Glossary -M-
Macro lens — A lens that can be focused on a very close (sometimes touching) object.
Macrovision — Popular anti-copy signal recorded on a video tape to make it playable but not copyable.
Maintenance contract (or service contract) — An agreement with an outside repair company to keep your equipment in good working order for a fixed yearly charge (plus parts, usually).
Marker — A pointer on the timeline to show what part of it is playing. As the show plays, the marker moves. It can be quickly positioned to play a short segment of a show, perhaps previewing a simple transition.
Mask — A cardboard cutout used to frame a picture with a smooth border or cover unwanted parts of a picture or other background.
Masking tape — Paper adhesive tape used for holding things temporarily because it tears easily and removes easily.
Master audio control — Mixer knob that adjusts, up or down in volume, all mixer inputs at once. Useful for fading out all mikes and sounds together.
Master dimming control — A single slider on a dimmer that dims all the lights at once.
Master disc — A specially made original videodisc from which distribution copies are reproduced.
Master fade — A fade lever that always fades the picture out to black or a chosen color.
Master recorder — In the tape copying process, the VCR that plays the tape that the slaves copy. Also called the VCP, videocassette player.
Master tape — The original copy of the finished version of a tape. Could be original footage of a “live” show, or could be a program edited together from other tapes. The master is the best-quality copy of this program in existence.
Mastering plant — A company that converts a video tape or other media into a master videodisc and makes copies of it.
Match frame edit — An edit in which a scene is edited onto itself so exactly that there is no apparent interruption in the scene.
Matched shots — Similar-looking views of a subject from two cameras at the same time.
Material — Data that creates a surface with color and design, like wallpaper, wood grain, or marble, that can be wrapped around a wireframe to make it solid.
Material editor — Part of a 3-D graphics package that makes the surfaces that cover the wireframes made in modler.
Material shade — Smoothshade with the actual material (i.e., wood) and color stretched over the wireframe.
Matte — A special kind of key effect where light parts of a picture are removed and replaced with a chosen color.
Matte box — Container that holds lens filters in slots and attaches to the front of the camera lens.
Matte screen — A nonglossy smooth white projection screen. Like a white sheet, it reflects light equally in all directions.
Measured spacing — Typography where the space between letters is always the same. Manual typewriters use measured spacing.
Megahertz — One million cycles (vibrations) per second, represented by 1 MHz, which is near the frequency of video signals
Memory — An attribute of nicad batteries whereby they “forget” how long they should be able to provide power if they haven’t been worked hard enough. Frequent short duty cycles will eventually make them able to perform only shallow discharges before they need recharging.
Memory — On a VCR’s index counter, this button tells the machine to stop rewinding when it reaches 000 on the counter. Helpful in noting and locating spots on a tape.
Menu — A list of choices, possible answers to a question, or a table of contents. The option selected is the one the player goes to next.
Metal halide — Bright projection bulb with long life. Like HMI lights, these lamps require a ballast.
MIC — Short for microphone input, a highly sensitive, low-level audio input.
Microlenses — Tiny lenses embossed onto the CCD chip to concentrate light onto the light sensing surfaces and increase the chip’s sensitivity to light.
Microwave — An extremely high band of radio/TV frequencies used with satellites to relay TV signals. On earth, used to transmit TV signals in beams about 5-10 miles long between mobile TV vans and the broadcasting station or between cable TV companies.
Microwave — Extremely high-frequency radio waves, about 1 billion vibrations per second (1GHz, one gigahertz), used to transmit video, audio, RF, telephone, and computer data over long distances.
Microwave receiver — Circuit which converts microwaves to video and audio. It works much like a TV tuner or demodulator, except at higher frequencies.
Microwave receiver — Device for picking up microwaves and converting them into an electrical signal such as video and audio.
Microwave relay — Device that receives microwaves, boosts them, and beams them out in another direction.
Microwave transmitter — Device to convert video and audio signals into microwaves for broadcasting to a receiver which can convert the signals back.
Microwaves — High-frequency signals, around a gigahertz which, among other things, can carry TV signals.
Midband — Cable TV channels 14-22.
