TechTerms
From LiteracyTentWiki
Less commonly used and more technical terms
Back to TechGlossary
access controls: Ways for you to limit who has access to your Web page. Your site can be open to anyone, or you can limit access to a select group of people (the students in your class, for example) by requiring a password.
Adobe AfterEffects: Software used to design motion graphics and visual effects for video presentations.
anchor: An anchor (also referred to as a bookmark by Microsoft applications) is the destination of a hyperlink within a Web page. Anchors are common on single Web pages containing lots of text where the text section titles appear at the top of the page and clicking the link causes the browser to jump down the page and display the selected portion of text.
artifact: Physical disruptions such as blemishes, noise, snow, and spots within a video image.
.asf files: (Advanced Streaming Format) A compressed file format supported by Windows Media Player that stores audio and video content. One advantage of using .ASF file is that the file is delivered continuously and starts playing almost immediately. Your audio or video files do not need to be fully downloaded for viewers to start listening to or viewing them.
aspect ratio: The ratio of a video clip’s width to its height.
.asx files: (Advanced Stream Redirector) Text files supported by Windows Media Player that function as a link from a Web page to an ASF file located on a server. ASX files are small in size because they contain instructions and no data. When viewers click the link to an ASX file, the entire ASX file is downloaded to the viewer's directory. The file contains instructions and commands the computer to launch the desired application. It then locations the ASF file to start playing. Creating an ASX file is only necessary when you have an ASF file that contains audio or video content that you want viewers to access.
.avi files: (Audio Video Interleaved) Most common Windows format for storing audio and video data. In this file format, data is stored consecutively, meaning that a segment of video data is followed by a segment of audio data. AVI files are not sufficient for full-screen and full-motion videos because of their low resolution and the low number of frames per second they display.
batch: A set of movie or graphic files that are compressed simultaneously. The main advantage of using batch is that it speeds up data entry, which in turn saves time for the user.
baud: Measure of the number of times per second sound frequency changes on a phone line. Baud and bps (bits per second) are not identical. A 200-baud modem changes frequency 200 times each second, but does not transmit 200 bits per second.
bitmap: A Windows format for storing graphics in an uncompressed manner.
cinepak: A compression codec (see Codec) for video typically operating at 320 x 240 pixels (picture element; a single point in a graphic image) at 15 frames per second. Cinepak does well with high motion video, but tends to be blurry and will only compress at 256 colors. It was originally developed to work with early CD-ROMs, which had low data transfer rates.
codec: (acronym for COmpression/DECompression) A specialized computer program used to reduce the size of large video and audio files. Examples of common codecs are MPEG and Cinepak.
Composer: A program from Netscape which can be used to create and edit HTML documents. Composer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, meaning that you can create the Web page as you want it to look on the screen, and the program adds the HTML source code necessary to make sure that the page looks right in a Web browser. Composer can be downloaded free from Netscape.
data projector: A device for taking the information that you would normally see on a computer monitor and projecting it onto to a larger movie screen. By projecting your work instead of displaying it on a monitor, you can show a PowerPoint slide show, a Web page, or other projects you've developed on the computer to a larger group of people.
dialing in: Using a phone line and modem to establish a connection to a computer. Generally, people who use this type of connection do not stay connected all the time; they only dial in when they need to access the Internet. These types of connections are slower than on-campus Ethernet connections.
DV codec: (Digital Video Codec) A compression codec used to reduce the size of large video and audio files without losing any data. This codec offers excellent quality and speed.
DVD: (Digital Versatile Disc) An advanced type of CD-ROM that holds a minimum of 4.7 gigabytes (unit of storage) to a maximum of 17 gigabytes of information. They are compressed using the MPEG codec, which stores only the changes from one frame to another instead of the entire frame.
DVD-ram: High-capacity, high-performance optical disk that allows data to be read, written, and erased. It is comparable to a rewritable CD, and can hold up to 2.6 gigabytes of information per side.
embedded streams: Multiple copies of one video that are formatted according to different transmission speeds so that users with various computer modems can view the video in the least amount of download time.
Framerate: The number of video frames displayed per unit of time, usually in seconds.
http streaming/fake streaming: Ability to transfer data from Web servers using the http protocol (as opposed to streaming media servers). Http is not a good way to stream long video, since data is not streamed in real time.
imagemap: An invisible (on a Web browser) grid that is overlayed on top of an existing image on a Web page (usually a .gif file or a .jpg file), which allows the image to serve as a hyperlink to another Web page. Several different hyperlinks can be mapped onto different parts of a single image.
Keyframe: Main tool for controlling the content of frames in an animation. Keyframes define settings such as the position of a clip when displayed on the screen at a specific point in time. Each animation has a beginning keyframe and an ending keyframe. Additional keyframes can be added to create or manipulate the desired animation.
kps: (kilobytes per second) Data transmission speed. A byte is a unit of storage for a single character, which refers to letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. A kilobyte is equivalent to 1,024 bytes.
.mpeg files: (Motion Picture Experts Group) A digital compressed file format that codes information such as movies and music. When compared with other video and audio coding formats, .mpeg files are much smaller for the same quality since they store only the changes from one frame to another instead of the entire frame.
mpeg4: The newest version of mpeg compression (reduction in the size of data) used by Microsoft in the Windows Media streaming system. (also see mpeg)
NTSC: (National Television Standards Committee) Standard broadcast signal received by televisions in the United States. All television broadcasts in the United States must meet this standard. If a device is designed for NTSC, it will most likely not work with other television standards such as PAL, which is the standard broadcast signal used in Europe. However, there are certain types of equipment that support both standards.
OmniPage Professional: Software used in conjunction with a scanner. Using OmniPage, pictures or documents can be scanned into the computer.
scan: The process of turning pages from notebooks, typed documents, and photographs into digital images. After images have been digitized, they can be placed on World Wide Web pages. A scanner (machine) and scanning software are required.
scan converter: A machine used to convert RGB (Web colors - Red, Green, Blue) signals to NTSC (television and video standards in the United States), PAL (dominate television standards in the rest of the world) or SECAM (video standards for many countries excluding the United States) video signals. Scan converters give you the ability to view your computer screen on a standard television monitor, or conversely, watch television on your computer screen.
scan interlacing: A method of refreshing a screen by reviving every other line on the screen.
SoundForge: A digital editor for recording and manipulating audio for Windows. SoundForge is used for audio editing, audio recording, effects processing, and media encoding. Together with a Windows-compatible sound card, it can create, record, and edit audio files. In addition, it has built-in support for video and CD burning and can save to a number of audio and video file formats such as WAV, WMA, and mp3.
Video-on-demand: A large database of movies. People can update and download videos on their computers at their convenience.
Web-based peer review: A method of evaluation and peer review. MERLOT is an example of web-based peer review.
Web-based software: Software intended to be used on the World Wide Web.
Windows Media Encoder: A tool used to convert- live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to Windows Media Format.
Windows Media Player: A universal media player that receives and plays back streaming audio and video media over the Internet or intranet.
.wmv files: (Windows Media Video) Compressed video file that plays on the Windows platform. Also used for Windows Media streaming.
WS_FTP: A process used to move files from one place to another. Most commonly, files are moved from a disk or a computer's hard drive to a server, which make files available to others to see on the World Wide Web.
