PALsite: Glossary I-N

PALsite
Glossary I-O

http://www.PALsite.com

The home of the PAL system

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Idler: The is the little bit of mechanism which transfers drive to the cassette reel spools. See also the idler page.
Insert: This is term which refers to editing operations which do not lay down a new control track. This type of editing opertion requires the use of a pre-striped tape (tape on to which a continious control track has been laid).
IMEX machines: A tape format that uses the Betacam cassette shell and basic tape path design. The system records MPEG video. These machines are often also capable of Betacam, Betacam SP, Digital Betacam and Betacam SX playback.
Interlace: A process in which the picture is split into two fields by sending all the odd numbered lines to field one and all the even numbered lines to field two. This was necessary when there was not enough bandwidth to send a complete frame fast enough to create a non-flickering image.
ITS: The International Teleproduction Society.
ITVA: The International Television Association.
Jog: Tape transport function allowing frame advance/retard of tape. Used for editing.
K - Connector: This is Sony's standard camera connector. See also the K-connector page.
Keycode: A machine-readable code printed on the edge of motion picture film which allows the film edge numbers to be electronically read and inserted into an edit list. Very useful for generating a negative cut list from a video off-line EDL.
KSP: Series of Sony U-matic tape intended for Standard U-matic use. See also the U-matic tape page.
KCA: Prefix used to identify large size U-matic cassette tapes. See also the U-matic tape page.
KCS: Prefix used to identify small size U-matic cassettes intended for use in portable units. See also the U-matic tape page.
Linear Audio (Track): This refers to the standard audio track which is recorded along the side of the cassette tape rather like on an audio cassette. Audio recorded in this way suffers from the fact that the tape speed is rather slow and hence has limited frequency bandwidth. Also referred to as the longitudinal track.
Linear Stereo: This refers to the system whereby stereo sound was recorded onto the linear audio track. This was achieved by making the individual audio tracks very narrow so as to occupy the same width on the tape as the original monaural track. See also the Betamax linear stereo feature.
Long Play: This is mode Beta III in which the tape speed is reduced in order to allow more material to be fitted on to a fixed length tape. It was never implemented on PAL Betamax machines.
LNG recording: Abbreviation of longitudinal recording. A method of recording audio signals by radio frequency bias method on the longitudinal track of the tape using the fixed head.
LTC: Abbreviation of Longitudinal Time Code. A time code recorded in a separate track at the edge of the tape.
Lo-Band U-matic: The standard U-matic format in which the luminance FM deviation is from 3.8 to 5.4 MHz and the colour under frequency is 685 kHz.
LTC Linear Time Code: Time code recorded on a linear analogue track on a video tape. Also called Longitudinal Time Code.
Letterbox: Placing a wide screen image on a conventional TV by placing black bands at the top and bottom of the screen.
Luminance: The black and white, or brightness, part of a component video signal. Also called the "Y" signal.
Master: This is the recodring VTR in an edit suite. To function as a master machine a VTR needs to be capable of insert editing.
Matte: A black & white high contrast image that suppresses or cuts a hole in the background picture to allow the picture the matte was made from to seamlessly fit in the hole.
Megabyte: 1 million bytes.
Metal tape: Magnetic tape coated with microscopic particles of metal dispersed in a liquid binder. It allows high density recording. Moisture condensation Condensation of moisture on the tape transport mechanisms. If moisture condenses on the head drum, the tape adheres to the drum and causes malfunction.
Mini Jack: This is a small connector normally used for a microphone input or possible connection of a wired remote control.
Mode (U-matic): This is the way in which a U-matic can operate. Options include, local, TBC and edit.
Modulator: This is the device which takes a baseband video signal and converts it into a Radio Frequency signal which can be received by a television set.
Monitor: This refers to a professional video display unit. Like a TV but without the tuner.
Monitor Output: This is an audio output on the rear of the VTR which is used to monitor audio.
Monitor Selector: This is the control on the front of the VTR whcih selects which audio tracks appear on the headphone and Monitor output sockets.
MPEG: Moving Picture Experts Group. A group of standards for compressing moving pictures. MPEG 1 uses a data rate of 1.5 Mbps (Mega Bits per Second), the speed of CD-ROM. MPEG 2 supports higher quality with a data rate (also called bit rate) of from 2 to 10 Mpbs. MPEG 2 is the format used for satellite broadcasting (DSS), digital terrestrial broadcasting, and DVD.
MTS Stereo: This is a broadcast stereo system used in the USA.
Multi-Standard: This refers to the ability of a particular VCR to work with more than one video format standard. E.g. both PAL, as used in Europe, and NTSC, as used in the USA.
Multi-Connector: This is the 8-pin DIN connector which you will find on the SL-C9 and TT-F1. It is a combined audio and video conection which was also adopted on Sony Profeel series of monitors and accessories.
NTSC: NTSC National Television Systems Committee. The name of the television and video standard in use in the United States. Consists of 525 horizontal lines at a field rate of 60 fields per second. (Two fields equals one complete Frame). Only 486 of these lines are used for picture. The rest are used for sync and extra information such as VITC and Closed Captioning. This is the colour video standard used in the United States and Japan. Compare with PAL and SECAM.
Non-drop-frame mode: A mode of advancing the time code in such a way that the difference in frame values between real time and the time code is neglected. Using this mode produces a difference of approximately 86 seconds per day between real time and time code, which causes problems when editing programs in units of seconds using the number of frames as a reference.
Non-Linear Editor: An editing system based on storage of video and audio on computer disk, where the order or lengths of scenes can be changed without the necessity of re-assembling or copying the program.

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