This is the committee which established the standards for television systems in the United States. The NTSC standard broadcasts 525 scan lines and a refresh rate of 30 frames per second with a field frequency of 60Hz. The standard uses 480 lines for each picture; the remaining scan lines are reserved for other picture information. NTSC TV system is widely used in USA, Canada, Latin America and Taiwan, etc.

OSD refers to the text shown on screen, which lists menu options or offers further operation assistance.

PAL (Phase Alteration Line) is the color television broadcast standard adopted by most Western European countries (except France, where SECAM standard is used), Australia, China, Singapore and Malaysia. The PAL standard broadcasts 625 scan lines and a refresh rate of 25 frames per second with a field frequency of 50Hz. The standard uses 576 lines for each picture; the remaining scan lines are reserved for other picture information.

A special feature on a VCD (video CD) or SVCD (super VCD) which enables interactive use.

A service commonly used in Europe to send signal of the most updated time information of a TV program. If a DVD recorder supports the feature, preset timer programs can then be recorded at the most correct time. Depending on the countries, the service is named differently as PDC or VPS.

See 'Interlaced / Progressive Scan'.

Region code is used by movie studios to control commercial distribution and prevent illegal copying. A commercial DVD-Video disc can only be played on a DVD player designed with the same region code.

A video signal which improves picture quality over standard composite connections. Used on Super VHS, DVD, high-end TV monitors, etc.

A 21-pin connector developed based on the standard set by Syndicat des Constructeurs des Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs. This type of connector is commonly used in Europe, and can be used to transmit both video and audio signals.

A special playback feature commonly seen in HDD/DVD recorders. This feature allows users to pause a live TV program and then start watching the program again from the point of interruption.

An interactive option screen in video DVD, displaying more preference options other than chapters. Not all video DVDs are created with top menus.

SVCD, VCD, Audio CD discs use tracks to divide up the content of a disc.

USB is an interface standard, which offers a convenient platform to establish ‘Plug-and-Play' connection between various digital devices.

A specially designed timer programming system introduced by Gemstar Development Corporation. With the programming system, users can schedule recordings simply by entering a set of numbers which correspond to a specific TV program, its broadcast channel and time. The system is marketed under different names around the world. VCR Plus+® system is mainly used in North and South America.

(*VCR Plus+® is a registered trademark of Gemstar Development Corp.)

WMA is an audio codec standard proposed by Microsoft. Music/audio files which are compressed using this standard come with the file extension, .wma or .WMA.