Continuing our Advice on the Home Theater Terms You Need to Know as a Builder.
In the July/August issue of TecHome Builder, senior editor Robert Archer offered the start of a comprehensive listing of new home theater terms to help builders understand the products and features they describe. This month we bring you the conclusion to that glossary.
Digital Television (DTV)
An umbrella term that covers the transition from analog television (the NTSC format) to DTV (ATSC format). High definition television (HDTV) falls into the DTV category.
Digital Theater Systems (DTS)
This company develops and licenses surround sound standards such as DTS-ES, DTS 5.1 and DTS Neo: 6. It also produces surround sound music titles produced in its DTS music format.
Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)
A term that is used to describe satellite-programming providers such as DirecTV and the Dish Network.
Direct Drive Image Light Amplification (D-ILA)
A video technology developed by JVC, and a derivative of Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), which is an alternative technology to the commonly used LCD technology. D-ILA is primarily used with front-projector video devices.
Dolby Laboratories
This company develops and licenses surround sound technologies such as Dolby Pro Logic II and Dolby Digital 5.1, and the technology behind the high-resolution audio format known as DVD-Audio.
Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)
An optical storage disc medium that can hold up to 4.7GB of data. Its most popular use is for pre-recorded DVD movies, which have become the fastest-growing consumer-electronics format ever. DVD technology is also used for backing up computer files and the high-resolution audio format known as DVD-Audio. DVD-Audio employs a lossless compression technology called Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), which was developed by the company Meridian.
Digital Video Interface (DVI)
A technology that was developed for connecting computers to digital monitors. The consumer-electronics industry adapted the technology for use with television. Many DVI connections come equipped with a copyright protection encryption called High-Definition Copyright Protection (HDCP). Presently, Hollywood is pushing to maintain intellectual properties through the use of formats such as HDCP.
Enhanced-Definition Television (EDTV)
EDTV falls under the digital television (DTV) umbrella and it describes DTV images that are broadcast with 480 progressive lines of resolution or better.
Frequency Response
This relates to how a loudspeaker can reproduce bass, midrange and high frequencies.
Hertz (Hz)
A unit of measurement the uses cycles per seconds.
High-Definition Television (HDTV)
HDTV falls under the digital television (DTV) umbrella. HDTV delivers either 1,080 lines of interlaced resolution or 720 lines of progressively scanned resolution. To qualify as true HDTV, the broadcast must also be in a widescreen format (16:9) and feature Dolby Digital Sound.
High Frequencies
Audio signals that register above approximately 2kHz.
IEEE 1394 (iLink)
IEEE 1394 (or Firewire as its known to Apple computer users) is a networking standard for the transmission of data. It has been adopted for the transmission of A/V signals and can be combined with the copyright protection format called 5C for the transmission of HDTV.
See the November/December issue of TecHome Builder for Part III