Home Theater Terms

A glossary for Cine-Maniacs

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Amplifier: A component that increases an audio signal's volume.

Anamorphic: Enhanced Widescreen presentation of a film.  This strategy presents the 16:9 ratio of a motion picture still on a 4:3 ratio on a TV screen.

Aspect Ratio: The ratio of image width to image height. Movies screens have a different aspect ratio than television screens.

Attenuate: To reduce or decrease the strength of a signal.

Balanced Input: An audio connection designed to resist line noise.

Bandwidth: In audio, a device's operational frequency range. In video, the frequencies passed from input to output.

Bass: Low frequencies.

Bipolar: Speakers with two, opposite-facing driver arrays that create a richer sound.

Black Level: Light level of the darkest part of a video image. Black level control coordinates the video signal and the display to create a true black where appropriate.

Cathode Ray Tube: (CRT) Type of display that creates images out of phosphors and beamed electrons.

CD: Compact Disc. CD-R: Recordable Compact Disc; CD-RW: Rewritable Compact Disc.

Center Channel: In surround sound set ups, the main speaker between the left and right outputs.

Channel: A discrete signal path.  A four-channel system has four inputs and four outputs.

Coaxial: An audio or video cable with a single center pin that acts as the hot lead and a shielded exterior that grounds the wire.

Codec: compression algorithms for digital files.

Component Video: A signal that is split into smaller, constituent parts, such as HDTV and DVD.

Controller: Generic term that typically refers to a combination preamp/surround processor or receiver.  Can also refer to a handheld wireless remote.

Crossover: A component that separates high frequencies and low frequencies in a signal.

Direct Broadcast Satellite: Personal satellite dish service providers such as Direct TV and Dish Network.

Dynamic Noise Reduction: A circuit designed to remove high frequency noise.

Dolby Digital: A system that records audio into five separate channels.  The 5.1 separate channels are used for the center, right front, right surround, left front, left surround and rear.  Also called AC3.

DTV: Digital Television, including HDTV, scheduled to replace the standard NTSC in 2006.

Equalizer: Components of audio systems that change the quality of sound.

Fiber Optic Cable: Fiber cables made of plastic or glass that transmit high-speed digital information.

Graphic Equalizer: A component with a display that illustrates the changeable qualities of audio output.

HDTV: High-Definition Television. The high-resolution subset of our DTV system.

Home Theater in a Box: A complete home theater system with speakers, receiver, and DVD player.

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display. Flat screen technology that uses transparent panels and a liquid crystal.

Megachanger: CD or DVD player that holds more than 50 discs.

Multisource: A receiver capable of sending different sound sources to different rooms.

Optical Digital Cable: Fiber optic cable that transfers digital audio signals as light pulses.

Plasma: Flat-panel display technology that ignites small pockets of gas to light phosphors.

Rear-Projection Television (RPTV): The image is bounced off a mirror and then displayed on the backside of the screen.

Receiver: A component that takes a signal (video, radio, sound) and outputs it to speakers or another device.

SDTV: Standard Definition Television.

Subwoofer: A speaker for very low bass.

THX: A propriety certification for home theater sound systems.

Tweeter: A high frequency speaker.

Universal Remote: A remote that controls all the different devices in the system.

Woofer: A speaker for low frequencies.

Y/Pb/Pr: The color-coded parts of a component video connector.
 

Zone: An area of the home served by a receiver.  One receiver can send different signals to different zones, so that a person in one room can watch a movie and a person in another can listen to music.

More information on home theater seating