Glossary

From “eek” to “geek”…

We hope the following will be a quick and easy guide to some of our technical terms. If you'd like to find out the meaning of a term that's not included, please email us here and we'll add the term and the relevant definition to this list.

1. Screen sizes

Picture Aspect Ratio

The length to height ratio in any picture. Often known simply as Aspect Ratio. (AR)

16:9 or wide screen

The picture aspect ratio used for HDTV, digital TV and plasma screens. The image (16 wide, 9 high) is the same shape as a cinema screen.

4:3

The picture aspect ratio used by older TVs. (4 wide, 3 high). These are gradually being replaced by digital wide screen, or 16 x 9 TVs.

2. Videotapes, compression, SD, HD and so on

Betacam SP

A broadcast quality video tape, still used by some broadcasters. This type of tape is gradually being replaced by digital tapes. Compression ratio is 5:1.

Digital Betacam

A high quality digital video tape format. The compression ratio is 2:1

Video Compression

The process of reducing the bandwidth or data rate of a video stream. Digital compression systems analyse their picture sources to find and remove redundancy both within, and between, picture frames. There are various compression ratios for video, which affect the clarity of the picture, starting with the highest quality of "uncompressed".

Compression Ratio

The ratio of the size of data in the "uncompressed" digital video signal to the edited "compressed" version, for example on a tape or DVD.

DVCAM

A digital tape format. The compression ratio is 4:2:0 for PAL and 4:1:1 for NTSC.

DVCPRO

Panasonic's development of DV.

SD or SDTV

Standard definition or standard definition television with a resolution that meets current standards but is not High Definition (HD).

PAL

Short for Phase Alternating Line. The television standard used in Europe and in most other countries in the world. It consists of 625 horizontal lines of resolution.

NTSC

Short for National Television Standards Committee. Television standard used in USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan and a few other countries. It consists of 525 horizontal lines of resolution. (Needs to be converted to PAL for use in Europe and other countries).

Frame Rate

Number of frames per second. PAL is 25 frames per second, NTSC is 29.9 frames per second.

HD and HDTV

High definition and high definition television. A digital television broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than standard TV (625 lines for PAL, and 525 lines for NTSC). HD has resolutions of 1280 up to 1920 lines.

Tapeless

Digital tapeless simply means recording digital data to a medium other than video tape. The new formats are memory cards, disks and hard drives.

3. Some common stills formats, suitable for video editing:

JPEG

These initials are short for Joint Photographic Experts Group. It is a method of data compression for still pictures. JPEG files use the extension ".jpg."

Targa

An image file format widely used in computer systems. Targa uses the extension. "TGA"

TIFF

Short for: Tagged Image File Format. This is a bitmap graphics file format, developed to provide a common format for scanners, and is used in desktop publishing, and as the data format for scanned faxes. TIFF files use the extension ".TIF"

Photoshop

Commonly used imaging editing programme made by Adobe. Photoshop files use the extension ".psd"

4. Video Editing:

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a professional non-linear editing system developed by Apple Inc. It is popular with independent filmmakers and Hollywood film editors.
The program has the ability to edit many digital formats - tape and tapeless - including, SD, HDV, HD, Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM, 2K, 4K, and IMAX film formats. The system is currently only available for Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or later. It is now available with Intel as well as MAC processors.

After Effects

After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems. It can be used in film and video post-production. After Effects uses a system of layers organised on a timeline to create composites from still images and moving footage.
Position and opacity can be controlled independently for each layer, and each layer can have effects applied. After Effects is often described as the "Photoshop of video", because its flexibility allows compositors to alter video in any way they see fit, just as Photoshop does for images.

Motion

A 2 and 3D motion graphics and titling system produced by Apple. Often used with FCP or Final Cut Pro.

5. Delivery platforms

DVD

DVD ("Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc") is a popular media format that can be used for data storage, including films with high video and sound quality. DVDs look the same as CDs externally. A DVD reader or writer can usually read CDs, BUT the reverse is not true!
DVDs are encoded in a completely different format of much greater density, allowing a data storage capacity 8 times greater (single-layer, single-sided). DVDs can be played on either a DVD player or on a computer. They are the best medium for full screen video.

DVD regions

There are nine different regions for DVDs: Region 1 includes USA and Canada; Region 2 includes Europe, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa. Formatting a DVD at region 0 means it can be played worldwide, but does mean transferring PAL material to NTSC.

CD-ROM

CD-ROM (an abbreviation of "Compact Disc read-only memory") is a Compact Disc that contains data accessible by a computer. While the Compact Disc format was originally designed for music storage and playback, the format was later adapted to hold any form of binary data, including video. CD-ROMs are generally used for games and multimedia applications, including video and text combinations (up to the capacity limit of a disc).

MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group)

MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, a working group to develop standard formats for compressing video. The standards associated with the group include MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (used in DVD movies), and MPEG-4 (sometimes used to further compress DVD movies onto CD-ROM media). There are other MPEG standards as well. MPEG files in Windows often have the ".mpg" file extension.

Quicktime

QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc. capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation and music. It is available for the Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Its file extension is ".mov."

Flash

A multimedia authoring and playback system from Adobe. It uses vector graphics which makes it very space efficient.

Streaming and progressive

These are different methods of delivering video from a server. With streaming, pictures and sound may not be constantly delivered as this depends on the speed of the network connection.

H.264

This is a standard for video compression on the web. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (for Advanced Video Coding).

3GP

3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for use on 3G mobile phones. 3GP is a simplified version of the MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4) container format, designed to decrease storage and bandwidth requirements in order to accommodate mobile phones.

6. Video News Releases and B-Rolls

Video News Release

A video news release (VNR) - also known as an "A-Roll" - is a two to three minute video report, produced to coincide with a product launch or event and distributed to newsrooms. A VNR contains sound bites, supporting visuals and a guide voice-over. It contains footage that may be time-consuming or difficult for broadcasters to obtain.

B-Roll

Following the A-Roll on the tape, the B-Roll includes extra sound bites and visuals to provide broadcasters with a fuller "kit of parts" from which to edit their own stories. A "B-Roll" can also be produced and distributed as a stand-alone package.

Sell-in and Distribution

VNRs and B-Rolls can be uploaded to the web, transmitted via satellite and distributed to newsrooms on tape, locally or worldwide, depending on the story. Broadcasters are alerted to the story prior to the event.
For more detailed descriptions and further explanations of technical terms, visit the digital fact book at: www.quantel.com