Glossary-2 Sun MediaCenter Server Administrator’s Guide • December 1997
luminance A matrix, block, or single sample representing a monochrome representation of
the signal. Luminance is related to the primary colors in the manner defined in
the bit stream. The symbol for luminance is Y. Luminance is distinguished
from chrominance.
Media Stream Manager
(MSM) An RPC-based API that provides users with a means of interacting with a
media server without coming close to the details of media file storage and the
scheduling and delivery of media streams. The MSM supports VCR-like
operations such as play-a-title and fast-forward, and video-editing functions
such as insert-a-title-in-a-playlist. The MSM is described in detail in the Sun
MediaCenter Server Programmer’s Guide.
MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are international
standards for the compression used in the conversion of analog to digital
video, including both video and audio data. With MPEG-1, the ratio of the
storage size of compressed to uncompressed digital video is 1:100. MPEG-2
extends MPEG-1 standards; it is intended to meet the needs of television
broadcast studios. MPEG-2 approximately doubles the compression available
in MPEG-1.
NTSC National Technical Standards Committee. An analog video-format standard
used in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Mexico. The NTSC format
specifies 525 scan lines and a frame rate of 30 frames/sec. NTSC, PAL, and
SECAM are the three video formats used throughout the world.
PAL Phase Alternation Line. An analog video-format standard used mostly in
Western Europe. The PAL format specifies 625 scan lines and a frame rate of 25
frames/sec. PAL, NTSC, and SECAM are the three video formats used
throughout the world.
pixel picture element
playlist In the Media Stream Manager (MSM), a list of titles to be played, annotated
with a relative time at which the title should be played.
play position In a Media Stream Manager (MSM) environment, the current position within
a playlist from which isochronous data is being delivered.
SECAM Sequential Couleur A Memoire. An analog video-format standard used in
France, Russia, and Eastern Europe. As with the PAL format, SECAM specifies
625 scan lines and a frame rate of 25 frames/sec. However, SECAM encodes
video information differently from PAL encoding. SECAM, NTSC, and PAL
are the three video formats used throughout the world.
session A period of interaction with a server delimited by the Media Stream Manager
(MSM) functions msmServerOpen() and msmServerClose().
stream The representation of the delivery of an isochronous bit stream to a
destination.