Video Tech Glossary, DVD Glossary, VCD Glossary, SVCD Glossary

FAQ
Short for Frequently Asked Questions - a good place to search for information.

ffmpegX
A swiss amy knife of MAC video conversion. It has numerous presets, plus the ability to customize your settings to create video to your exact specifications. A few examples of the presets include .mov -> VCD, .mov -> SVCD, .mov ->divx.

Field
In an interlaced video a field is 1/2 of a complete picture ( Frame ) consisting of the even or odd scanlines in the frame. Usually each field is labeled ie. Field A and Field B. When working with interlaced video it is important to note the Field Order (if Field A comes before Field B in the video stream) especially when encoding . If you notice flicker after encoding you will want to change the field order in the encoding template and reencode.

Filter
Filter: To manipulate a video stream to achieve a desired effect. This can include, but is not limited to, re-sizing, noise reduction, de-interlacing, softening, sharpening, and noise reduction. Video filters are available in many commercial editing packages and some free editors including Virtualdub and AVIsynth .

Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro 3 is a comprehensive and innovative editing solution with unprecedented flexibility featuring award-winning editing capabilities, precise color correction tools, and built-in compositing and effects. Revolutionary out-of-the-box G4 real-time effects deliver real-time playback without rendering or additional PCI hardware1. The new OfflineRT format yields over 40 minutes of footage per gigabyte, providing a highly efficient editing workflow. Designed for ease of use, with tools that can expertly handle virtually any video format, Final Cut Pro 3 is the complete solution for professional video editing. With a comprehensive set of award winning features that rival expensive proprietary editing systems, it's no wonder why Final Cut Pro is quickly becoming the digital editing choice for professional editors and filmmakers worldwide.

Firewire
FireWire is a fast peripheral interconnect standard capable of transfer speeds up to 400 Mbs. It works well for multimedia peripherals such as DV ( D igital V ideo) cameras and other high-speed devices like the latest hard disk drives, CD/DVD burners and printers. Apple FireWire information .

Firmware
The firmware of a device is the program code that is permanently stored in the device's memory. It contains all the necessary software routines to make the device fully functional. New updated firmware is sometimes distributed for dvd players, cd/dvd writers and many other computer devices to add features or fix bugs.

FourCC
A four character code that uniquely identifies a video data stream format. A video player will look up the FourCC code then look for the codec associated to the code in order to play the associated video stream. This idea was used in the IFF multimedia format developed by Electronic Arts for the Amiga in the early 1980s. This file format was copied by Apple (who called it AIFF) and Microsoft (RIFF).
Almost Definitive FourCC List

fps
Frames per second. A measure of the rate at which pictures are shown for a motion video image. In NTSC and PAL video, each frame is made up of two interlaced fields .

Frame
Television:
A set of scanlines in video to make a complete picture. If the video is interlaced the frame consists of both of the interlaced fields (half frames). If the video is progressive the the frame is made up of one continuous scan from top to bottom. The number of scanlines vary in a frame depending on the TV system used. PAL50 uses 625 scan lines, NTSC60 (US) 525.

Video Encoding:
A frame is one picture but depending on the encoding scheme it may not be a complete picture (I-Frame) but dependent on frames before or after the current frame (P-Frame, B-Frame ).

Framerate
The number of frames in a given space of time (eg. 1 second). Also known as Frames Per Second (FPS). NTSC Film has a framerate of 23.976, NTSC has a framerate of 29.97 and PAL material has a framerate of 25.

Frameserve
The process of creating a direct video "link" from one application to another. For example a video editor application to standalone mpeg encoder so you don't need a plugin or create a temporary video file.