100Base-T - 100 Mbps Ethernet over twisted pair (CAT5) cable. 1000Base-T is Gigabit.
1080i - HDTV resolution of 1080x1920, w/16:9 aspect ratio, interlaced scan
1394 - see IEEE1394
1394TA - TA is Trade Association.  Sets stds for "Firewire" (Apple) or "iLink" (Sony) or IEEE1394
1-bit Amplifier - Audio is sampled at 2,822.4 kHz using pulse density modulation.  See DSD
1x-EVDO - see EVDO
1x-EVDV - see EVDV
1x-RTT - see RTT
15 - a 15 second ad.
21DC - SMPTE digital cinema standards - fomerly DC28
23.976p - Number of frames/second professional video is shot at to match later NTSC conversion.
24p CineAlta - Popular 24 fps professional HD camcorder (Sony)
24PsF - 24 progressive segmented frames. Video captured at 24p, recorded as interlaced segments
2.5G - Almost 3G, offers moderate data over mobile wireless (e.g. GPRS, 1x-RTT and EDGE)
256QAM - Common QAM level used for cable downstream
292M - SMPTE serial link for uncompressed high definition video, 1.485 Gbps, coax.
2B1Q - 2 Binary, 1 Quarternary. Full duplex signaling over one line. 3 voltages: "01" "10" & both same
2K - Scan Resolution: 2048x1556 (35mm film) or 2048x1080. Digital Cinema candidate resolution (also 4K)
30 - a 30 second ad
3:2 pulldown - fitting 24 fps film to 60 fields/second video with a 3-2-3-2... frame pattern.
3G - 3rd Generation mobile wireless, offering high speed data and voice (e.g. CDMA 2000)
3GP - 3GPP video format for 3G phones
3GPP - 3G Partnership Program (ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA, and TTC)
4:1:1 - DV: 4 Luminance, 1 chrominance in odd line scans, 1 chrominance in even line scans
4:2:0p - DV: 4 Luminance, 1 chrominance in odd frame, 1 chrominance in even frame
4:2:2 - DV: 4 Luminance, 2 chrominance in odd line scans, 2 chrominance in even line scans
4:4:4 - Every picture element has luminance and chrominance, usually recorded in RGB, not YUV.
4:4:4:4 - 4:4:4 with an alpha channel
480i, 480p - 480x704 4:3 aspect ratio, interlaced or progressive respectively.  See SDTV, EDTV
4A's - American Association of Advertising Agencies
4C - "4C Entity. IBM, Intel, Matsushita (Panasonic), Toshiba - See CPRM, CPPM and CPSA
4G - Next gen wireless after 3G.  Includes LTE and WiMAX.
4K - Scan Resolution: 4096x3112 (35mm film) or 4096x2160. Good resolution relative to grain. (2K)
5C - Licensing group for DTCP (Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita (Panasonic), Sony and Toshiba) (DTLA)
5.1 Audio - 3 front, 2 rear and one subwoofer speakers.
59.94i - Number of fields/second NTSC TV has.
6.1 Audio - 3 front, 3 rear and one subwoofer speakers.
7.1 Audio - 3 front, 2 side, 2 rear and one subwoofer
720p - HDTV resolution of 720x1280 w/16:9 aspect ratio, progressive scan
775A - see EIA775A
75 ohm - Common coax impedance
802.3 - (IEEE) Ethernet. 802.3u = Fast Ethernet (100Mbps). 802.3ab/x = Gigabit on twisted-pair/optical.
802.3af - see PoE
802.11 - (IEEE) wireless Ethernet (WiFi). Stated bandwidth includes overhead, usable bandwidth is less
802.11a - 54 Mbps @ 5GHz. Has weaker wall penetration than 2.4 GHz.
802.11b - 11 Mbps @ 2.4GHz. Original and most common, particularly for hotspots.
802.11e - (IEEE) Adds QoS to WiFi. Superset of WME (adds HCCA)
802.11g - 54 Mbps @ 2.4GHz. Usually 802.11b compatible. Some proprietary systems are >54Mbps
802.11i - (IEEE) Adds AES & TKIP security to WiFi.
802.11j - (IEEE) 802.11a with frequency adjusted for Japan.
802.11n - (IEEE) Uses MIMO to increase throughput to about 100 Mbps
802.11s - (IEEE) Mesh WiFi. Connects several nodes into a mesh to expand coverage area (proposed)
802.15 - (IEEE) Working on a PAN standard using ISM bands.
802.15.1 - see Bluetooth
802.15.3/a - see WiMedia
802.15.4 - see Zigbee. 802.15.4a is UWB vers.longer range (100m), data (0.5-1Mbps), ranging(1m)
802.16 - (IEEE) See WiMax. 100 Mbps; 16d is 70 Mbps. For stationary client devices
802.16e - Mobile version of 802.16
802.20 - (IEEE) Wireless mobile effort, arguably similar to and less visible than WiMax
8VSB - 8 Vestigial sideband. ATSC HDTV broadcast modulation standard. (see CODFM)
Ω - Ohms
Å - Angstrom
A2DP - Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. Bluetooth protocol for sending stereo quality audio
AA - see average audience
AAC – Advanced Audio Coding, one of the newer audio compression formats
AACS - Advanced Access Content System. Access &  limited personal copies of Blu-Ray & HD-DVDs.
AAF - Advanced Authoring Format - a standard used in production/postproduction
ABSolute - Qualcomm's proprietary encoding for digital cinema. Uses variable block sizes & DCT.
AC-3 - same as Dolby Digital
Academy Curve - Attenuates higher audio freq. in old movies to reduce noise from older systems
ACAP - Advanced Common Application Platform = MHP + OCAP + DASE for iTV (ATSC std)
ACAP-J - Procedural ACAP Java application
ACAP-X - declarative ACAP XHTML application (optional). Based on DASE
ACC - Advanced Color Correction, used to try to adjust color problems with NTSC
Access Channel - Cable channel reserved for community programming.
