Help for computer, imaging and technology users
Video Editing Jargon
Useful info and tips for all PC users
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analog/analogue An electrical signal using continuously varying electrical voltages. Analogue video that is copied, edited or transfered several times degrades with noise and distortion. The word analogue means "like" or "similar". Compare with digital.
anti-aliasing A method of smoothing out jagged edges on screen and in bitmap images files. Many current generation graphics cards support anti aliasing. However, this feature is rarely activated by default. In most cases it can be switched on in the display properties dialog. Ativating anti aliasing can improve image quality at the expense of rendering speed.
aperture Opening created by the iris diaphragm between the CCD and the lens. More light is made available to the CCD as the iris opens wider.
audio mixer Device or software program for mixing sounds from a variety of sources, such as a mic, CD or camcorder tape. Stand-alone mixers allow each sound source to be plugged into a separate socket in the mixer. Each input can be controlled individually and the combined output can be tranfered to a tape or a file.
AVI Audio Video Interleaved AVI is one of the main familes of video files and is normally used on the PC. Others include Quick Time, MPEG, Windows Media Video.
BIOS Basic Input Output System The chip on your computer that controls how the computer communicates with hardware components in the system such as the hard disk, graphics card, mouse and keyboard. It's the BIOS that is responsible for booting your system. You should never tamper with BIOS setting unless you are 100% certain of what you are doing.
bit (binary digit) The smallest element of digital data and the foundation of all computer systems. A bit contains binary data, with 1 or 0 representing binary states of On and Off. The term is frequenly used as a measurement of colour depth. The more bits per pixel, the greater the number of of colours that can be displayed on screen. For example, 24-bit colour is required to display a photo realistic image.
byte In computer terms, one byte is made up of 8 bits, and all computer data is measured in bytes. Video files are commonly measured in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB).
BMP The file extension given to windows graphic files saved in enchanced Device inpendent Bitmap format. These files are very large, since no compression is used. For example a jpeg saved as a bitmap becomes many times its original size.
capture card A card fitted into a computer that allows an analog video signal from a variety of sources to be converted to a digital signal. This can then be processed by the computer (edited) then tranferred back to analog format, such as a video tape for use in a standard VCR or movie film to show in a cinema. If you have an analog camcorder, a capture card is essential for editing analog tape footage on a computer.
CCD (Charge Coupled Device) The CCD is the image recording chip inside the camcorder on which light from the lens falls. A CCD is rated in terms of pixels, .e.g 800 kilopixels, 4 Megapixels. The higher the pixel rating, the better the image quality. 1 Megapixel = 1000 kilopixels.
chromakey Method of electronically inserting an image from one video source into the image of another through areas designated as its "key colour". The colour chosen as the chromakey gets removed from the footage, so that whatever is placed behind during the editing is what shows through. It is frequently used on weater forecasts to display weather graphics behind the weather forecaster; the forecaster would be filmed against a plain solid blue or green background, which is then replaced with an image of a weather map.
Codec (COmpressor/DECompressor) A codec compresses (packs) and decompresses (unpacks) digital video footage. New codecs are continually appearing and older codecs continue to evolve and improve. For example DVD video uses the MPEG-2 codec. However, since the release of the DVD format the MPEG codec has been updated to version 4. This allows a DVD movie to fit onto a CD with virutally no loss of quality. See also DIVX.
compositing Superimposing multiple layers of video or images. Each layer may move independently. Titles are a simple and common example of compositing.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) Effectively the brain of the computer, it is a small microchip that sits within the main body, attached to the motherboard. It is not the computer itself, nor the case, but usually 40 × 40 mm in size, and 1 or 2 mm thick. The speed of the CPU, now rated in Gigahertz (GHz) is often regarded as an indicator of how fast a system is. While this was true in the past, there are now a whole range of factors that can effect the speed of a system, irrespecitve of how fast the CPU is. For example, a 2.4 Ghz system with integrated graphics and low cost memory can run significantly slower than a 1.8 ghz system with high quality components that has been carefully optimised. Main CPU manufacturers for PCs are AMD and Intel.
