Philips PCVC675K99 - Manual (Page 22)

10. Glossary
Audio input device (recording device)
One of the Windows98 multimedia settings is the recording device setting. This setting determines which audio
hardware is being used to provide audio signals to audio appiications. This setting is accessible through: the
Windows Start-menu, Settings, Control Panel, MultiMedia, Audio tab. In the recording section, the USB digital
camera microphone should be selected. (This selection will only be available if the camera is connected to a
USB port and if the camera is actively providing a video image to an application.)
AVI
The Microsoft standard file format for combined video and sound files on the PC. This is part of the Video for
Windows standard.
BMP / JPG / TIFF / FlashPix.
These are several file formats for images. BMP files are the largest since they do not use compression and
retain full image quality. JPG uses 'lossy' compression which dramatically reduces file size but the original
image quality can never be restored. TIFF can use a 'lossless' compression algorithm with less file size
reduction but in full image quality. FlashPix is a relatively new image format that uses minimal resolution within
the application to speed up the image processing. All accepted changes are processed afterwards, before
writing to disk.
Codec (coding & DECoding)
This refers to a compression format for creating sound and video streams on the computer.
Compression
Term used to describe a process of compacting or squeezing video and sound information into a smaller than
normal size. For example, 2 to 1 compression would indicate that 2 pixels would now only occupy the space of
1 pixel.
DirectX
The latest standard developed primarily by Microsoft to help develop a common method for exchanging audio
and video information between your hardware and software in the PC.
Frame
A single image in a video stream.
Frame Rate
Typically judged in seconds (fps, frames per second), this refers to the number of single images that will be
displayed or captured in a video stream.
Gamma Correction
The characteristics of displays using phosphors (like computer monitors with cathode ray tubes) are nonlinear.
Nonlinear characteristics means that a small change in voltage when the voltage level is low produces a
change in the output display brightness level, but this same small change in voltage at a high voltage level will
not produce the same magnitude of change in the brightness output. This effect is known as gamma.
Computers like to process with linear RGB data. Before being displayed, this linear RGB data will be
processed (gamma corrected) to compensate for the gamma of the display.
Philips installation program
A standard installation program that runs from CD-ROM. Usually, this program starts automatically after
inserting the installation CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive, and guides you through the whole installation
process. The program can be started manually by running 'setup.exe' from your CD-ROM drive.
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