Access Point - Usually where there is a WiFi antenna
ACDL - ASC Color Decision List, aka ASC-CDL. Lets DP tell DI in Post desired color grading decisions
Achromatic - Having no hue. Example, gray or white.
ACI - Adjacent Channel Interference. When two signals are too close to each other.
ACL - Access Control List. Database showing with servers have access to a service.
ACNS - Application and Content Networking System (Cisco)
Acoustic Suspension - Sealed speakers uses trapped air to control woofers performance
ACP - Macrovision's Analog Copy Protection. Tweeks signal to make it difficult to copy (e.g. DVDs)
Active Matrix LCD - Switches each LCD pixel element separately - better picture than passive LCD
Acutance - Measure of sharpness of an object seen through the lens
Acuity - Ear's sensitivity to soft sounds
ADC - Analog to Digital Converter, digitizes an analog signal.
ADG - Art Directors Guild
ADIP - Address in Pre-Groove. DVD+RW scheme for encoding data in the "wobble" registration area
Admission control - QoS method that works by gating network traffic.
ADS - Alternative (ad) delivery system.  Refers to satellite.
ADSL - Asymmetric DSL, higher bandwidth going to the consumer than coming back
ADSL2+ - Increases ADSL downstream bw to ~20 Mbps.
Advanced Simple Profile - Adds to Simple Profile MPEG4 better motion compensation, better video
AGC - Automatic Gain Control, used to try to adjust for variations in signal amplitude where needed
AES - Audio Engineering Society
AE - Automatic Exposure (cameras)
AES - Advanced Encryption Standard. Uses 128, 192 & 256 bit keys. Used in 802.11i.
AFD - Active Format Description. 4 bit code tells TV proper aspect ration and masking for program
AFH - Adaptive Frequency Hopping. Attempts to stay out of problem frequency channels.
AgX - Silver Halide (photo film)
AIFF - Audio Interchange File Format. Apple format for storing uncompressed audio.
AIT - Application Information Table. Info on bounded OCAP applications.
ALC - Automatic Level Control. See AGC
AHAM - Association of Home Appliance Mfrs.
AIN - Advanced Intelligent Network. Switched telephone network of computers service advanced features
AJAX - JavaScript talks asynchronously to server so page refreshes are not needed & response is faster
Aliasing - Image quality issue when image details are finer than display's resolution. See Nyquist
Alpha Channel - B&W Image used to define parts to knockout from an image.
alternative content - content other than the movie - live shows, sports, etc shown in digital cinema
AM - Amplitude Modulation. Subject to noise issues, so less used.
AMLCD - Active Matrix LCD
Amorphous Silicon TFT - slower transistor technology used in most LCD TFT panels. See Poly-Silicon
ANA - Association of National Advertisers.
Analog Hole - protected content that "leaks" into the open if display is connected via analog signals
Anamorphic Video - squeezes a widescreen picture into 4:3 aspect ratio, to be stretched later to view
Android - Google Linux-based software stack & libraries for portable devices.  See OHAP
Angstrom - 1/10,000,000,000 meter "Å", optical wavelength. 7,700 Å - red, 3,900 Å - violet.
Answer Print - final version of the film from which film for distribution is made (see Interpositive)
ANSI - American National Standards Institute
ANSI Contrast - Ratio of contrast between 16 black and white squares (accounts for uneven lighting)
ANSI Lumen - Measures projector brightness. Averages 9 sampled spots in lumens.
AOD - Advanced Optical Disk, now called HD-DVD
Aperture - Opening in lens, see F-Stop
APG - Advanced Program Guide, another name for an EPG or IPG
API - Application Programming Interface. Software interface between an application and OS.
Applet - Small application program. Often run in browser or in a connected device. Often in Java
appointment TV - TV show that is so popular people will make sure they watch it when first broadcasted
APS - Analog Protection System (eg. Macrovision).
APTEL - PLC for South America
ARIB - Assoc of Radio Industries & Businesses (Japan) - has iTV standard based on GEM.
ARDG - Analog Reconstruction Discussion Group (CPTWG DHSG), discussing watermarking
ARM - Advanced RISC Machine. Popular embedded processor.
ARMS - Adaptive Rich Media Streaming (IBM)
ARPU - Average Revenue Per Unit. Service term for how much money per subscriber you get.
Artifacts - image distortion caused by video compression imperfections
ASA - measure of capture sensitivity.  Similar to ISO.DIN. Note, Lux measures light, not sensitivity.
ASC - American Society of Cinematographers
ASC-CDL - ASC Color Decision List, lets DP tell DI colorist preferred color grading choices
ASF - Advanced Systems Format. Microsoft extensible file format for Windows Media
ASI - see DVB-ASI
ASIC - Application Specific IC. Usually designed for one purpose and vendor. (ASSP)
ASP - Average Selling Price
Aspect ratio – old TVs = 4:3 (1.33), widescreen = 16:9 (1.77), Movies = 2.35 (also 1.85, 2.55 & 2.76)
ASSP - Application Specific Standard Product. An IC design for one purpose, but for multiple companies
ASTB - Advanced STB. Might included DVR, Internet, and other features besides basic TV viewing
ASV - Advanced Super Vertical. LCD mode for faster response times. (MVA, OCB)
Asymmetrical Compression - Encoding takes more processing power than decoding.
ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment, used for Disk Drives.  aka IDE
ATIS - Alliance for Telecommunications Solutions
ATM - Asynchronous Transport Mode, common broadband backbone for telecom
ATRAC3 – Sony's proprietary method for compressing music (alternative to MP3 and AAC)
ATSC - Advanced Television Systems Committee, U.S. DTV
ATTC - Advanced Television Technology Center, tests terrestrial DTV
Attenuate - To reduce. An Attenuator reduces the signal to better match a device's input needs.