crawl Text or graphics, usually special announcements that move across the screen horizontally, typically from right to left across the bottom of the screen.
cross-fade Simultaneous fade-in of one audio or video source as another fades out so that they overlap temporarily. Also called a dissolve.
cut Instantaneous change from one shot to another, without a cross-fade.
cutaway Shot of something other than principal action (but peripherally related), frequently used as transitional footage or to avoid a jump cut.
depth of field This is the area in which all objects (located a different distances from the camera) appear in focus. Depth of field varies with the focal length of the camera lens and the camera aperture setting. A large depth of field will show lots of objects close and far away in focus, a narrow depth of field would be used to focus on just one object and not on those further away in the background.
dissolve See cross-fade.
DIVX A commericial MPEG-4 codec. See www.divx.com
Dolby ™ Dolby is a compression/expansion noise reduction system that is very widely used in consumer and professional broadcast environments. Signal to noise ratio improvement is accomplished by processing a signal before recording and reverse-processing the signal when it is played back.
driver Software used to make computer peripherals and internal components (such as graphic cards, printers and digital cameras) work with a particular type of computer or operating system.
DV Most DV equipment is more correctly known as MiniDV. This is the video recording format that is currently taking over from analog formats. The main advantage of DV over analog is the higher quality (both audio and visual) and the fact that digital copies do not degrade, no matter how many copies are made. DV footage is also considerably easier to capture into a computer; a capture card is not needed (as with analog) as it just needs a firewire connection to the computer.
DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) A high capacity storage medium, identical in size to a CD, with the same diameter of 120 mm. DVD’s are most frequently used to store high quality MPEG-2 format video. However, DVD’s can also be used to store any type of digital data. Therefore the V stands for “versatile” and not “video”. A DVD-ROM can contain any type of computer files and would be used in a computer, whereas a DVD-video would contain a movie and be playable in a stand-alone DVD player. Currently the limitation on size is around 9 GB, but more advanced discs holding 27 GB are planned for the future.
extensions The letters appended to the end of a file name in MS DOS or Microsoft Windows after the dot, usually 3 characters are used. Extensions are used by programs and operating system to distinguish one type of file from another. For example .avi is used for Windows video files, .mp3 indicates an audio file using the MPEG-3 encoding, .wav is an audio wave file, and .jpg is an image file in JPEG format. The file extension, if correctly used, will tell you the type of file it is.
filter effect Digital effect added to colourise or otherwise alter a clip in post-production; e.g. convert to black and white, add special colour effects, distort an image.
firewire Also known as IEEE 1394. This is a computer data interface, used primarily for connecting DV equipment to a PC, such as for capturing digital video footage from a DV camcorder into the PC. The computer just needs a firewire port rather than a complex capture card. Firewire peripherals such as external hard drives and DVD drives also exist for connecting to a PC, and firewire connections can also be used for networking. There are two speeds, 400 Megabits per second and 800 Mbps. The length of the cable used is limited though to around 4.5 metres, but this can be extended to 76.5 metres through the use of hubs.
footage Any video sequence recorded on a camcorder or created on a computer.
genlock A device that synchronises two video signals when they are displayed on screen at the same time. In a broadcast environment, genlocks are used in hardware vision mixers when mixing live video with computer generated titles.
Gigabyte A Gigabyte consists of 1,024 Megabytes and is abbreviated as GB. Gb is an abbreviation for Gigabit, often used for Gigabit ethernet (a very fast networking protocol that runs at 1000 Mbps). However, if you're buying a new hard drive you need to remember that hardware manufacturers consider a Gigabyte to be 1000 MB instead; as a result drive sizes are consistently overstated, and when installed in a computer the computer's operating system will show a lower figure than the rated size.
hard disk drive (HDD) A high capacity disk drive, conventionally fitted inside a PC (although external drives are available). The hard drive contains the operating system, programs and all the data they create. Hard disks are non linear in the sense that they store data in a random order which allows virtually instant access to any part of it. All video editing work should be saved to a separate hard disk drive to where the operating system is located where possible, and once the work is completed on the HDD then the finished output on video tape or DVD can be created. As HDDs are subject to failure at any time, but not usually until after a lot of usage, it is important to backup data on HDDs to other locations, either other newer HDDs, DVD-ROMs, tape storage or removable drives.
hardware A blanket term used to describe all the various physical components both inside and outside connected to the computer, e.g. hard disk drive, CPU, monitor, keyboard, DVD writer, printer.
