Resource Center: How to Speak A/V
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Entries starting with: early reflections: Reflected sounds in any listening space that reach the ear within the first few milliseconds after the direct sounds; strong early reflections can blur the sound. See late reflections and reverberation. EDTV: see enhanced-definition TV. EDTV monitor: A TV set that can display a 480p-format digital TV signal from an outboard tuner/decoder. efficiency: The percentage of electrical input power going to a speaker that is converted into acoustic energy; often used synonymously with sensitivity. 802.11: see IEEE 802.11. electron gun: A subassembly of a CRT responsible for generating and launching high-velocity electrons aimed at the phosphors on the face of the picture tube; the phosphors glow when struck by the electrons, which creates an image. electronic crossover: see active crossover. electronic program guide (EPG): An onscreen program guide/menu system used to select the program to be viewed; can also be used to set the recording timer in a VCR or hard-disk recorder. Schedule information is downloaded at night from the program service provider via a home network and broadband connection, a built-in modem connected to a telephone line, or a cable or satellite feed, or it’s decoded from a TV channel’s VBI. electrostatic: Speakers and headphones that produce sound by means of a thin, flat, electrically charged diaphragm that’s suspended in a high-voltage electrical field and moves back and forth in response to changes in an audio signal applied to the field; the airwave created by the motion of the diaphragm is heard as sound. embedded memory: Flash-memory circuits that are built into a device, such as a portable MP3 player, and cannot be removed. 8mm: A miniature camcorder and VCR format utilizing a tape 8 millimeters wide. enclosure: The box or other construction that makes up the outer shell of a speaker. Its principal purposes are to hold the drivers in alignment and to prevent the sound from the back of a woofer from reaching the front in an uncontrolled way that would cancel bass frequencies. Energy Star-compliant: Adheres to a standard for efficient use of electricity as certified by the U.S. Department of Energy and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. enhanced-definition TV (EDTV): A TV that’s capable of displaying the 480p (progressive-scan) format at up to 60 fps — with either a 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio — rather than being limited to SDTV’s 480i (interlaced-scan), 30-fps format. equalization (EQ): Deliberate alteration of frequency response. Bass and treble tone controls are a basic form of equalization. equalizer: A component, or part of a component, that divides the audio signal into frequency bands with separately adjustable output levels. See graphic equalizer (the most common type) and parametric equalizer. error concealment: Mathematical processes during CD or DVD playback, or DTV reception, that replace lost audio or video data with presumably similar existing data when error rates are so high that error correction fails. Error-concealment failure will cause the music, video, dialogue, or effects to skip, mute, or break up. See error correction. error correction: Mathematical reconstruction of corrupted digital data during CD or DVD playback, or DTV reception, based on redundancies in the recording or transmission. Error-corrected data are identical to the original data. Ethernet: Trademark for a wired-network protocol covered by the IEEE 802.3 international standard. Standard, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet have maximum data rates of 10, 100, and 1,000 Mbps, respectively. expander: A device that increases the dynamic range of incoming signals. An expander may be used to counteract the dynamic-range compression that sometimes occurs when recordings are made or when a signal is broadcast. Abbreviations |
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