ATV - Advanced TV standard by ATSC. Most just say DTV
ATV Forum - Advanced TV Forum.  Promoted interactive TV.
AU - Audio file format for sound clips on the Internet, compatible with Windows and Mac
Audio-Follow-Video - when audio and video are separated, allows audio to travel with video stream
Authoring - Transferring processed video onto a medium, such as DVD or CD, including menus, etc.
Authorized Domain - equipment within an authorized domain are allowed to decode protected content
AutoPC - Microsoft's WinCE system for telematics
AV - Audio Video
AVC - AV Control for device control (e.g. a camcorder) via 1394
AVC - Advanced Video Codec, jointly developed by ITU, ISO, IEC.  aka H.264 or MPEG4 part 10
AVC FRExt - AVC Fidelity Range Extension. Adds profiles good for HD
AVCHD - Sony/Panasonic HD format for camcorders records 20 Minutes onto 8cm DVD. Uses AVC
Average Audience - number of households tuned to a cable channel during a average minute.
AVI - Audio Video Interleave.  Common format for video clips.  DV-AVI is used by digital camcorders.
AV Network - Any network that is used to pass AV content and TCP/IP traffic.
AVO - AV Object. MPEG4 can break up a scene into AVOs that can be separately manipulated
AVR - AV Receiver.  The old "stereo" is now a multi-channel sound system for home theaters
A-Weighting - Audio measurement that tries to match ear's sensitivity, which is highest in mid-ranges
AWG - American Wire Gauge standard.
AWS - Advanced Wireless Services, (AWS-1), 2006 3G spectrum (1.71 & 2.11 GHz), Wireless Cable interests
AZ - Azimuth

Back channel - path from consumer to the station or headend.
Balanced Input - See XLR
Balun - connects balanced (cond. ungrounded - 300ohm) to unbalanced (one cond. grounded - 75 ohm)
Banding - Not enough color depth creates visible bands of color in areas with subtle color changes.
Bars and Tones - Test pattern at start and end of tape
Bass - Tones typically below 300 Hz.
Baud - Symbols per second in serial transmissions.
BBFC - British Board of Film Classification
BCA - Burst Cutting Area. Area on DVD near hub for cutting serial numbers, etc.
B-CAS - Broadcast satellite Conditional Access System, used in Japan. Uses B-CAS smartcard
BD - Blu-ray Disc. BD-RE is rewriteable. BD-R is Write-once. 23.3, 25.3, 27GB & 46.6, 50, 54GB dual
BDA - Blu-ray Disc Assoc.
BD-J - Blu-ray Java for interactive features (HP wants them to use iHD)
BD-ROM - Blu-Ray ROM disc. Format for movie distribution.
Beaming - Harsh higher frequency sounds from speaker, with tendency to show up in spots.
BEDO DRAM - Burst EDO DRAM. Fetches 4 memory addresses at once to speed access.
BetaCam - Commercial broadcast grade video tape system
BER - Bit Error Rate, which for cabled networking can be low, but for wireless an issue.
Betacam SX - Medium grade prof. DV tape (Sony), uses MPEG2. See Digital Betacam.
B-Frame - MPEG bi-directional prediction frame.  A highly compressed frame.
BFS - Broadcast File System. Application data on a server can be sent to STB for application use
BHC - Bose, Chauduri, Hocquenghem. Error correction technique
BIST - Built in Self Test.
BITC - Burned In Time Code
BitTorrent - File sharing system using multiple systems (P2P lineage) to improve performance
Black Burst - used to synchronize video sources to the same point
Black Level - voltage level that constitutes black.  See IRE
BLC - Backlight Compensator. Opens up aperture in bright backlit situations to capture foreground.
Bleeding - Color from one objects leaks into surrounding areas to cause image distortion.
Block - Many compression methods divide the image into blocks, then compress the block's image.
Blocking - Establishing actor & camera positions before the shoot
BLOG - Weblog. An open diary on the Internet, sometimes contributed to by many, usually on a focused topic.
Bloom - Phosphors are overdriven causing adjacent pixels to light up.
blue laser - Sometimes called Blue-Violet LASER, used in Blu-Ray & HD-DVD. 405nm wavelength
Blue Screen - Blue background to make chromakeying easier. Can be green, but blue halo is less harsh.
Bluetooth - Short range wireless cable replacement. ~1 Mbps (actual is less), 10 or 100m range
Bluetooth HR - Next gen Bluetooth, may be 100 Mbps or 480 Mbps if it goes UWB route
Blu-ray -  HD optical disk using blue laser. 25/50/100/200 GByte. Uses BD-J (see HD DVD)
BML - Broadcast Markup Language, for Japanese iTV within ARIB
bmp - Windows bit map file format
BNC - Bayonet Neill Concelman. Industrial coax connector used in some AV equipment
Bokeh - Quality of how out-of-focus objects look in limited depth of field shots.
BOM - Bill of Materials
Bounded Application - OCAP or MHP interactive application bound to a television program.
BPDG - Broadcast Protection Discussion Subgroup of CPTWG (Broadcast Flag)
BPL - Broadband over Power LIne.  Can get as high as 200 Mbps.  See PLC, HomePlug
BPON - Broadband PON. ATM based. 622Mbps.
Bridge - Interfacing device between two different types of networks
Bridging - combining two amplifier channels together to make a more powerful channel
Broadcast Flag - Redistribution Control Indicator. Can restrict  distribution.
B-Roll - term for stock footage used for various needs. Captured at same time as A-Roll.
Brouter - combines functions of routers and bridges.
BRR - Bit Rate Reduction. Same as compression
BSMS - Bandwidth and Security Management System in CMTS
BTU - British Thermal Unit, a measure of energy (1 pound of water is raised 1 degree F)
BUD - Big Ugly Dish. See TVRO
Bug - Icon showing station name, etc., usually in lower right corner of video
Bump-Up/Down - Transferring video from lower to higher quality tape (up), or other way around (down)
Burned-in - Permanent SMPTE/EBU timecodes on tape.
