Glossary

Standard created by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital broadcasts. Usually used to refer to digital over the air broadcasts.

A wireless standard used for devices like: mice, keyboards, and remote controls. This is an RFⁱ signal (meaning it will work through walls & cabinet doors). Range is usually about 30 feet.

Blue Screen of Deathⁱ. When a computer crashes showing a blue screen - it is impossible to recover from, you must restart the computer to fix it. This low level error is often caused by faulty drivers or faulty hardware.

This is currently the only way to record copy-protected, high-definition content from within Media Center. CableCARDⁱ is only an option on new (OEM) computers that have been certified by CableLabs.

Digital Rights Management. This is the term often used when describing copy protectionⁱ. The content industry requires DRM on much of the content currently available. This is used to try and prevent piracy, though many users complain about DRM because of the limitations it places on sharing content between multiple devices.

Electronic Program Guideⁱ. The digital, interactive guide that shows TV listings on your screen.

A hardware device that connects through a network (wired or wireless) and extends the Media Center interface to the TV it is connected to. A Media Center extenderⁱ allows you to share your Media Center system across multiple TVs in an household.

High Definitionⁱ - this is a much higher quality video and audio than a traditional TV signal.

High Definitionⁱ TV - this can refer to the TV signal, or to the TV set itself.

Home Theater PCⁱ. A computer that is hooked to a TV and used for mainly for entertainment purposes. Often these are in cases that resemble traditional home theater equipment, rather than a standard computer tower.

Infraredⁱ, this is the type of signal that most TV & computer remotes use.

This is a very small light that flashes red when you change channels on your computer. It is used to send the IRⁱ signal to your set-top-box. This is what lets you change channels from the computer while using your Media Center remote. These are only needed if you are using a set-top-box to get your TV signal.

"Media Center Edition." This is often used in place of "VMCⁱ" as it is what Media Center has been called for years.

"Over the Air." Term for when you use an antenna to recieve your TV signals (people often use this when refering to digital broadcasts received from an antenna).

"Over the Air High Definitionⁱ." Term for recieving high-definition channels with an antenna.

Traditional television broadcasts send a picture that is just a little too large for the TV. This is because in the past TVs were not always exact for the number of pixels that would display a picture, so broadcasts send an image that is just slightly larger than the TV, and the television set will trim off the extra from the edges.

This is fine for traditional broadcasts, but can pose a problem when hooking a computer up to a television - it can cause the edges of the screen to be cut off (e.g. you can't see the Start menu). To fix this many new HDTVⁱ sets let you set the overscanⁱ mode; changing this to "0", or to "Dot-by-dot" mode will usually fix this. If not, you can usually make the adjustment in your video card settings.

Quadrature amplitude modulation - this is the type of signal used for digital cable (in the US). People often refer to Clear QAMⁱ when talking about unencrypted HDⁱ channels that are broadcast over cable. QAM is not officially supported through Media Center, but devices like the HD Homerun can be used to receive Clear QAM channels.

Radio Frequency. Communication method used by a remote control (or other wireless device) that doesn't need line of site to control equipment.

"Set-top-box." This can refer to a cable or satelite box.

Vista Media Center

"Wife Acceptance Factor", or "Wife Approval Factor" - often used to describe how easy/intuitive a feature or program is to use.