Articles Index
Blu-ray
Blu-ray: A technology permitting an optical disc to contain five times as much data as a traditional DVD, which means that a movie stored on a Blu-ray disc can be shown with a sharper, more detailed picture. Read the full definition and find out more about Blu-ray.
HDTV
HDTV: Stands for high-definition television, which uses digital technology and has a resolution approximately twice that of traditional analog television. Find out more about HDTV.
HD DVD
HD DVD: HD here stands for high definition, and movies began being released on HD DVDs in 2006. Read the full definition and find out more about HD DVD.
HD DVD Player
HD DVD Player: A device that can be connected to a TV set and used to play movies which have been prerecorded on HD DVD.
Streaming
Streaming: There are businesses that will sell or rent you a movie and deliver it via the Internet in a way that it is displayed on your screen, but you don't end up with a copy of it on your hard drive or anywhere else. The process of sending the movie from their computer system to your screen without putting a complete copy of it on your storage media is called streaming.
Downloading
Downloading: There are businesses that will sell or rent you a movie and via the Internet put a copy of it on a device in your home. You can watch the movie while the copy is in progress, although there will be a noticeable — perhaps even a lengthy — delay before you can begin watching. The process of copying the movie from their computer system to your device is called downloading.Read the full definition and find out more about downloading.
Blu-ray Disc Player
Blu-ray Disc Player: A device that can be connected to a TV set and used to play movies which have been prerecorded on Blu-ray discs. Please note that there are PlayStation models capable of handling the Blu-ray format.
DVD Player
DVD Player: A device that can be connected to a TV set and used to play movies which have been prerecorded on DVD.
16x9
16x9: The horizontal to vertical proportions of some TV screens, including HDTV screens. Many DVDs are made so they will look best on a screen with these proportions. Read the full definition and find out more about 16x9.
Betamax
Betamax: A technology used in the 1970s and '80s for watching movies prerecorded on magnetic tape. The tapes were played using a videocassette recorder connected to a TV set. Find out more about Betamax.
Aspect Ratio
Aspect Ratio: The ratio of width to height of a picture. Most movies have an aspect ratio geared to their being shown on a screen in a theater, which often poses problems when they are shown on a TV screen. Read the full definition and find out more about aspect ratios.
Copy Protection
Movie DVDs that come from the studios almost always have the video and audio data stored on the disc in such a way that it is not possible to make a copy of the contents of the DVD in a straightforward manner.
Dolby Digital
An audio technology used on many movie DVDs to provide sound. Many DVDs make the audio available in what is called Dolby Digital 5.1, which is capable of providing high-quality sound, although to get the full effect you generally need to have five speakers and a device known as an AV receiver, that is, you must have the audio components of a home theater system.
DTS
DTS is a technology capable of providing high-quality sound, and on the audio menu of some movie DVDs, you can optionally choose DTS.
DVD
DVD: Stands for Digital Versatile Disc, which is a disc 12 centimeters (approximately 4 3/4 inches) in diameter that is used to store data, including video and audio. A DVD looks like a music CD, but has six or seven times the storage capacity, enough to hold a feature film. Find out more about DVD.
DVD-ROM Feature
DVD-ROM Feature: Bonus material contained on some DVDs that cannot be accessed using a DVD player, but can be accessed by using a computer with a DVD drive. Find out more about DVD-ROM features.
DVR
DVR: Stands for digital video recorder, a device with a hard drive that is capable of recording video content and then playing it back on a TV set. Read the full glossary definition and find out more about DVR.
Easter Egg
Easter Egg: A DVD bonus material that the menu system gives the user no obvious way to access. Ordinarily, the text on the DVD packaging will not mention the presence of an Easter egg on the disc. Find out more about DVD Easter eggs.
Full Screen
Full Screen: Refers to a picture with a width-to-height ratio of 1.33:1. Such a picture will fill a 4x3 TV screen, but will be shown on a 16x9 TV screen with black bars on the left and right sides.
Home Theater System
Home Theater System: A collection of devices used for viewing a movie at home and typically including not only a fairly large screen and some sort of DVD player, but also an audio system with several speakers.
Laserdisc
Laserdisc: A technology used mainly in the 1980s and '90s for watching movies prerecorded on optical discs 30 cm (approximately 11 3/4 inches) in diameter. Find out more about Laserdisc.
MPAA Rating
MPAA Rating: A US guideline available for most movies that is intended to help parents decide the suitability of a film's content for viewing by their children. Find out more in the definition of MPAA rating.
Region Codes
Region Codes: Most movie DVDs have a region code intended to restrict the area of the world in which they can be played. Most DVD players sold in a particular area of the world will not play a DVD encoded for a different region. Find out more about region codes.
Set-Top Box
Set-Top Box: A catchall term for a device that can be fed a video signal from some source and display it on a TV screen. Many set-top boxes are part of a system for watching content you have to pay for. Read the full glossary definition for set-top box and find out more.
VHS
VHS: A technology that during the last two decades of the 20th century provided an enormously popular way of watching prerecorded movies at home. Find out more about VHS.