User guide

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Appendix C, Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme Glossary
Use this glossary as a reference for many of
the basic terms in your RT.X100 Xtreme
manual and related documentation.
Numerics
1394 See IEEE-1394.
2D Short for two-dimensional. An image
that has height and width only.
3D Short for three-dimensional. An object
in three dimensions has height, width, and
depth. Various techniques are used to show
3D images on 2D surfaces like your computer
screen.
3D tile A Matrox effect that uses rotating
tiled patterns with various numbers of rows
and columns.
4:2:2P@ML 4:2:2 Profile@Main Level.
An international standard video compression
profile introduced by MPEG-2. It supports
4:2:2 luminance/chrominance sampling at up
to 720 × 608 pixel resolution, and data
transfer rates up to 50 Mb/sec (5.96 MB/sec).
This profile is used for high-quality
distribution and for archiving. See also
MP@ML.
A
A/B roll Typically, A/B roll is an editing
technique where scenes or sounds on two
source reels (called roll A and roll B) are
played simultaneously to create dissolves,
wipes, and other effects. On nonlinear editing
systems, A/B roll refers to using two source
streams (.avi, .wav, .tga, and so on) to create
an effect.
AGP slot Connection slot to a type of
expansion bus found in most current
computers. The AGP slot is used to house the
display card.
alpha key An effect that makes parts of a
foreground image fully or partially
transparent based on alpha (transparency)
values stored within the image’s file, so that
an underlying image can show through. See
also chroma key and luma key.
analog component video See
component video.
analog signal A video or audio signal that
varies continuously, as opposed to a digital
signal which varies only by fixed steps.
anti-aliasing A technique that smooths
jagged edges in computer-generated text or
graphics.
aspect ratio A width-to-height ratio. For
example, a 12-by-9-inch image has an aspect
ratio of 4:3 (four-to-three). Most TV screens
have a 4:3 aspect ratio. HDTV screens have a
16:9 aspect ratio.
assemble editing Recording new video
and audio material sequentially onto tape.
Because all the signals are recorded (video,
audio, and control track), the new material
completely replaces any previously recorded
material on the tape. See also insert editing.
AVI Audio Video Interleaved. A video file
format designed for the Microsoft Windows
environment. See also codec.
A/V drive A hard drive capable of storing
high-bandwidth audio/video data.
B
B-frame (Bi-directional frame) A frame
created during the MPEG or MPEG-2 IBP
compression process. A B-frame is generated
by forwards and backwards referencing of the
P-frames and I-frames respectively, which
allows it to have the highest compression ratio
of the three frame types. B-frames contain
Glossary of terms