Glossary -H-
Hard drive — Spinning magnetic disk generally inside a computer. The hard drive stores and retrieves data and computer programs.
Hard light — Light that makes sharp shadows, like from a bare bulb.
Hardline — Special low-loss wire used principally by cable TV companies for long cable runs.
HDSL — High Speed Digital Subscriber Line, a DSL with 750kbps two-way service over two twisted pair.
HDTV (High-Definition Television) — Proposed method of displaying sharper, wider TV pictures than the present NTSC system. Pictures would be shaped into a 16:9 aspect ratio, composed of 1,125 scanning lines, each line having 1,920 pixels.
Head drum — Shiny cylinder inside a VCR to hold the spinning video heads.
Head end — The place where the cable TV company sends its signals from. This is not necessarily where its offices are or where its studio is. It is the center where the signals start their journey down the web of wires to homes.
Head switching noise — A small horizontal discontinuity at the bottom of the TV picture (usually off the screen) caused when each spinning video head leaves the tape and the twin head takes over.
Head — Top part of a camera tripod that holds the camera.
Head-cleaning cassette — A cassette loaded with a ribbon of material (it could be cloth) which cleans the video heads as the cassette is played.
Headphone — Muff-type earphones to fit over your head. Also the socket into which such phones are plugged, either on a VCR, mixer, or other audio device.
Helical scan — The method of recording a video signal diagonally across the tape by winding the tape in a spiral around a rotating drum with video heads on it.
Heterodyne — Method of time base correction used with common and color-under VCRs, yielding medium resolution pictures. Also, the type of VCR using the color-under recording method.
Hi band VTR — Video recorder capable of recording full-fidelity color signals (as opposed to color under signals).
Hi Z — High impedance, not terminated: not 75. An input ready to loop a signal to somewhere else.
Hi Z — In audio, an input or output having 1000 or more ohms of impedance (resistance to signal flow).
Hi8 — Much improved version of 8mm, downwardly compatible with it.
Hidden line wireframe — More complex, more realistic wireframe where wireframe lines disappear if part of the object they’re forming is in front of them.
Hi-Fi — Ability of some VCRs to record high fidelity or true-to-life sound. VHS and 8mm hi-fi VCRs record stereo sound with almost “perfect” sound quality.
Hi-fi audio track — High quality sound recorded physically beneath the video vibrations as they are magnetized into diagonal tracks on the tape.
High Band — High-resolution (over 400 lines) VCR format.
High level or hi level — Strong audio signal typically sent from an aux out or a line out of a device.
High Speed duplicator — Device able to duplicate a tape in under a minute.
High speed shutter — An electronic circuit in a video camera that allows the CCD chip to “see” for a very brief amount of time during each 1/60 second. Like in a film camera, the fast shutter speed reduces motion blur.
High-gain screen — Rigid, curved, foil-covered projection screen with a gain of 5 or more which yields a bright projection image, even in a well-lit room.
High-pass filter — An antenna filter which allows normal TV channel frequencies to go to the TV set but stops INTERFERENCE from lower frequencies.
HMI light — Halogen metal iodide lighting instrument. Very efficient and uses minimal power, but requires a heavy ballast. Gives off light with 5500°K color temperature.
Horizontal linearity — TV adjustment which controls how a TV reproduces shapes without stretching or distorting them in the horizontal direction.
Horizontal phase or H phase — Control on a camera’s timing circuits which adjusts the picture sideways to line up with other cameras’ pictures.
Horizontal size or width control — TV set control which makes the picture skinny or fat.
Horizontal sync — The part of a sync signal which aims the TV’s electron gun left and right. This holds the picture from jittering or straying sideways.
Host adapter — Computer circuit that controls the hard drive and processes data going onto or from the drive.
Hot switching — Inserting a new battery and then removing a failing battery while a device continues to run.
House lights — General overhead work lights used in the studio during rehearsals and between productions.
Hue — Identity or name of a color. Blue is a hue.
Hum bar — Hum is usually 60-Hz (60 cycles per second) electrical interference from power lines. When seen on a TV screen, this interference creates a soft dark bar across the screen.
Hybrid Fiber/Coax or HFC — Cable TV or phone system infrastructure that uses optical fiber for the high traffic trunk lines and cheaper coax wire between nodes and the homes/businesses.
Hyperband — Cable TV channels 37-62.
Hypercardioid microphone — Very unidirectional and slightly cardioid microphone.
