DVD Dictionary


Home | What's New | Computing Dictionary | Food Services | Humor | A-Z Links | Business Ads
Personals | Shopping | Advertising | Search | Health | Media and Graphics |
Blogs | News Page | Romance Links | Maps | Select Links | Posters | Sports Page
Relationship Network | Casinos | Music Websites | Traveler Support
Games | Computer Services & Tutoring

Aspect Ratio
The ration between the width and the height of a screen. A standard television screen has an aspect ration of 4:3 or 1.33:1. Many of your favorite classics were filmed in this aspect ratio, such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind. Often DVDs utilize the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, both of which are widescreen formats that will use black bars at the top and bottom of the image to re-create the rectangular shape of the original theatrical release on your TV screen. See Wide Screen Enhanced for additional information.
Chapter Access
Better than fast-forwarding or rewinding, chapter access is the term for DVD's ability to jump to a specific track, or "chapter" on the disc (just like an audio CD), so you can go immediately to your favorite scene(s). For example, when viewing The Matrix DVD, you can jump right to chapter 30 to see the exciting "Bullet Time" scene.
Discrete Surround Sound
Multichannel audio output that uses a separate speaker for each individual channel.
Dolby 5.1 (a.k.a. AC-3)
A multichannel digital sound coding process originally created by Dobly Laboratories, Inc. for theaters and later adapted for home use. It is the industry's benchmark sound format for DVD. Dolby 5.1 uses six channels of sound, one separate channel for each speaker: left, center, right, left surround, right surround, and low-frequency.
DTS (Digital Theatre System)
DTS is a six-channel digital sound format. In order to maintain full multichannel separation, it uses almost four times as much disc space as Dolby sound. Compared with the competing Dolby format, relatively few DVDs have been released with DTS sound. In order to take advantage of this DVD feature, a DTS decoder is required. DTS decoders can either be installed internally in your player or attached as an external module. Note: Some DVDs feature both the Dolby and DTS audio options.
Dual Layer
Information is digitally encoded on a DVD in a pattern of grooves. A dual-layer disc has two layers of grooves on one side so longer films do not need to be flipped. The other key benefit is that dula layering creates space for information - like those fun extras.
DVD Features (a.k.a. DVD Extras, DVD Supplements)
Everthing on the disc, but the movie! The great thing about DVDs is that there's room for extra information...which means more entertainment for you! Note, however, that not every DVD contains all the extras available. Some of the most popular features include:
DVD-ROM
Think CD-ROM, but with a lot more space. Made to be played on your computer (in its DVD-ROM drive), it stores additional goodies like interactive games, links to Web sites, printable screenplays, and more.
Full Frame (see also apect ratio, pan & scan, standard)
Full fram films, generally older films or programs made for television, were originally shot in a ration that is very similar to the format of your television. When viewed on a standaard television, the image takes up the entire screen and there is very little difference between how it looks at the movies and how it looks on your television screen.
Gigabyte (GB)
A unit of data that is stored on a DVD, equal to 1024 megabytes. A DVD can hold anywhere from 4.7 GB to 17 GB of digital information - that's up to 25 times the capacity of a CD. (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes of information).
HDTV (High Definition Television)
A television that offers the highest-quality picture because of its capability to receive all-digital broadcast signals. Simply put, a DVD played on HDTV has a higher resolution, which provides sharper images than a DVD played on a standard television. The sound is sharper because the audio signal is split up into six channels. Also, because HDTV has an elongated rectangular screen (16:9), it is tailored for widescreen enhanced movies, offering the closest in-home reproduction of how a movie was intended to be seen.
Letterbox (see also widescreen, widescreen enhanced)
Allows you to see the full widescreen image as it was filmed and as the director intended by preserving the original widescreen aspect ration. The letterbox format uses black stripes at the top and bottom of a TV screen to make up the difference in size between the aspect ratio of the program begin shown and that of the television screen.
MPEG-2
The technology used to compress information for DVDs reducing the amount of disc space needed to record or transmit an image. By using MPEG-2, a DVD can store up to 17 GB of information.
Multiple Camera Angles
The option of viewing a scene as it was recorded from a different camera position. A different camera angle is accessed through the remote control of your DVD player. More DVDs are using this technology, including Detroit Rock City.
NUON® Technology
"Interactivity" is the name of the [3-D] game with NUON® Technology! Developed by VM Labs, Inc. NUON® Technology turns DVD players into fully interactive video entertainment systems. Already there are products using this breakthrough technology that can link your entire entertainment system to one set-top box, allowing you to use the Internet, listen to CDs, and play realistic 3-D games on one device. Soon, NUON®-enhanced DVDs will offer greater interactivity and additional content as well.
Pan & Scan (see also aspect ratio, standard)
A process for fitting a widescreen film into a format that can be viewed on a standard television. While a widescreen aspect ration includes extra film at the left and right of the image, pan & scan cuts off the left and right side of a frame to fit the image on a TV screen, then pans left or right to stay with the action or actors.
Regional Coding
The process by which the studios control the release pattern of their DVDs. With regional coding, a disc can be played only in the particular region for which it was coded. For example, a DVD coded for North America cannot be viewed on a DVD player in Europe. (Keep this in mind when traveling abroad!) There are currently six international regions.
THX
A quality-control ctriterion, developed by George Lucas, to assure consistent and optimal audio and visual performance in theaters and in your own home. Named for Lucas' first feature, THX 1138.
Sound Quality
Standard (see aspect ratio, pan & scan)
Standard can refer to two things: if a film was shot in full frame, it does not need to be altered to fit your television in a standard format. And, when a theatrical release is filmed in a widescreen ratio it needs to be altered to fit the picture size of a standard television set - a more narrow square-like dimension.
Widescreen (see also letterbox)
Allows you to see the full widescreen image as it was filmed and as the director intended by preserving the original widescreen aspect ratio. The letterbox format uses black stripes at the top and bottom of a s TV screen to make up the difference in size between the aspect ratio of the program being shown and that of the television screen.
Widescreen Enhanced
DVDs that are widescreen enhanced (or "enchance for 16:9 television) take full advantage of the extra lines of resolution offered by high-definition television sets (HDTV) and do not require the use of black bars when played on a wodescreen TV.

Comments or Problems

Again, thanks for visiting NightFlight's WWW server. We hope to hear from you again soon.

If you have problems or comments concerning our WWW service, please send e-mail to the following address: webmaster@NightFlight.com.

Back to NightFlight Home Page

This page, and all contents, are Copyright © 2001 by NightFlight , Oakland, California, USA.