Glossary

Bitrate: the rate at which digital information is presented or encoded. The higher the bitrate the higher the visual and audio quality, but the less material you can fit on a disc.

PCM audio: uncompressed audio as used on CDs.

Dolby AC3: an audio format that runs at very low bit-rates, but preserves the quality, allowing more, or higher bitrate video to fit on a disc.

MPEG-2: file compression format used on DVD-Video.

Angles: video may be shot from multiple camera angles, with the viewer deciding which viewpoint they want to take. This feature adds interactivity to videos.

Elementary stream: separate video or audio files.

Program stream: containing both audio and video files.

Motion menus: menus with video backgrounds or animated buttons.

Chapter: a point on a DVD that the viewer can instantly jump to, like a track on a CD.

Regional coding: method of ensuring DVDs are only played in the one of 6 areas of the world for which they were designed. The coding isn't supported by the consumer DVD writers.

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