Burst - See Color Burst.
Burst Error Second - any second of transmission containing 100 or more errors.
BVS - Broadband Video Service
B&W - Black & White
BW - bandwidth
BWF - Broadcast WAV File. Used to interchange audio between broadcasters.

CA - Certificate Authority. Trusted entity for holding public key information
CA - Conditional Access
CABA - Continental Automated Buildings Association.
CABAC - Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic (entropy) Coding for AVC (10% better than CAVLC)
CableCard - Inserted into box to gain access to conditional access channels (see POD, Plug and Play)
CableHome - CableLabs' try at defining how home networking should work (under their control)
CableLabs - Engineering entity directed by the MSOs for setting standards such as DOCSIS
Cable MOU - see Cable Plug and Play
Cable Plug and Play - agreement on how digital cable connects to TV without needing a STB
CableSCAN - software product that counts Nielsen household and demographic data for cable
Cactus Data Shield - an audio CD copy protection scheme
Cadence-based deinterlacer - Uses DSP to deinterlace DVD video. See flag-based deinterlace.
CAL - Common Application Language. (CEA 721) With 1394, part of DTV interface
CAM - Conditional Access Module. Used in MultiCrypt STB
CAN - Controller Area Network. Automotive & industrial control network, made for reliability.
Candela - Fundamental unit of luminous intensity.
Candle - See Candela
Canoe - Cable project to unify aspects of advertising for national advertisers
Cantenna - A WiFi antenna for high gain & directionality. Gets name from cans in homemade types
Cardea - Microsoft's link encryption scheme (like TDCP) for Microsoft Media
Carrier - Main frequency used by radio that carries a modulated signal holding the info being transmitted
CARS - Community Antenna Relay Service. 12.75 GHz band for cable to transport TV signals.
CAS - Conditional Access System.
CASIE - Coalition for Advertising Supported Information and Entertainment
CAT5 - shielded twisted pair cable (4 pairs) used for Ethernet
Catadiatropic Lens - (Cat Lens) Telescopic lens using internal mirrors to reduce size.
CATV - Community Antenna TV, now simply called cable TV.
CAV - Constant Angular Velocity. Disk rotates at constant speed, outer tracks store less data. (CLV)
CAVLC - Context Adaptive Variable Length Encoding for Baseline Profile (see CABAC)
C-Band - 4 to 8 GHz band. 3.7 - 4.2GHz for TVRO
CBR - Constant Bit Rate - number of bits/second is steady, no matter the content it carries (see VBR)
C-CAS - Cable Conditional Access System, used in Japan. Uses C-CAS smartcard.
CCD - Charged-Coupled Device, the sensor used in most cameras (see CMOS sensor)
CCFL - Cold Cathode Fluorescent Tube, traditional backlight for LCD panels
CCI - Copy Control Information. Contained within DRM schemes. Example: "Copy Once"
CCIR - International Radio Consultative Committee, now called ITU. Known for CCIR601/709 DTV std
CCITT - International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, now ITU
CCSA - China Communications Standards Association
CD - Compact Disk.  CDR - recordable CD.  CDRW - rewriteable CD
CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access. Spread spectrum codes assigned to senders to share link
CDMA 2000 - CDMA 3G. Phase 1 = 1xRTT. Phase 2 = 1xEVDO. Phase 3 = 1xEVDV.
CDN - Content Delivery Network.  Architecture & service for efficient sending of big files.
CDPD - Cellular Digital Packet Data. Old 19.2kbps data over unused analog cellular.
CE - Consumer Electronics (company)
CEA - Consumer Electronics Association. U.S. (& International) CE mfr lobbying and standards group
CE-ATA - Consumer Electronics ATA. For small form factor devices
CEC - Consumer Electronics Control. HDMI protocol for passing control signals between devices
CEDIA - Custom Electronic Design & Installation Assoc. - aimed mostly at big home theater jobs
CEATEC - Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, a CES type show in Japan
CeBIT - Center for Office and Information Technology, a CES/Comdex type show in Germany
CELF - CE Linux Forum. 
CE Linux - move to open std Linux OS by CE mfrs to save costs and development time.  See CELF
CEMA - Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association - part of CEA
CERC - Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition. Public policy trade assocation
CERN - Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire. WWW started here, and is still watched over.
CF - Compact Flash memory card, uses ATA interface to look like a disk.
CES - Consumer Electronics Show - put on by CEA each January.  Games split out to E3.
CES - Color Encoding Specification. Complete method for describing color, including data formats.
CG - Character Generator. Creates titles, etc., on video.
CGA - Color Graphics Adaptor. Original 200x300 resolution, sometimes used by simple devices
CGI - Computer Generated Imagery
CGMS-A - Copy Generation Management System for Analog
Channel Bonding - linking 4 or more 6 MHz cable channels for higher bandwidth (DOCSIS3)
Channel Leakage - Audio from one channel that leaks into another channel.
Chapter Stop - Metadata used to point to segments in a DVD.
CHI - Card (CableCARD) Host Interface
CHILA - CableCARD Host Interface License Agreement (formerly PHILA) for OpenCable
Chip - Part of a symbol in a spread spectrum signal. Or, An integrated circuit.
Chroma Crawl - Moving color artifacts in the video image
Chromakey - Removes portions of the image matching a specified color. See Blue Screen.
Chromatic Aberration - Different colors have different focal lengths in the lens, causing color fringes
Chrominance - color information
cHTML - Compact HTML for small devices. Being replaced by xHTML
Chunking - breaking HTML into smaller "chunks", useful for interactive situations (DLNA required)
Churn - percent of lost and new subscribers
CI - Common Interface. Slot for accepting CAM cards in DVB systems.
