Glossary - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 740

Topic Description

VC-9 A former potential name for the SMPTE VC-1 codec. Another

name that identifies Windows Media Series 9 video coding.

VCEG Video Coding Experts Group. A working group within the ITU

who participated in the development of the H.264 codec.

VHS Video Home System. Developed by JVC and made popular in

the 1970s and 80s.

VideoLAN An open-source media-player developer.

VistaVision A very wide-screen, high-resolution film format. Discontinued

in theaters but famous for having been used as an originating
format for the Star Wars movie special effects.

VivoActive A media player.

VLC A popular open-source media player.

VOP Another name for a frame of video as described in MPEG-4.

Vorbis See Ogg-Vorbis.

VP3 An open-source video codec.

VR Virtual reality.

W3C World Wide Web Consortium.

WAN Wide Area Network.

Wavelet A more sophisticated compression algorithm that replaces DCT.

Windows A codec developed by Microsoft as an alternative to QuickTime

Media Series 9 or Real Networks. This is a proprietary codec that is best

deployed on Microsoft Windows-based systems. The version 9
codec allegedly uses wavelets and is comparable to H.264. At
the point when H.264 was ratified as a standard, Microsoft
offered Windows Media Series 9 to SMPTE as a competing
standard. It remains to be seen whether this becomes a truly
open standard and opinions are divided on what the outcome
will be. Microsoft came to the game quite late but played a very
strong hand. They still are not dominant in the video world but
their offerings are competent and reliable when used on the
Windows platform.

WM9 An abbreviation that refers to Windows Media Series 9 codecs.

Word Commonly, 16 bits collected together into a single unit and

manipulated together. Sometimes used to describe units larger
than 16 bits.

XviD An open-source video codec.