High-Band The better quality analog video format. High Band formats include S-VHS, S-VHS-C and High-Band U-matic. Colour and brightness are processed separately in High Band systems resulting in a higher resolution and than a Low Band equivalent.
IRQ (Interrupt Request) Essentially, this is the identification number used by hardware in order to identify itself to the CPU. The term IRQ normally appears very close to the word "conflict", which is used to be a source of a lot of problems. Modern PCs handle IRQs much better.
jump cut Unnatural, abrupt switch between shots identical in subject but slightly different in screen location, so the subject appears to jump from one screen location to another. Can be remedied with a cutaway or shot from a different angle.
kilobyte 1024 bytes. Since the prefix "kilo" is associated with 1000, the term kilobyte is used to define 1024 bytes; which is closer to how computers work at their basic level in binary, as 1024 is 1 with ten noughts after it in binary.
linear editing Tape-based VCR-to-VCR editing. Called "linear" because scenes are recorded in chronological order on the tape.
lip sync Proper synchronization of video with audio, lip movement with audible speech; lack of lip sync in footage makes it hard to follow what people are saying as they open their mouths and the speech comes a second later, for example.
Low Band Standard analog camcorder formats are all Low Band formats: VHS, VHS-C and 8 mm.
Megabyte A unit of measure for data storage. One Megabyte is equivalent to 1,024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes or 8,388,608 bits. Also, 1024 MB = 1 Gigabyte. Abbreviated to MB. Mb is used to denote Megabits, and sometimes to denote Megabits per second as in broadband bandwidths of 1 Mbps.
montage A sequence of shots assembled in juxtaposition to each other to communicate a particular idea or mood. Often bridged with cross-fades and set to music.
mosaic Electronic special effect whereby individual pixels comprising an image are blown up into larger blocks a kind of checkerboard effect.
MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) A standard for video compression. MPEG achieves most of its compression by recording only keyframes and the changes between them. MPEG-1 is the standard used in VCD. MPEG-2 is used for both SVCD and DVD video. MPEG-4 is most frequently used for web video due to its superior compression levels, and has also started to be used for portable video players, abbreviated to mp4.
nonlinear editing (NLE) Digital random access editing that uses a hard drive instead of tape to store video. Random access allows easy arrangement of scenes in any order. It also eliminates the need for rewinding. A lot of video editing software available for computers today are NLEs, e.g. Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere Pro, Pinnacle Studio. The possibilities for creativity are almost endless with NLE, as there is no limitation on how things can be re-arranged.
NTSC (National Television Standards Committe) The TV system used in Japan and much of the Americas including the United States of America. It usually has a standard frame-rate of 29.97 frames per second. PAL and SECAM are alternative TV systems.
operating system The computer requires special software just to get going and to provide a place to run other software. Examples include Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, Linux, BeOS, DOS, Unix.
PAL (Phase Alternating Line) The TV standard used in western Europe (except France), Austrialia and much of East Africa, India and China. Standard frame-rate is 25 frames per second. PAL video footage has more lines than NTSC so the ratio of length to height is slightly different to that of NTSC.
partition A hard disk can be partitioned to create one or more logical drives on a single device. Most hard disks are set up with one single partition, as creating more partitions is not always easy unless you know what you are doing. Partitioning can be used to allow different operating systems to be used on the same computer, or multiple installations of the same operating system, e.g. one for video editing, one for gaming, one for word processing. It's a good idea to keep a separate partition for video editing purposes, or even partitions on other hard disk drives.
pixel (picture element) A single dot which is the smallest unit that can be displayed to a computer screen at a given resoultion. Pixels are also the smallest elements of a digital camcorder's CCD. The more pixels the higher the quality of the image.
posterization Electronic special effect transforming a normal video image into a collage of flattened single-coloured areas, without graduations of colour and brightness.