CIE - Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (illumination), created chromaticity diagram
CIELAB - CIE Color space. L = Luminance. A = red/green (0=green). B = Yellow/Blue (0=blue)
CIELUV - CIE Color space. Maps to YUV
CIF - Common Interchange Format. 352x240 or 352x288 (1/4 NTSC or PAL).
Cinemascope - 2.35:1 aspect ratio image derived via 2:1 anamorphic lens.
CineLink - a T.I. encryption technology used encrypt the link between the cinema server & projector
CinePak - A video codec for QuickTime.
CIRC - Cross Interleaved Read-Solomon Code, error correction for CDs
Circle Surround - Alternative surround sound system w/improved rear speaker separation
CIT - Constrained Image Trigger.  Part of CCI
Class A - Audio amplifier where current is always flowing.
Class AB - Class B w/Class A at push-pull transition point to reduce crossover distortion. Most common
Class B - Audio amplifier that only flows current through either the push or pull transistor at a time.
Class D - Push or pull transistor turns full on, uses PWM and low pass filter. Promises efficiency.
CLDC - Connected Limited Device Configuration. J2ME core library.
CLEC - Competitive LEC. A new kid on the block phone company.  See ILEC
Client - Device that connects to network & receives services, such as web pages, usually from a server
Cliplink - Sony DVCAM marking of in/out points to make video editing easier.
Clipping - When audio signal exceeds amplifier's limits - smooth sounds clip to form edgy sounds.
CLV - Constant Linear Velocity. Disk rotation varies. Packs more bits on disk. See CAV.
CMOS - Complementary MOS. Low power semiconductor used in most digital circuits today.
CMOS sensor - image sensor sometimes used in camera phones, etc.  Sometimes noisier. See CCD
CMS - Content Management system, handles all show content in a digital cinema
CMTS - Cable Modem Termination System. System in cable headend for Internet support
CMTS-NSI - CMTS Network Side Interface. Interfaces CMTS to equipment on the network side
CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black - as in color printers
C/N - Carrier to Noise ratio
CO - Central Office. Phones DSLAMs often sit there, so DSL customers care how far away it is.
Coax or Coaxial - Cable with center conductor shielded by at least 1 ground to reduce electrical noise
Co-channel interference - Interference between to stations using the same frequencies
Codec - Compressor/Decompressor, Example: MPEG codec. Coder/Decoder, Example: phone codec
CODFM - Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing. Modulation used by DVB. (See 8VSB)
Coloration - Imperfections in the audio that makes it sound unnatural.
Color Balance - Color settings. Neutral color balance is as captured.
Color Burst - Video reference signal for hues
Color Correction - Modifying color balance to adjust for desired lighting effect.
Color Depth - How many shades of a color, often expressed in bits. 8 bits = 256. 10 = 1024. 12 = 4096
Color Gamut - See Color Space
Colorimeter - Measures color, broken down into its three component parts.
Colorimetry - The science of color
Color Space - Range of colors, specified within parameters like CMYK, RGB, YUV, HSL, YCbCr, etc.
Colorstripe - Macromedia technique to make DVDs difficult to copy from its analog output.
Color Temperature - Defines white. Measured in Kelvin. Higher numbers mean bluer.
Color Timing - adjusting color tones in postproduction, originally on a Hazeltine, now in DI
Color Wheel - Rotates RGB filters so a single display engine (e.g. DLP) can display all colors.
Comb Filter - Used in NTSC sets to separate color from B&W signal for sharper images
Combing - Fast objects produce "comb patterns" when interlacing can't keep up with movements.
Comdex - Computer distributors expo that has lost its shine, and is not defunct
Comet Tail - A smear that trails moving objects in certain video conditions.
Companding - Compressing and then expanding audio to get better dynamic range
Component Video - YPbPr , separate cables form components of the video signal (see RGB or RGBHV)
Composite Video - complete video signal is combined into one cable (NTSC format)
Compositing - combining several picture elements into one
Conditional Access - uses Motorola or Scientific Atlanta digital cable encryption scheme
Confetti - Unwanted color dots on screen caused by video errors and noise
Conform - preparing the cinema material for viewing during the postproduction phase.
Constrained Image - Reduces HDTV image to 540x960 before sending to analog outputs
Contrast - Ratio of brightest & darkest part of image. Specs often ignore ambient light's effect on black
Control-L - control protocol for older 8mm and VHS equipment - also called LANC
Convergence - Getting the RGB beams to align.
Convergence - Industries & technologies blending to form new market. Can be a Jackolope.
Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC - similar to U.S. DCMA
Coral Consortium - attempt at DRM interoperability. Initial members missing a few key companies.
Coring Out - Removing noise in analog video by converting it to digital, then back to analog
Corona - Microsoft's code name for WM9.
CP - Copy Protection
CPE - Customer Premises Equipment.  Industry term for things like a STB
CPM - Cost Per Thousand impressions of an ad, often print or web.
CPP - Cost Per (TV Rating) Point of an add (e.g. a $10K ad for a 10 point show has a $1K CPP)
CPPM - Copy Protection for Pre-recorded Media (4C)
CPRM - Copy Protection for Recordable Media (4C)
CPSA - Content Protection System Architecture (4C)
CPTWG - Copy Protection Technical Working Group, MPAA & industry working out copy protection
CPU - Central Processing Unit of a computer system.
CPU - Cost Per Unit, amount charged for each ad appearance
CPXe - Kodak initiated protocol for finding photo services via a UDDI directory
Crab - Camera mount with flexibility to move in any direction
Crabbing - Moving a camera sideways along an arch.
Crawl - Credits or graphics moving slowly across the screen
CRC - Cyclic Redundancy Check. Extra bits must match CRC code if data is good.
