Glossary -V-
Value — Natural brightness of a color. Pure yellow is light while pure blue is dark.
Variable focus light — A lighting fixture that can be adjusted from spot to flood or vice versa to direct the light’s intensity.
VCR+ — A device, much like a VCR remote control, that will make your VCR record a TV show in your absence. By typing a several digit code number into the VCR+ you bypass the complex task of programming your VCR.
Vector graphics — Image stored as mathematical instructions, lines (vectors), points, and angles.
Vector line — Imaginary line dividing the set (action area) in two; all camera angles must be taken from one side of this line to maintain unambiguous transitions from shot to shot.
Vectorscope — Specialized oscilloscope that graphically displays the color parts of a video signal, precisely showing the colors’ strength and hue.
Vertical height control — TV set control which stretches or squashes the picture vertically.
Vertical interval switching — Electrically controlled switch that toggles from one source to another (i.e., from camera 1 to camera 2) during the brief instant that the TV is not making a picture on the screen. It switches during the vertical interval, the black line below the bottom of the screen.
Vertical interval — The part of a video signal that doesn’t show on the TV screen; the black bar (sync) at the bottom of the TV picture when it rolls.
Vertical linearity — TV adjustment controlling how a TV reproduces shapes in the vertical direction without stretching or distorting them.
Vertical sync — The part of the sync signal which controls the up and down motion of the TV’s electronic gun. This holds the picture steady and keeps it from rolling vertically.
Vertical wipe — A wipe where a horizontal boundary line sweeps vertically through the screen, changing the picture as it goes.
VGA or video graphics array — 1987 standard for graphics cards in IBM compatible PCs, determining sweep frequencies, colors, resolution, and wire connections in monitor plugs.
VHF — Very high frequency; TV channels 2-13.
VHS — Video home system. The most popular consumer 1/2-inch videocassette format.
VHS-C — VHS compact format using VHS tape in a minicassette.
VHS-HQ — Slightly improved version of VHS format, totally compatible with it.
VIASS or VISS — VHS Index-Address Search System, a way of bookmarking up to 8 places on a VHS or SVHS tape, making them easy for a VCR to “find” later.
Video bridge — A type of network circuit used to match phone services to each other insuring the best transfer of data between them.
Video capture card — Circuit installed in a computer to change video signals into data the computer can handle, and vice versa.
Video capture card — Computer circuit capable of converting a video signal into a digital computer signal that can be stored on disk or manipulated.
Video CD — Compact Disc able to hold full motion video and audio, playable on PC and MacIntosh computers.
Video Deposition — Lawyers ask a witness questions to determine the facts of a case. The proceedings are videotaped and parts later played to the jury.
Video dial tone or VDT — Wide bandwidth telephone network enabling subscribers to select from a TV screen menu (or dial on their phones) a video presentation or full length movie.
Video distribution amplifier or VDA — Electronic device that splits one video signal into several (often four) and boosts each to make them as strong as the original signal.
Video Encoder — A device that makes a composite color video signal from component video signals.
Video feedback — Fantasy effect created when a camera is aimed at a TV monitor displaying the camera’s picture.
Video head drum — Spinning cylinder inside a VCR with video heads attached to it.
Video heads — Electromagnets attached to a spinning drum inside the VCR, responsible for recording the picture.
Video insert — Replacing a segment of old video with new video, in the midst of prerecorded tape. Audio is not affected.
Video level — How strong a video signal is. On VTRs, the video level control will adjust the contrast of your video recording.
Video on demand or VOD — Wide bandwidth cable or phone network permitting users to download video (i.e., movies), playing it in real time on their TVs.
Video printer — Electronic device that converts a TV screen image to hard copy.
Video projector — Device designed to project images made from an NTSC video signal (composite, Y/C, RGB, etc. using an interlaced horizontal sweep rate of 15,735 Hz). Usually found in schools and industry, sometimes equipped with speakers.
Video reverse — Camera switch which makes blacks white and whites black and changes colors into their complementary colors (opposites).
Video tape player or VTP — A machine which can play a video tape but cannot record one.
Video tape recorder or VTR — A machine which can record picture and sound on a tape. Nearly all can also play back a tape. Although a videocassette recorder is also a video tape recorder, VTR usually implies that reel-to-reel tape is used rather than cassette.
Video — The picture portion of a broadcast TV signal; an electronic signal making a TV picture.
Video wall — TV sets (or small retro projectors) stacked like building blocks and able to each show part of a picture so that the group displays the whole picture.
Video/VGA projector — Device designed to project images made from NTSC video or from a VGA computer output (640480 pixels scanned at 35,500 progressive sweeps per second).
Videocassette — A box containing video tape connected to an internal supply reel and a take-up reel, used in VCRs.
Videocassette player or — VCP — A machine which can play a videocassette but cannot record one.
Videocassette recorder or VCR — A video tape recorder which uses cassettes rather than open reels of tape.
Videocipher — A popular analog descrambler, with versions VC-II, VC-II+, and VC-II+ RS.
Videoconferencing or teleconferencing — A technology that allows participants in remote locations to communicate with images and sound.
Videodisc — An analog record-shaped disc encoded with a TV program.
Videodisc — player — Phonograph-like machine that plays a videodisc, sending the video and audio (or RF) signals to a TV for display.
Videodisc recorder — Machine that records a TV signal onto a videodisc.
Videophone or picturephone — A telephone that also displays images.
Videowall processor — Circuit that maps the video or computer images onto the video wall monitors.
Viewfinder — The part of a TV camera you look through to see where the camera is aimed.
Vignetting — A condition where the picture’s edges (usually the corners) show the dark edges of the lens, often because the lens format is too small for the pickup chip.
Virtual set — Studio set that exists as a computer graphic. The set moves as the studio camera moves so that the graphic looks real.
VISCA — Sony Video system Control Architecture, a two-way protocol from Sony that permits computers, through their RS-232 or RS-422 ports, to communicate with VCRs and other control-M or LANC enabled devices.
VITC or Vertical Interval Time Code — Time code data recorded as part of the video signal in the sync pulse between pictures.
VL bus — Vesa Local Bus, a very fast 32 bit pathway for data traveling from one board to another in the computer. The VL bus can coexist on motherboards with slower, ISA busses.
VL-mount — Standardized lens mount for 1/2-inch chip camcorders assuring automatic lens controls are compatible with camcorder, thus allowing lenses to be swapped.
Voiceover — Narration added to and louder than background sounds or music.
Volt — A measure of electrical pressure. In the United States, 120 V (volts) is the standard available from common electrical outlets in homes or institutions.
VU — Volume unita measure of loudness. A VU meter measures the strength of an audio signal. A 0 VU (”zero V-U”) setting is considered optimum sound volume.
