Glossary

1080i

Video format refering to 1080 lines interlaced scan. 540 lines scanned, alternating between odd and even fields giving 1080 lines on a static picture.

1080p

Video format refering to 1080 lines progressive scan. 1080 lines are scanned in a single frame, giving smoother gradients with motion than 1080i.

720i

Video format refering to 720 lines interlaced scan.

720p

Video format refering to 720 lines progressive scan.

ABS

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. A common and durable plastic.

AV

Audio Visual

AWG

American Wire Gauge. Refers to the thickness of the cable. A 3AWG reduction equals double the thickness.

BER

Bit Error Rate or Bit Error Ratio. The ratio of erroneous bits (data) compared to the total number of bits over a specified amount of time. A measurement used to analyse the performance of a digital device, including HDMI cables.

CAT5e

Category 5 enhanced cable. A common cable containing 4 × twisted pairs, typically used for networking applications.

CAT6

Category 6. A higher grade of CAT5e, giving increased bandwidth

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CAT7

Category 7. A higher grade of CAT5e / CAT6.

CFL

Compact Fluorescent Lamp. A typical backlight for LCD displays

DB15

D-Subminiature 15-pin connector. Generally referred to in terms of the connector on a VGA cable. Technically, this should be DE15HD, but is commonly called DB15

Deep Color

Deep Color refers to color depth beyond 24-bit (8-bits per channel) color. This is available as an option in HDMI 1.3 or later in 30-bit, 36-bit or 48-bit color, allowing billions or trillions of colours.

Dielectric

The insulation around a conductor. In cables, a good dielectric is one that has low capacitance as this effectively holds charge (signal) then re-releases it, adding distortion to the signal

Dolby Digital

Also known as AC-3, Dolby Digital is the defacto audio format for DVD and Bluray. Available in a multitude of versions supporting mono through to high quality multi-channel surround sound

DSD

Direct Stream Digital. An encoding format used on SACDs that uses a sequence of 1-bit values sampled (in the case of SACD) at a rate of 2.8224 MHz for very high quality audio.

DTS

Digital Theatre System(s) is a competitor to the Dolby Digital surround sound format. Available in a multitude of versions including DTS-HD Master Audio to provide studio quality lossless audio

DVD

Digital Versatile Disc. A high capacity multi-purpose disc, used to store data, video and/or audio.

DVD-A

Digital Versatile Disc - Audio. A high-resoltion audio disc, containing up to 24bit / 192KHz audio

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DVI

Digital Visual Interface. Can contain both analog and/or digital video signals. A common video connector for the IT industry and used in the AV industry briefly before HDMI was established

DVI-D

Digital Visual Interface - Digital. The digital only format of DVI

EMI

Electromagnetic interference. Also called RFI (radio frequency interference)

Foam PE

Foam PE is usually nitrogen injected PE (polyethylene). Used in cables as it is a relatively inexpensive and high performing dielectric

fps

Frames per second

Gbps

Gigabits per second. Giga (billions) of bits (data) per second.

HD

High Definition

HDCP

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection

HDMI

High Definition Multimedia Interface

IR

Infrared. A spectrum of light not visible to the eye. A typical application in this industry is for transmitting remote control signals.

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LCD

Liquid Crystal Display. A common technology used in displays

LED

Light Emitting Diode. A very efficient light source

LFE

Low Frequency Effects - a dedicated, limited bandwith channel, typically for subwoofer use.

MHz

Megahertz. Referring to frequency - millions (mega) of cycles per second (hertz)

OFC

Oxygen-free copper

Ohm

An electrical term, unit of resistance

PCM

Pulse Code Modulation. A method of packing data, now typically used in audio (eg. CD)

PE

Polyethylene, a common plastic & used in cables as a dielectric.

PVC

Polyvinyl chloride. Also plasticised to use with cables, PVC is a cheap and durable insulator.

RCA

A common connector used in AV equipment, also called phono. Named after the company Radio Corporation of America who introduced it with early phonograph players.

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RFI

Radio frequency interference

RGB

Red-Green-Blue. Usually in video refers to the RGB colorspace - how a color is defined electronically

RGB-HV

Red-Green-Blue, Horizontal & Vertical sync

RJ45

An unofficial but widely used term refering to a 8P8C modular plug that connects to an ethernet cable, commonly used in networking

S/PDIF

Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format or more commonly Sony/Philips Digital InterFace. A standard for carrying digital audio signals over coax or optical cables.

SACD

Super Audio Compact Disc. A high resolution audio disc that uses the DSD format in stereo or mulit-channel modes

SCART

A 21-pin AV connector designed to carry analogue audio, video and data. More common in Europe, this connector is becoming less common with the advent of HDMI

STP

Shielded Twisted Pair. Refers to the construction of the cable.

TC

Tinned Copper. Copper with a thin layer of tin on the surface.

TMDS

Transition Minimised Differential Signaling. Used in HDMI & DVI to transmit high speed digital data over long lengths, utilising multiple data cores and separate clock.

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TOSlink

Toshiba link - referring to the common connector on optical cables

TrueHD

An AV industry term, refering to capability of at least 1080p resolution, optimal for technologies such as Bluray

TTL

Transistor-transistor logic. A class of digital circuit widespread in Integrated Circuits (ICs)

UP-OFC

Ultra-pure oxygen free copper.

UTP

Unshielded Twisted Pair. Refers to the constuction of the cable.

VGA

Video Graphics Array. An analogue video format capable of high resolutions commonly used in the IT industry.

x.v.Color

also known as xvYCC, is a color space format that gives 1.8 × the color gamut of RGB, giving deeper hues and more natural colors.

YCbCr

YCbCr is color space format used to encode an RGB picture digitally or in the analog domain. Being more efficient than RGB, it is the native format encoded on DVDs for example. Y refers to the luminance or brightness picture information, while Cb & Cr is the chroma or color difference information.

YPbPr

Used interchangeably with YCbCr however YPbPr only refers to the color space in the analog video domain.

YUV

YUV is a color space format containing separate channels for Y (luminance), U & V (color difference). Originally developed for PAL / NTSC / SECAM encoding methods to add color information to a black and white signal while maintaing backwards compatibility. YUV can be transmitted over composite, S-Video or component video and is often stated interchangeably with YCbCr & YPbPr in the case of component video.

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