Crossover - Separate audio into high & low frequencies (or more) to help tweeter, mid-range & woofers
CRT - Cathode Ray Tube
CSA - Common Scrambling Algorithim. ESTI standard CA system for DVB SimulCrypt.
CSI - Cable System Information, processed by the CableCard
CSMA/CD - Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection. Lets multiple devices share network.
CSO - Composite 2nd Order Beat. Peak average distortion due to 2nd order non-linearity in cable equip.
CSS - Content Scrambling System lic. by DVD CAA. DeCSS code broke the system.
CSTN - Color STN.
CSU/DSU - Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit. Terminal for telecom data transmissions.
CTAM - Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing
CTB - Carrier Triple Beat. 3 carriers, A+B-C mix to create 3rd order distortion in main carrier (cable)
CTIA - Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assoc. Mobile phones group.
CTO - Compsite Triple Beat.  Third order non-linearity, see CSO
CVCT - Cable Virtual Channel Table. Digital cable's term for EPG
CVD - China Video Disc. Old contender for VCD
CW - Control Word, essentially a key in an encryption or scrambling system.
CW - Carrier Wave.  Main frequency component in an RF signal
Cyclorama - Curved seamless backgound

D1 - Professional digital tape using component video format. Also full video resolution (NTSC/PAL)
D2B - German "bus" (network) for automotive multimedia applications (Mercedes)
D3 - 1/2 inch cassette tape format for digital composite video recording
D5 - Uses D3 cassette, but records digital component video.
D6 - 19mm tape format for recording uncompressed HDTV
D7 - DVDPRO tape format
D9 - Medium grade professional DV tape (JVC). (same as Digital-S). D9 HD adds HD
D10 - see MPEG IMX tape format
D11 - HDCam tape format
D12 - DVCPRO HD or 100 tape format
DAB - Digital Audio Broadcast
DAC - Digital to Analog Converter, simple bits in, analog out (codec agnostic)
DAM - Digital Asset Management (see MAM, DMM)
D'Appolito: Vertically symmetrical driver array. Tweeter between 2 woofers for vertically symm. sound
DAR - Digital Audio Receiver.
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Started the Internet long ago
DASE - DTV Application Software Environment.  Precursor (w/OCAP) to ACAP
DAT - Digital Audio Tape (usually using a rotating head, therefore R-DAT) for 48KHz sampled audio
datacine - digitizing film into files
DataPlay - Small (1") optical disk format. defunct
DAVIC - Digital Audio Video Council (Europe). Created iTV proposed stds. Supported TV Anytime.
Day and Date - movie is released worldwide on same day
dB - Decibel, logarithmic gain or loss of signal power . 3dB = 2x power, 6dB = 2x voltage
dBm - Audio level based on a milliwatt of power.
DB-25 - A cable created for printers, but sometimes used to carry six audio line level signals.
DBS - Direct Broadcast Satellite (e.g. EchoStar).  Europe calls it DTH
DC - digital cinema
DC - direct current
DC28 - SMPTE digital cinema standards - now 21DC
DC28 - SMPTE std working on Digital Cinema
DCAS - Downloadable CAS. Uses downloadable keys instead of physical device (i.e. CableCARD)
DCC - Digital Compact Cassette. Audio recorded digitally onto a tape cassette.
DCDi - Popular Faroudja (Genesis) video processor used to clean up the video image
DCDM - Digital Cinema Distribution Master.
DCF - Distributed Coordination Function. Network polling by MAC to see if it's OK to transmit
DC HID - Direct Current HID
DCI - Digital Cinema Initiatives. Studios & vendors working on digital cinema stds. Working w/DC28
D-Cinema - Digital Cinema
DCMA - Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  Europe equivalent is Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC
DCMI - Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, for interoperable online metadata standards (postproduction)
DCPG - Digital Cinema Provider's Group. Promotes the business of Digital Cinema
DCR - Digital Cable Ready. Accepts CableCARD for one-way MSO services. (iDCR)
DCT - Discrete Cosine Transform, usually compresses 8x8 pixel blocks w/discrete Fourier method
DDCE - Dolby Digital Consumer Encode. Dolby audio encoding consumers can do (e.g. DVD recorders)
DDR - Double Data Rate SDRAM. Data is transferred on the rising and falling edge of the clock signal.
DDWG - Digital Display Working Group
Decibel - Unit of loudness. 1 decibel difference is barely perceived.
DeCSS - Broke DVD CSS in 1999 when a Linux coder posted DeCSS on Internet.
DECT - Digital Enhanced Cordless Communications. European cordless standard.
Deep Color - Use of more than 8 bits/color - eg.  10, 12, 14 or 16. For HDMI, requires version 1.3b
Deep Fiber - Cable HFC node is closer to homes, with ~100/node (normally 500). Higher BW results.
Deinterlacing - Converts interlaced video into progressive video via various techniques.
De-mosaic - approximates true color at each pixel based on RGB info at & near that pixel. See mosaic
DENi - Digital Entertainment Network initiative, aimed at AV Networking (probably overtaken by DHWG)
Depth Grading - managing the apparent depth of objects in a 3D movie
Depth of Field - Range of distances from camera that are kept in focus.
DES - Digital Encryption Standard. Common 1 key document encryption method.  Not a public key type.
DES-CBC - DES Cipher Block Chaining. 64 bit key. Used in cable systems.
DFAST - Dynamic Feedback Arrangement Scrambling Technique. CHILA subset for CE devices.
DFP - Digital Flat Panel connector.  Evolved into DVI.
DFT - Discrete Fourier Transform. Uses power of 2 Sin & Cosine values for faster computation.
DGA - Director's Guild of America.
DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.  Assigns IP address automatically.
DHSG - Data Hiding Sub-Group (CPTWG), see ARDG
DHWG - Digital Home Working Group, CE & PC consortium for device-device communication (now DLNA)
DI - Digital Intermediate. Postproduction step in film or digital cinema, adjusting color, etc.
