Glossary
An ever-expanding list of terms used in my “Tech Check” and “Just Do It (Yourself)” posts.
Backend: For our purposes, the software application or applications that run behind the frontend to accomplish whatever task is being requested.
BIOS: An anagram for Basic Input/Output System, the BIOS represents the firmware of the motherboard, and controls its fundamental operation, regardless of what operating system is installed. Any time you boot a PC, your computer’s BIOS is the first thing to load. Most times, all you see of it is a brief flash of text before the Windows logo comes on. To log into your BIOS, and make any changes necessary, you will need to press a special key during the boot sequence, before the operating system loads. This key is usually a function key (F1-F12), Delete, or ESC. Consult your motherboard documentation, or watch closely during the boot sequence to determine which key to press.
Bitrate: For our purposes, an objective measure of the degree of compression used on a given audio or video media file.
Clock Speed: For our purposes, a measurement of the speed at which a cpu or computer processor can perform executions. Expressed in megahertz and gigahertz, e.g. a 2.4 GHz cpu. While higher numbers usually represent faster performance, not all equally clocked processors contain the same architecture, so some are faster than others. Newer processors are almost always faster than their equally clocked predecessors.
CPU: Central Processing Unit. The brains of the computer. See here for a more detailed discussion.
Codec: An anagram of “coder/decoder” or “compressor/decompressor.” Specifically refers to the algorithm or program used to encode and/or reduce the size of a media file. Can be lossy or lossless. Video examples include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Divx, WMV, H.264, etc. Audio examples include MP3, FLAC, AAC, etc. Please not the distinction between a codec and a container.
Container: To confuse things, some file formats are not codecs in and of themselves (algorithms capable of encoding data) but simply codecs repackaged for compatibility with certain applications or hardware. Video examples include AVI, ASF, DVR-MS, MOV, etc. Audio examples include WAV, AIFF, Ogg, etc.
Firmware: The low level software pre-installed on certain kinds of computer hardware (motherboards, optical drives, etc.) and other electronics. Often this software can be upgraded or “flashed” to improve the hardware’s performance or fix a bug. How to do so will be explained by the manufacturer. Be certain to follow their steps to the letter, as doing otherwise can render your hardware inoperable.
Frontend: For our purposes, the software or interface with which you directly interact on your HTPC. Could be an entire operating system (like Windows Media Center) or an individual application (such as Media Portal).
Lossless: A term used in data compression to describe a file format or encoding process in which no digital information is lost. All lossless formats can be transcoded back to the file’s original format and will be an exact duplicate. Audio examples include FLAC, SHN, Monkey’s Audio (APE), etc. Technically speaking, there an no lossless video formats in useage at the consumer level and all transcoding will result in some degradation of the image.
Lossy: A term used in data compression to describe a file format or encoding process which not only compresses (reduces overall size) but alters the digital characteristics of a file. Once compressed, a lossy file is irrevocably different and of lesser fundamental quality than its original. Audio examples include MP3, WMA, AAC. Video formats include all MPEG variations.
Operating System (OP): The system software selected to run a computer. Examples include OSX (Mac), Linux, and all of the Windows variants (Vista, XP, Media Center Editions, etc.).
Platform: For our purposes, a synonym of operating system.
Tagging: Adding meta data to audio files which records information like artist, song title, album title, etc. Critical for organizing digital audio.
Transcoding: transforming media files from one format to another, according to rules stipulated by the codecs selected.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Tech Checks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
