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| AAD - Found on CD cases. Indicates that the audio was recorded in Analogue, mastered in Analogue and stored Digitally onto CD. | |
| ADD - Found on CD cases. Indicates that the was recorded in Analogue, but mastered and stored Digitally on CD. | |
| AC-3 - The first name for the Dolby Digital sound format and comes from Audio Coding revision 3, the system used to encode and decode Dolby Digital soundtracks. | |
| ACTIVE - Used to describe speakers and sub-woofers that have their own internal amplifier. Highly recommended for home cinema systems using digital surround such as Dolby Digital, or in systems using small or satellite speaker systems. | |
| ADTV - Advanced Definition Television. An early version of the High Definition Television (HDTV) standard created in Japan. Now superseded by HDTV in the USA. | |
| AMBIENCE - A term used to describe the greater feeling of depth when listening to a surround soundtrack. It could be the hum of distant machinery, the echo after a thunder clap or reverberation of a scene in a large church hall. | |
| AMPLIFIER - amplifies the signal from source hardware and drives the speakers. The volume controls are used to vary the strength of the output signal. Amplifiers are generally used as a single box, known as an Integrated amplifier, that contains both the Pre Amplifier stage and the Power Amplifier stage for each audio channel. Two-box amplifiers separate the Pre and Power amplification stages to reduce internal signal interference. | |
| ANALOGUE - A type of data signal that uses a wave to represent high and low frequencies. | |
| ANAMORPHIC - used to describe the widescreen picture size on some DVD Video discs and Digital TV transmissions. An anamporphic picture is a widescreen picture size that has been 'squashed' at each side (horizontally) during filming or recording so that it fits into a non-widescreen 4:3 frame. When an anamorphic picture is displayed on a widescreen television, the TV will expand the picture horizontally to restore the original widescreen picture size. Viewing an anamorphic movie on a 4:3 television will mean the picture appears squashed with tall, thin actors. | |
| ASPECT RATIO - refers to the size of a Television screen (either 4:3 or 16:9 Widescreen) or the size of a picture such as the 1:1.85 cinema screen movie size. The ratio states the proportion of horizontal units to vertical units, where a ratio of 1:1 would be a square. | |
| AUDIO - Sound. | |
| A/V - Short for Audio / Visual. Used to describe hardware components designed for home cinema use that handle both sound and pictures. |