Digital Cable - A service provided by many cable providers, digital cable offers viewers more channels. Contrary to many consumers' beliefs, digital cable is not the same as High-Definition Television or digital television; rather digital cable simply offers cable subscribers the options of paying for more services. Digital Monitor - DTV monitors are televisions that can display a digital signal but lack an integrated tuner (unlike an integrated digital set), and thus cannot receive a digital broadcast signal without an additional set-top box.
EDTV - (enhanced definition TV) - Essentially DVD quality, it is a small step up from NTSC. An EDTV will convert all 18 ATSC formats to 480p.
Convergence - An adjustment that must be made occasionally to CRT sets. This adjustment makes the three colors coincide perfectly.
8-VSB - Acronym for the transmission method used for over-the-air DTV broadcasting in Canada and the USA. Eight discreet amplitude level, "vestigial side-band" broadcast transmission technology. VSB is an analog modulation technique used to reduce the amount of spectrum needed to transmit information through cable TV, or terrestrial broadcasting.
VSB - " Vestigial side band." VSB is an analog modulation technique used to reduce the amount of spectrum needed to transmit information through cable TV, or over-the-air broadcasts.
Set-top box (STB) - A box, similar to the familiar cable box, that is capable of receiving, decoding and sending to the associated television the picture and sound of the selected DTV broadcast. The use of an STB would allow the use of conventional televisions to receive DTB programs, but at reduced levels of resolution and with imperfections due to aspect ratio differences, leading to letterboxing or cropping of the sides of the picture.
DirecTV - (see DBS)
DTS - Digital Theatre Sound System. A Dolby proprietary discrete 5.1 channel surround system similar to, but not the same as Dolby Digital AC-3, the DTV standard. DTS is used in cinema presentations and in DVD's.
Interactive Television - TV programming with interactive content and enhancements, blending traditional TV viewing with the interactivity of a personal computer.
Over-the-air Broadcast (OTA) - Also called Terrestrial Broadcast. The delivery of TV and radio signals, using UHF/VHF frequencies, directly to consumer devices. Broadcasts may be either analog or digital.
C-band / Ku-band. - 1. a range of RF spectrum. C-band is app. 4 GHz. Ku-band is app. 12 GHz. 2. Geo-stationary satellites the networks use to acquire and distribute programming to affiliates and cable TV companies. These satellites use C-band and Ku-band frequencies. 3. a consumer service that uses the satellites the networks originally set up for themselves. An 8-foot steerable dish is required. Some channels are free. Others are available by subscription. The digital channel subscription service is called 4DTV.
Convergence - An adjustment that must be made occasionally to CRT sets. This adjustment makes the three colors coincide perfectly.
Fire-wire - (see IEEE 1394)
HD-Ready TV - An HDTV monitor or TV that lacks a digital tuner.
LCOS - (Liquid Crystal On Silicon) - This is another contender to replace CRTs in projection TVs.
MTS - (Multi-channel Television Sound) - This refers to an analog NTSC TV equipped with stereo and SAP (separate audio program) features.
Resolution - The level of resolution directly affects picture quality. The higher the resolution, the more picture detail there is. Many things affect picture quality, including number of bits, pixel count, format, receiver quality, cameras, lenses and lighting used for live or taped programming. Resolution is measured by the number of pixels displayed. One of the high-definition picture formats is composed of 1080 active lines, and each line is composed of 1920 active pixels. Therefore, each frame has over 2 million (1080x1920=2,073,600) color pixels creating the image. By way of contrast, today's typical analog television is roughly equivalent to 480 active lines, with each line holding about 440 pixels. So, each frame has a little over 200,000 color pixels in use creating the image.
Set-top Converter Box - This unit sits on top of the viewer's analog TV, receives the Digital TV signal, converts it to an analog signal, and then sends that signal on to the analog TV.