MIDI or .mdi — Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standardized way of sending digital instructions between audio devices and musical instruments, telling them, for instance, what notes to play.
Midrange — Middle frequencies of sound, about 40-12,000 Hz.
MII — Professional camcorder format using VHS-like cassettes, recording separate colors at high tape speed for high quality.
Mix — One of the ways of going from one TV picture to another (as opposed to wipe and key). Mix is often the name on the button that tells the fader levers to dissolve rather than wipe or key from one picture to the next.
Mix — Switch on a two-channel or stereo VCR which allows both channels to be mixed and heard together.
MMDS — Multichannel multipoint distribution service, another name for wireless cable system.
MMDS — Multichannel multipoint Distribution System, a wireless cable system that delivers data.
MOD — Minimum operating distance, the closest a lens can focus normally.
Mode selector — Knob or button on an editing VCR that sets the VCR into the insert edit, assemble edit, video insert, or audio insert mode.
Modeling light — Light aimed at the subject from behind and to the side, creating a white rim of light to add dimension.
Modem — Modulator-demodulator, a device that turns digital data into tones that can travel over phone wires, as well as convert tones back to digits to be used by a computer.
Modler — Part of a 3-D graphics package that builds the 3-D object in space.
Modulator or RF generator — Electronic device which combines audio and video signals, coding them into RF, a TV channel number.
Modulator — RF generator. Combines audio and video into a channel number.
Moire — Video artifact seen in NTSC pictures along the edges of brightly colored objects, text, and graphics. Moire looks like crawling dots or saw-teeth.
Monaural — Single-channel audio. Opposite of stereo.
Monitor — A TV set which has no tuner and usually has no speaker (as opposed to a TV receiver, which has both). Such a TV displays video signals but not RF signals. Any device used to observe or hear the quality of a signal (i.e., audio monitor).
Monitor analyzer — A deep blue lens used for viewing color bars on a color monitor while adjusting the TV’s color hue to obtain proper colors.
Monitor speakers — Loudspeakers with excellent fidelity used to evaluate audio in the control room.
Monochrome — Black and white (as opposed to color).
Monochrome — Black and white (not color).
Monopod — One-legged tripod.
Morph — 2-D or 3-D graphic effect that gradually stretches one image into another while simultaneously dissolving from one image to the other. Thus the object changes shape while also changing color and surface character.
Mosaic — Digital effect where an image (or part of it) is broken into tiny tiles or colored squares.
Mosaic filter — An array of tiny colored lenses that cover a CCD chip used in one-chip color cameras. The lenses allow different pixels in the chip to sense different colors of light.
Motherboard — Main circuitry of the computer, holding the CPU, the main brain of the computer, plus slots for memory and additional boards, such as a graphics board.
Motion JPEG or MJPEG — JPEG compression performed on each video frame in real time (30 frames per second). Motion JPEG is used in nonlinear editors.
Movieola — Device for viewing and comparing several reels of film at a time while selecting segments to splice into an edited master film.
M-S stereo miking — Mike setup for stereo using a bidirectional and a cardioid mike close together, and an encoder to manipulate the signals into stereo.
MTF or Modulation Transfer Function — Ability of a lens to reproduce contrast, especially at high focal lengths.
MTS — Multichannel television sound, a technique of broadcasting stereo audio on TV.
MTS — Multichannel television sound, technique for stereo TV broadcasting.
Multimedia — Audio, video, text, graphics, and other information delivered by computer.
Multiple system operator — Large cable company that owns and operates many little cable companies in various municipalities.
Multiplexer — Mirror device that selects one (of several) projector’s image and shines it at the TV camera.
Multiplexer — Mirrored device that selects which one of several projectors shines its image into a TV camera for transferring film to video.
Multipoint videoconference — Videoconference between three or more locations or individuals.
Multiscan (or multisync) monitor — Computer monitor capable of working with different horizontal and vertical scan rates to make the image.
Multisession — Several events, perhaps recorded at different times, residing on a disc, accessible by computer.
Munsel color chip — chart — A particular brand of color bar test chart.
Music under — Music volume is reduced into the background so that narration or something else gets the audience’s attention.
Mute — A control which cuts out the sound but leaves everything else going.
