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About This Quiz
HD, DVD, LCD. What do all of these acronyms stand for anyway? See if you're up on your home theater jargon in our home theater lingo quiz.
This media format succeeded the VHS tape as the most popular format for distributing movies, but what does its name stand for?
Data Vehicle Disc
Digital Video Disc
The DVD, or Digital Video Disc, was the premiere optical medium for storing movies until the arrival of Blu-ray.
Digital Vocoder Disc
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Speaking of VHS, the tape format was used for home video for years. But do you know what VHS means?
Video Home System
VHS stands for Video Home System. And that's exactly what it was until DVDs took over in the late '90s.
Video Housing Storage
Veritable HiRes Standard
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Before VHS became standard, it battled with another tape format for dominance of the home video market. What was it called?
8-Track
Betamax
Betamax lost to VHS despite being a higher-quality format; VHS was more readily available and cheaper.
Compact disc
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Surround sound sure pumps out a lot of noise. How many channels of audio are there in Dolby Digital 7.1 Surround?
6
8
Dolby 7.1 is comprised of eight sound channels -- seven for the surround audio and one channel for the subwoofer. That's what the .1 stands for.
9
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How many subwoofers would there be in a 7.2 surround sound configuration?
2
The .2 designates two subwoofers. That's twice as much bass as your average setup.
5
7
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This sound certification is actually named after a movie written and directed by George Lucas before he made "Star Wars."
Dolby
Laserdisc
THX
George Lucas' first major film, "THX 1138," was the basis for the high-quality audio standard today known as THX.
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Unlike DVD, Blu-ray isn't an acronym for anything. But do you know how it got its name?
Blu-ray uses a blue laser
Blu-ray is so-named due to the blue laser used to read the high-capacity Blu-ray discs.
Blue-ray was already copyrighted
The Blu-ray logo is a blue stingray
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Blu-ray beat out this video disc format to become the DVD's true successor. What was it called?
SDVD
HD-DVD
Blu-ray and HD-DVD were on the market side-by-side for a couple years, but eventually market support sided with Blu-ray.
Laserdisc
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The short-lived HD-DVD was primarily pushed by Toshiba and Microsoft. What did its name stand for?
High Definition DVD
The HD-DVD, aka the High Definition DVD, is now a format war loser much like Betamax.
Hyper Density DVD
High Delivery DVD
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Here's a classic format: Can you expand on the acronym CD?
Covalent drive
Compact drive
Compact disc
The CD is the compact disc, of course.
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802.11 is a technology standard involving the Internet. Do you know what it relates to?
3G
4G
Wi-Fi
802.11 is the standard used in wireless Internet, aka Wi-Fi. Today's wireless devices primarily use the 802.11g and 802.11n standards.
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Today's high definition televisions come in two resolutions: 720p and 1080p. But what does that "p" stand for?
progressive
The "p" in 720p and 1080p stands for progressive, which means each line of the image is scanned progressively. Progressive displays are superior to interlaced displays, which resolve every other line of the image and take two passes to complete the picture.
passive
pixels
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Full HD is another term for this resolution.
720p
1080p
1080p. While display technology can easily exceed resolutions of 1920x1080 pixels (1080p), it was established as the premiere HD resolution for televisions.
1600p
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Once the most popular interface for transferring video signals, this old analog standard will soon be phased out of the computer industry.
VGA
VGA, or Video Graphics Array, is an outdated analog video standard now surpassed by superior digital options like DVI and HDMI.
DVI
DisplayPort
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HDMI is the current standard format for transferring high-definition signals between devices. But what does it mean?
High Density Media Interchangeable
High Definition Media Interface
HDMI, or High Definition Media Interface, can transfer uncompressed HD video and audio.
Hard Design Multimedia Input
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Unlike this other popular digital high definition interface, HDMI can transfer both audio and video.
DVI
All three of these formats are video-only, but DVI is the only one that's digital, rather than analog. DVI is another popular interface for computer systems.
VGA
S-Video
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LCDs are the dominant displays in big-screen televisions. Do you know what an LCD is?
Laser Crystal Diode
Liquid Crystal Display
An LCD is a Liquid Crystal Display, which modulates light to display an image.
Light Crystal Diode
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Some LCD displays are lit up by OLEDs. OLED LCDs -- what are those?
Organic Light-Emitting Diode
OLEDs are organic light-emitting diodes that don't need backlighting, and thus can be used to create thinner displays with superior contrast.
Ornamental Laser-Emitting Disc
Organic Light-Emulsion Device
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You'll need either cable Internet or DSL to stream video to your home. But what does the latter high-speed Internet acronym stand for?
Device Service Linkup
Digital Subscriber Line
DSL, or a Digital Subscriber Line, is a broadband Internet service run to your home from an Internet Service Provider.
Digital Subscription Link
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Cable and satellite boxes, as well as other media-playing home theater devices, are often called STBs, or:
Source Transfer Box
Source Terminal Box
Set Top Box
STB, or set-top box, is a general term used to describe a device that connects to a TV and provides some form of content.
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You Got:
/20
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