DiBEG - Digital Broadcasting Experts Group. Japanese. Created ISDB
Dichronic Prism - Splits image into three RGB components
DiffServ - Differentiated Services. Ethernet devices self-manage QoS by type of service used. (IntServ)
DIGDIA - Helps companies find and analyze growth opportunities in the digital entertainment value chain.
DigiCypher - Motorola's CA system
Digital Certificate - CA issued encrypted metadata package for public key systems.
Digital-8 - Sony digital video tape format, uses Mini-DV type encoding on 8mm analog tape mechanics
Digital Betacam - Considered highest grade SDTV DV tape format (Sony)
Digital Cinema - Movie theater with digital distribution, storage and projection of movies.
Digital-S - See D9
Digital Cable Ready - complies w/digital cable "plug & play", w/ a POD, digital cable connects directly
Digital Home - Depends who you ask. Entertainment, home automation, telematics, mobility, healthcare.
Digital Living - Same as Digital Home, but less common a term.
Digital Living Network Alliance - See DLNA
Digital Media - Media cards, optical discs, digital tape; digital video, photos, music.
Digital Simulcast - Analog cable channels also sent digitally to enable all digital STB and switchover.
Digital Zoom - uses smaller area of image sensor to give the appearance of zooming in.
Diffie-Hellman - encryption method for generating shared secret key from private & public keys
Diffuser - Deflects sound to spread over wider spread, without which sound may be aimed at one spot
D-ILA - Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier, JVC's version of LCOS
DIN - Deutsches Insitut für Normung. A set of connector standards.
DIN - Deutsche Industrie Norm. Film sensitivity, like ASA
Direct Sequence - Digital sequence used to encode RF modulation to create spread spectrum.
Direct View - A display where you view the picture elements directly, as opposed to projected displays
Discovery - Reading a device's nature & capabilities. Example: seeing that it can display MPEG2
Disk Mirroring - see RAID 1
Disk Striping - see RAID 0
DisplayPort - VESA PC (and CE) display interface.  Handles up to 4K resol., link encryption, audio
Dither - Blend colors at edges to smooth image and avoid jaggies.
Diversity Antenna - Multiple antenna arrangement to reduce Raleigh fading in wireless links.
DivX - Video codec w/underground twist.
DIVX - defunct Circuit City DVD protection scheme.
DivX;-) - Original hack of Microsoft's WMV, took name from DIVX, and evolved into DivX.
DKMS - Data and Key Management system in a TMS
DLNA - Digital Living Network Alliance.  Formerly DHWG. AV networking stds. CE & PC industry. see HANA
DLP - Digital Light Processor, Texas Instruments' DMD technology used in digital projectors
DLT - Digital Linear Tape
DMA - Designated Market Area (Nielson term). Services tend to talk about how many DMAs they serve.
DMA - Direct Memory Access (PC disk term). Provides faster data transfers.
DMA - Digital Media Adaptor. Interfaces digital AV (usually from a PC) to legacy AV equipment
D-MAP - DSD Modular Audio Processing. Sony signal processing module
DMB - Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (Korea). Broadcasting digital TV steams to mobile phones.
DMD - Digital Multilayer Disk. Uses red laser and up to 6 layer DVD media for 15 to eventually 60 GB.
DMD - Digital Micromirror Device, the actual chip used in DLP
DMM - Digital Media Management (see DAM, MAM)
DMP - Digital Media Project. New group trying to sort out DRM issues.
DMT - Discrete Multitone Technology. Picked by VDSL2.
DMZ - Demilitarized zone. A network setup outside the firewall giving limited access to company content.
DNG - Digital ENG
DNR - Dynamic Noise Reduction. Reduces high frequency noise. Does not require pre-processing
DNS - Domain Name Server. Translates URLs into IP addresses
DNxHD - Avid's compression scheme for editing HD material using SD rates.
DOCSIS 1.1 - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (cable modems). 10Mbps
DOCSIS 2.0 - Increases bandwidth up to 40Mbps down/30Mbps up.
DOCSIS 3.0 - Proposed to increase bandwidth up to 200Mbps down/100Mbps up.
Dolby B or C - Audio encoding technique for increasing fidelity with less noise and multi-channel sound
Dolby Digital - Audio encoding for 5  channel sound (plus subwoofer) for 5.1 audio (see DTS, THX)
Dolby Digital Plus - E-AC-3. A more efficient version of Dolby Digital.
Dolby EX - 6.1 (can be 7.1) extension of Dolby Digital
Dolby ProLogic - 4 channel analog audio scheme. ProLogic II improves 2-channel non-encoded audio.
Dot Crawl - Video artifact that looks like the name implies
Dot Pitch - The distance between pixels of the same color in a display.
Down Resolution - (Down Rez) Reducing HD content to SDTV levels if sent to analog outputs (constrained).
Downstream - Cable headend to CPE. Satellite transmission to dish.
DP - Director of Photography (movie term)
DPI - Dots per inch (used in scanners and printers)
DPI - Digital Program Insertion. Digitally inserting ads, etc., into a television program stream.
DPOF - Direct Print Order Format metadata for specifying how a photo should be rendered (printed)
DPON - DOCSIS over PON
DPTV - Direct Projection (View) TV.  Also, Digital Packet TV.
DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory. Common memory used in PCs, etc. Not nonvolatile.
DRM - Digital Rights Management.  Keeping content rights managed and avoiding pirates.
DS-1 - Digital Service level 1 from your telco. 1.544Mbps U.S./2.048Mbps elsewhere (T1)
DS-3 - Digital Service level 3 from your telco. 44.736Mbps. (OC-1, T3)
DSCP - Differential Services Codepoint. Tags network packets by policy (not priority)
DSD - Direct Stream Digital - Sony/Philip term for 1-bit Amplifier scheme
DSDL - Double Sided Dual Layer DVD
DSG - DOCSIS Set-top Gateway. Advanced STB using DOCSIS for digital EPG, services & content
DSL - Digital Subscriber Line, high speed data over twisted pair phone lines
DSLAM - Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer, links many DSL lines to an ATM line.
