CCIR 601: Now known as Recommendation ITU-R BT.601, this is a recommendation developed by the International Radio Consultative Committee for the digitization of color video signals. ITU-R BT.601 deals with color space conversion from R'G'B' to Y'CbCr, the digital filters used for limiting the bandwidth, the sample rate (defined as 13.5 MHz), and the horizontal resolution (720 active pixels).

Composite Video: A format designed to provide both video and synchronizing information in one signal.

Component Video: Video which exists in the form of three separate signals, all of which are required to completely specify the color picture. ( R, G, B or Y, R-Y, B-Y )

Downconverter: A circuit used to lower one or more high-frequency signals to a lower, intermediate range.

FLIR: Forward Looking Infrared

HDTV: High Definition TelevisionThis term describes several advanced standards proposals to allow high-resolution TV to be received in the home.

Horizontal Blanking: During the horizontal blanking interval, the video signal is at the blank level so as not to display the electron beam when it sweeps back from the right to the left side of the screen.

Horizontal Scan Rate: This is how fast the scanning beam in a display or a camera is swept from side to side. In the NTSC system this rate is 63.556 ms, or 15.734 kHz. That means the scanning beam in your home TV moves from side to side 15,734 times a second.

Horizontal Sync: This is the portion of the video signal that tells the display where to place the image in the left-to-right dimension. The horizontal sync pulse tells the receiving system where the beginning of the new scan line is. Check to see if your TV at home has a horizontal hold control. If it does, give it a twist and observe what happens. When the picture rolls around like that, it's demonstrating what the picture would look like if there weren't any horizontal sync, or if the receiver couldn't find it.

IRE: Institute of Radio EngineersA unit equal to 1/140 of the peak-to-peak amplitude of the video signal, which is typically one volt.

Typical Levels: Blanking Level - 0 IRE Video Black - 7.5
IRE above blanking (Setup)
Sync Tip - -40 IRE
White - +100 IRE

NTSC: National Television Standards / Systems CommitteeThe color system used in the United States and North America. The field rate for NTSC is 60 Hz with 525 lines per screen and the subcarrier transmission method is a straight phase- and amplitude-modulation system for chroma using a subcarrier frequency of 3.58 MHz.

Burst Frequency: 3.579545 MHz +- 20Hz

Horizontal Scanning Frequency: 2/455 times burst frequency

Vertical Scanning Frequency: 2/525 times horizontal scanning frequency

PAL: Phase Alternation Line / LockTV color system used in Europe except for France. The field rate for PAL is 50 Hz with 625 lines per screen. PAL uses a similar transmission method as NTSC but, with the color information switched 180 degrees on alternate scan lines. The subcarrier frequency is 4.43 MHz.

Raster: A raster is the series of scan lines that make up a TV picture or a computer's display. All of the scan lines that make up a frame of video form a raster.

RGB: Red, Green, and Blue video signalsSeparate Red, Green, and Blue video signals. When combined, they make up a complete color image. The quality of the final image depends upon size of the signals. (4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit or 24-bit). At 24-bit resolution, the image is considered "true-color" and when displayed on a high resolution display, is photo-realistic.

RS-170 / SMPTE 170M: RS-170 is the United States standard that was used for black-and-white TV (monochrome) , and defines voltage levels, blanking times, the width of the sync pulses, and so forth.

Scan Converter: A scan converter is a device that converts computer video to television video. Although this is a very simplified explanation, scan conversion is a very complex procedure which requires the use of analog and digital circuitry to transform nonstandard computer signals into standard consumer type video.

SECAM: Sequential Color and Memory SystemA TV color system used primarily in France, Russia and the former states of the USSR. SECAM uses alternating lines of U, V chroma information to modulate the frequency. It is quite different from NTSC and PAL standards.

SVHS, S-VHS: S-VHS is an enhancement to regular VHS video tape decks. S-VHS provides better resolution and less noise than VHS. S-VHS video tape decks support separate luma (Y') and chroma (C) video inputs and outputs, although this is not required. It does, however, improve the quality by not having to continuously merge and then separate the luma and chroma signals.

S-Video Y/C Video: The Y/C designation is shorthand for luma (Y') and chroma (C). You will also see this term used in the description of the S-VHS video tape format.

VME: Derived from VERSA module Eurocard

Additional References:
Charles A. Poynton : http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/

Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE): http://www.smpte.org/

Bevis King (University of Surrey) - Video Terms : http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/index.html

VESA: http://www.vesa.org