Table 3 (ATSC) Table 3 of the ATSC DTV Standard, Annex A, summarizes the picture formats allowable for DTV transmission in the USA. Any one of these may be compressed using MPEG-2 and transmitted. An ATSC receiver must be able to display pictures from any of these formats. Table 3 is concerned with video formats to be handled in the ATSC system rather than defining standards for video production.
Targa (.TGA) An image file format widely used in computer systems. It was developed by Truevision Inc. and there are many variations of the format.
TBC Timebase Corrector. This is often included as a part of a VTR to correct the timing inaccuracies of the pictures read from the tape.The introduction of digital techniques made larger stores economic so widening the correction window and reducing the need for especially accurate, expensive mechanical engineering.
TCP/IP Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A set of standards that enables the transfer of data between computers. Besides its application directly to the Internet it is also widely used throughout the computer industry. It was designed for transferring data files rather than large files of television or film pictures. Thus, although TCP/IP has the advantage of being widely compatible it is a relatively inefficient way of moving picture files. See also: FTP, IPs
T-DMB See DMB
Timeline A graphical representation of editing, compositing, grading or other processes - usually as a horizontal line. This works well with disk-based operations providing instant access to any part of the process and, hopefully, to all the footage, decisions, associated tools and their settings.
TIFF (.TIF) Tagged Image File Format. A bit-mapped file format for scanned images - widely used in the computer industry. There are many variations of this format.
Technical grade A technical grade is a lower contrast scan to include all highlights and lowlights. Technical grades are widely used with virtual telecines and DI as they preserve all the useful dynamic range of film into the post production process.
Telecine Device for converting film images into SD or HD video in realtime. The main operational activity here is color grading which is executed on a shot-by-shot basis and absorbs considerable telecine time. This includes the time needed for making grading decisions and involves significant handling of the film - spooling and cueing which risks film wear and damage - besides the actual transfer time. The output of a telecine is digital video (rather than data files). Digital technology has moved the transfer process on. Now, adding a disk store or server can create a virtual telecine enabling the film-to-digital-media transfer to run as one continuous operation. Whole film spools can be scanned in one pass, with useful footage selected by an EDL. In this case the telecine may be termed a Film Scanner - creating image files (rather than digital video) that contain sufficient latitude for downstream grading. See: Grading, Film Scanner
Threading A technique that allows a (computing) process to be shared among several processors with the objective of completing the process more quickly than would be possible when using a single processor. Modern multi-core (processor) PC chips offer the potential for doing this but most, if not all, commonly used PC application programs are not designed for this. So, to provide faster processing for multiple tasks, multiprocessing is used where the programs (threads) are divided to run simultaneously on different cores to provide faster processing for multiple tasks.
Timing and Timer Timing refers to the amount of the separate R, G and B lights that are used to expose film in a laboratory as a part of the grading process. The term is sometimes also applied to color grading during telecine transfers. The timer is one who decides and controls the lights' timing. See also: Color Timing, Grading, Lights
Tracking (image) Following a defined point, or points, in the pictures of a clip. Initially this was performed by hand, using a DVE but was laborious, difficult and limited to only down to pixel accuracy. Now image tracking is widely used, thanks to the availability of automatic point tracking operating to sub-pixel accuracy. The tracking data can be applied to control DVE picture moving for such applications as removal of film weave, replacing 3D objects in moving video, wire removal, etc. Advanced multiple point tracking is sometimes used to analyze images in 3D, so allowing a whole raft of computer-generated material to be move-matched for compositing into live scenes - blurring the boundaries of live and synthetic imagery. See also: Corner pinning, Sub-pixel
True HD This has no strict technical meaning but is marketing hype. The ATSC says that all HD, 720P, 1080I and 1080P are all true HD, but the term has tended to be associated with 1080P often in advertising - but this is nothing official. Not to be confused with... TrueHD.
TrueHD Dolby's 'next-generation' lossless technology developed for high-definition disk-based media (HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc). It includes 'bit-for-bit' lossless coding up to 18 Mb/s and support for up to eight channels of 24-bit, 96 kHz audio. It is supported by HDMI. Website: www.dolby.com
TrueType (fonts) The TrueType vector font format was originally developed by Apple Computer, Inc. The specification was later released to Microsoft. TrueType fonts are therefore supported on most operating systems. Most major type libraries are available in TrueType format. There are also many type design tools available to develop custom TrueType fonts.
Truncation Removal of the least significant bits (LSBs) of a digital word - as could be necessary when connecting 10-bit video equipment into 8-bit video equipment, or handling the 16-bit result of digital video mixing on an 8-bit system. If not carefully handled truncation can lead to unpleasant artifacts on video signals - such as contouring. See also: Dynamic Rounding