Premiere® Elements 8 For Dummies®

Appendix A. Glossary

analog:

Technology that records data as waves with infinitely varying values. Analog recordings are usually electromechanical, so they often suffer from generational loss. See also digital, generational loss.

aperture:

The size of the opening behind a camera lens. Like the iris in a human eye, a large aperture lets in more light and a small aperture lets in less light. The aperture's size is expressed as an F-number, with lower numbers like f1.8 indicating a large aperture opening and higher aperture numbers like f16 indicating a small aperture opening. See also depth of field.

aspect ratio:

The shape of a video image as determined by its width compared to height. Older TV screens had an aspect ratio of 4:3, meaning that the screen is four units wide and three units high. Most HDTVs use a "widescreen" aspect ratio of 16:9. Image pixels can also have various aspect ratios. See also HDTV, pixel.

ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee):

The digital broadcast-video standard used in North America. See also DVB, NTSC, PAL, SECAM.

AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition):

The recording format of high definition camcorders that record video onto hard drives, flash memory, or DVDs. See also DV, HDV, MiniDV.

bars and tone:

A video image that serves the function of the "test pattern" used in TV broadcasting: Standardized color bars and a 1-kHz tone are usually placed at the beginning of movie projects. The test pattern helps broadcast engineers calibrate video equipment. ...