette Recorder: Device that records audio and video electrical signals onto magnetic tape (aka videotape recorder).

DVB-S
DVB-S is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and modulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1995. It is used via satellites serving every continent of the world. DVB-S is used in both MCPC and SCPC modes for broadcast network feeds, as well as for direct broadcast satellite services like Sky TV (UK) via Astra in Europe, Dish Network and Globecast in the U.S., and Bell ExpressVu in Canada. The transport stream delivered by DVB-S is mandated as MPEG-2.

DVB-C
DVB-C stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable and it is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 family digital audio/video stream, using a QAM modulation with channel coding.

HDTV
High-Definition Television. The high-resolution subset of our DTV system. The FCC has no official definition for HDTV. The ATSC defines HDTV as a 16:9 image with twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of our existing system, accompanied by 5.1 channels of Dolby Digital audio. The CEA defines HDTV as an image with 720 progressive or 1080 interlaced active (top to bottom) scan lines. 1280:720p and 1920:1080i are typically accepted as high-definition scan rates.

DVD-R
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-R in that it is a write-once medium. Backed by Pioneer, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others.

DVD+R
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-R in that it is a write-once medium. Backed by Sony, Philips, Yamaha, HP, and others.

DVD-RW
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-RW in that it is re-recordable medium. Backed by Pioneer, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others.

DVD+RW
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-RW in that it is re-recordable medium. Backed by Sony, Philips, Yamaha, HP, and others.

DVD-RAM
A recordable DVD format similar to DVD-RW in that it is a re-writeable format. Unlike DVD-RW it is capable of being written to and erased over 100,000 times. Backed by Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others.

Blu-ray
Blu-ray is an optical disc format such as CD and DVD. It was developed for recording and playing back high-definition (HD) video and for storing large amounts of data. While a CD can hold 700 MB of data and a basic DVD can hold 4.7 GB of data, a single Blu-ray disc can hold up to 25 GB of data. Even a double sided, dual layer DVD (which are not common) can only hold 17 GB of data. Dual-layer Blu-ray discs will be able to store 50 GB of data. That is equivalent to 4 hours of HDTV.

DVD
Officially known as the Digital Video Disc, though marketers unofficially refer to it as the Digital Versatile Disc. DVD uses a 5-inch disc with anywhere from 4.5 Gb (single layer, single-sided) to 17 Gb storage capacity (double-layer, double sided). It uses MPEG2 compression to encode 720:480p resolution, full-motion video and Dolby Digital to encode 5.1 channels of discrete audio. The disc can also contain PCM, DTS, and MPEG audio soundtracks and numerous other features. An audio-only version, DVD-A uses MLP to encode six channels of 24-bit/96-kHz audio.

DVD-R
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-R in that it is a write-once medium. Backed by Pioneer, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others.

DVD+R
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-R in that it is a write-once medium. Backed by Sony, Philips, Yamaha, HP, and others.

DVD-RW
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-RW in that it is re-recordable medium. Backed by Pioneer, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others.

DVD+RW
A recordable DVD format similar to CD-RW in that it is re-recordable medium. Backed by Sony, Philips, Yamaha, HP, and others.

DVD-RAM
A recordable DVD format similar to DVD-RW in that it is a re-writeable format. Unlike DVD-RW it is capable of being written to and erased over 100,000 times. Backed by Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others.

Blu-ray
Blu-ray is an optical disc format such as CD and DVD. It was developed for recording and playing back high-definition (HD) video and for storing large amounts of data. While a CD can hold 700 MB of data and a basic DVD can hold 4.7 GB of data, a single Blu-ray disc can hold up to 25 GB of data. Even a double sided, dual layer DVD (which are not common) can only hold 17 GB of data. Dual-layer Blu-ray discs will be able to store 50 GB of data. That is equivalent to 4 hours of HDTV.

MP3
MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3. Compression scheme used to transfer audio files via the Internet and store in portable players and digital audio servers.

DTS
Digital Theatre Systems. A digital sound recording format, originally developed for theatrical film soundtracks, starting with Jurassic Park. Records 5.1 discrete channels of audio onto a handful of laser discs, CDs, and DVDs. Requires a player with DTS output connected to a DTS processor.

HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

DVI
Digital Visual Interface. Connection standard developed by Intel for connecting computers to digital monitors such as flat panels and DLP projectors. A consumer electronics version, not necessarily compatible with the PC version, is used as a connection standard for HDTV tuners and displays. Transmits an uncompressed digital signal to the display. The latter version uses HDCP copy protection to prevent unauthorized copying. See also HDMI.

USB
Stands for Universal Serial Bus. USB is the most common type of computer port used in today's computers. It can be used to connect keyboards, mice, game controllers, printers, scanners, digital cameras, and removable media drives, just to name a few. With the help of a few USB hubs, you can connect up to 127 peripherals to a single USB port and use them all at once (though that would require quite a bit of dexterity).

Firewire
This high-speed interface has become a hot new standard for connecting peripherals (no pun intended). Created by Apple Computer in the mid-1990's, Firewire can be used to connect devices such as digital video cameras, hard drives, audio interfaces, and MP3 players, such as the Apple iPod, to your computer. A standard Firewire connection can transfer data at 400 Mbps, which is roughly 30 times faster than USB 1.1. This blazing speed allows for quick transfers of large video files, which is great for video-editing professionals. If 400 Mbps is still not fast enough, Apple Computer released new PowerMacs with Firewire 800 ports in early 2003. These ports support data transfer rates of 800 Mbps -- twice the speed of the original Firewire standard.