RAM (Random Access Memory) The memory used to run programs and hold data while programs are running. RAM can only store data when it has power, so all the data it stores is lost when the system is turned off. That is why it is so important to regularly save your work to the hard disk to ensure you don't lose any work. A good video editing PC should have at least 1 GB of RAM, preferably more.
raw footage Pre-edited footage, usually direct from a camcorder.
real time Occurring immediately, without delay for rendering. If a transition occurs in real time, there is no waiting; the computer creates the effect or transition on the fly, showing it immediately. Real-time previewing is different from real-time rendering.
render The editing computer has to composite source elements and commands into a single video file so the sequence, including titles and transition effects, can play in full motion. The process of doing this is rendering. Render time is the time taken to complete the process. A pre-rendered project may consist of several clips of footage, titling added to places, effects and transitions added in, all of which are playable in the NLE video software, but cannot be played elsewhere until the whole lot is converted into one single video file which only requires a video player and not the original editing software. A faster computer reduces rendering time.
roll Text or graphics, usually credits, that move up or down the screen, typically from bottom to top.
rough cut Preliminary edit of footage in the approximate sequence, length and content of finished program.
safe title area The recommended area that will produce legible titles on most TV screens; 80 percent of the visible area, measured from the center. This is because TV screens usually cut off the edges, top, bottom, left and right, of the image, so if you create a great video piece and put titles or other important elements too close to the edge they might not be displayed on TV screens. Computer screens generally display all the image and do not cut off the edges. So it's always a good idea to preview video work on a TV screen to be sure all that should be there is seen.
SCART Also known as Euroconnector or Peritel. Twenty-one-pin connector commonly used in Europe to interconnect satellite receivers, television sets, DVD players, digital TV receivers and other audiovisual equipment (e.g. videocassette recorders).
SECAM (SEquential Couleur A'Memorie) A colour television system used in France, Russia and other countries that do not use either the NTSC or PAL system. It has 625 horizontal scan lines and 25 frames per second.
sepia Brassy antique colour effect characteristic of old photographs.
software Programs used on a computer. Today software is often supplied on a CD-ROM or downloaded from the Internet.
sound bite Any short recorded audio segment for use in an edited program usually a highlight taken from an interview.
sound effects Contrived audio, usually prerecorded, incorporated with a video soundtrack to resemble a real occurrence. Blowing on a microphone, for example, might simulate wind to accompany hurricane images.
soundtrack The audio portion of a video recording, often multifaceted with natural sound, voiceovers, background music, etc.
streaming media Technical term for digital audio or video transmissions via the Internet. The sound and image data are sent as a data stream to the subscriber, hence the term "streaming". A variety of deferred data streams can be output from a streaming media server on the Net. Each receiver can thus receive the same content deferred. Normally, a packet-switched or asymmetric transmission method is used. Windows Media Player is an example of a software program that supports video and audio streaming through the Internet.
superimposition (super) Titles, video or graphics appearing over an existing video picture, partially or completely hiding areas they cover.
sweetening Post-production process of adding music and sound effects or otherwise enhancing the existing audio with filters and other effects.
timecode A feature within a video tape that identifies individual frames to define how frames are counted throughout a project. It is similar to the page numbers of a book: if the pages of the book are out of sequence or have gaps, then things get confusing. Similarly, if a video tape does not have a timecode, then finding a particular clip on tape would be time-consuming and confusing. Can also be used in NLE software.
timeline editing A computer-based method of editing, in which bars proportional to the length of a clip represent video and audio clips on a computer screen.
titling Process or result of incorporating on-screen text as credits, captions or any other alphanumeric communication to video.
VCD (Video Compact Disc) A disc for an Audio Video system using MPEG-1 technology. VCD is very popular in the Far East. Around one hour of MPEG-1 video footage fits onto a single CD. VCD's can be played on most DVD players and computers, but the quality is much lower than that of DVD.
voiceover (VO) Audio from an unseen narrator accompanying video, heard above background sound or music.
wipe Transition from one shot to another, where a moving line or pattern reveals the new shot. In it's simplest form it simulates a window shade being drawn.
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