Glossary of Home Theater Terminology

Glossary of Audio, Video and Home Theater Terms

There is a very large vocabulary of technical and descriptive terms that go with home theater. We've included the terms that you are most likely to encounter. If you are very technically involved you may find some of the more technical terms omitted from our list.

# - A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M

N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Kbps or Kb/s - Kilobits per second. A rate of data flow or processing. 1,000 bits per second is annotated as 1 Kbps.

Keystone Correction - When an image from a video projector is projected onto a surface, the image is sometimes distorted. The distortion results from the projector being off-center and out of square with the screen. This distortion is called keystoning. Many projectors have a feature that allow an adjustment to be made to restore the image to its proper shape. Optical keystone correction adjusts the image proportions by physically modifying the light-path through the lens system. This method results in no loss of resolution. Digital keystone correction adjusts the image proportions by shrinking the image's furthest edge before the image is generated by the projector. This method results in a loss of resolution and may also introduce artifacts.

Keystoning - When an image from a video projector is projected onto a surface, the image is sometimes distorted. The distortion results from the projector being off-center and out of square with the screen.

kHz - kilohertz or 1,000 hertz. Hertz is a measurement of frequency. It measures the number of cycles of a wave per second. As it applies to sound frequency 1 hertz is a very deep sound and 20,000 hertz is very high pitched sound.

Ku-Band - A range of the RF spectrum used by networks and cable companies to distribute programming via geo-stationary satellites. Consumers can also receive these signals using large (8 feet) satellite dish antennas.