DSM - Digital Source Master
DSM-CC - Digital Storage Media Command & Control. Protocols for MPEG1/2 streams. iTV related.
DSP - Digital Signal Processing, method used by codecs, etc. using DFT.
DSS - Digital Satellite Service.
DSSS - Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum. Uses keyed phase modulation.
DSTB - Digital STB
D-Sub - D-Subminiature. "D" shaped outer shell around pins (e.g. VESA 15 pins, RS-232 9 pins).
DS-UWB - Direct Sequence UWB, used by UWB Forum. Uses pulse-based modulation.
DTA - Digital to Analog Converter, a simple STB with basic  cable service
DTCP - Digital Transmission Copy Protection. Encrypted 1394 link that protects content.(DTLA, DTVLink)
DTCP/IP - DTCP encryption on Ethernet, TTL = 3 to prevent content over Internet, plus round trip < 7ms
DTH - Direct to Home standard, commonly known as DBS
D-Theater - 1080i content recorded on D-VHS
DTLA - Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator. Administration for DTCP
DTMF - Dual Tone Multi-Frequency. Touch tone dialing system. Broadcast signal for ad insertion.
DTS - Digital Theater Systems. Competing (Home) Theater sound format (see THX, Dolby)
DTS-ES - DTS Extended Surround for 6.1 audio
DTS Neo:6 - converts 2 channel sound to 5 or 6 channels; similar to Dolby ProLogic2
DTT - Digital Terrestrial Transmission.  Broadcast DTV over UHF. European term.
DTV - Digital Television (not necessarily HDTV)
DTVCC - DTV Closed Captioning
DTVIA - DTV Industry Alliance of China, aimed at analog to digital transition
DTVLink - CEA consumer term for a 1394 (EIA775) with DTCP connection for HDTV video
DualDisk - DVD on one side, digital audio (not std. CD due to different layer depth) on other side
Dublin Core - see DCMI
Duo - Small sized Memory Stick, can fit into a Memory Stick slot with an adapter
Dutch Angle - Tilting camera slightly to make subject appear to run up or down hill.
DV - Digital Video.  Also: big cousin (L-size) to Mini-DV tape (S-size)
DV-AVI - Digital Video - Audio/Video Interleave. See DV-AVI
DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting, an open industry std group for DTV and data broadcasting
DVB-ASI - 270 Mbps MPEG2 traditional signal an MSO/IPTV may use (the other is QAM)
DVB-C - DVB Cable.
DVB-CA - DVB Conditional Access system
DVB-CI - DVB Common Interface for accessing scrambled data.
DVB-CSA - DVB Common Scrambling Algorithm
DVB-H - DVB  Handheld    .
DVB-J - DVB Java, part of MHP and OCAP
DVB-MHP - See MHP
DVB-S - DVB Satellite.
DVB-S2 - DVB Satellite, but improved to allow AVC or VC1
DVB-SI - DVB Service Information. Index that binds all ES and TS together.
DVB-T - DVB Terrestrial.
DVB-MPEG - Specifies 11 SDTV MPEG2 formats for DVB
DVC - Digital Video Cassette.
DVCAM - Low end professional DV tape (Sony). Related to DVCPRO 25 & Mini-DV
DVCPRO 25 - Low end professional DV tape (Panasonic). 4:1:1, 25 Mbps, 184 min.(DVCAM & Mini-DV)
DVCPRO 50 - Medium grade professional DV tape. 4:2:2, 50 Mbps, 92 min. (DVCPRO 50 P, 4:2:0)
DVCPRO HD - HD grade professional DV tape. 100 Mbps, 46 min. (DVCPRO 100)
D-VCR - Digital video recording on VHS tape. (D-VHS)
DVD - Digital Versatile (Video) Disk.  Holds 4.7GB or ~8.5GB (dual layer).  Uses red laser.
DVD-18 - DSDL DVD holds about 15.9 GB
DVD6C - Licensing agency for DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video.
DVD-9 - Dual layer DVD.
DVD-A - DVD Audio, for 6 channel sound.  Looks to be the winner.
DVD CCA - DVD Copy Control Assoc.  Licenses CSS and RPC
DVDDual - Similar to DVDPlus with some modifications on content
DVD Forum - Tries to set DVD standards.
DVD-Multi - A try by the DVD Forum at making DVD+R look like odd disk out
DVDPlus - Adds a CD layer to DVD
DVDR - DVD Recorder
DVD-RAM - Recordable DVD (more popular in Japan) pushed mostly by Matsushita (Panasonic)
DVD+R/RW - Recordable DVD using a registration technique more friendly for data storage
DVD-R/RW - Recordable DVD that is also popular.  Now there are DVD± drives for both + and - media
DVD-VR - DVD Video Recording. Formatted to allow editing of video on DVD.
DVE - Digital Video Effects processor
D-VHS - HD VHS that records D-Theater content. Compatibility issues and DVD stand in the way.
DVI - Digital Video Interface, a parallel digital link to displays (created by DDWG)
DVI-A - DVI that can carry only analog signals
DVI-D - DVI that can carry digital signals
DVI-I - DVI that can carry digital or analog
DVD On Demand - VOD service that behaves like viewer is interacting with a DVD player
DVR - Digital Video Recorder (also called PVR), e.g. TiVo
DVS - Digital Video Subcommittee. (SCTE)
DVS 629 - DVS std. specifies mechanics of interactive cable ads.
DWDM - Dense WDM. Optical communications with 400+ Gb/s.
DWT - Discrete Wavelet Transform. Used in JPEG 2000
Dylan - (product name) Media storage base on RAID 3 using for NLE