DVD Demystified

Glossary
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Mbps Megabits/second. Millions (106) of bits per second.
M byte One million (106) bytes. Not to be confused with MB or
megabyte (220 bytes).
megabyte 1,048,576 (220 ) bytes. Refer to Chapter 1, “Introduction,” for
more information.
megapixel An image or display format with a resolution of approximately
one million pixels.
memory Data storage used by computers or other digital electronics
systems. Read-only memory (ROM) permanently stores data or software
program instructions. New data cannot be written to ROM. Random-access
memory (RAM) temporarily stores data, including digital
audio and video, while it is being manipulated and holds software
application programs while they are being executed. Data can be read
from and written to RAM. Other long-term memory includes hard
disks, floppy disks, digital CD formats (CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW),
and DVD formats (DVD-ROM, DVD-R, and DVD-RAM).
MHz One million (106) Hz.
Microsoft Windows The leading operating system for Intel CPU-based
computers developed by Microsoft.
middle area On a dual-layer OTP disc, the physical area 1.0 mm or
wider on both layers, adjacent to the outside of the data area.
Millennium Group The group of companies proposing the Millennium
watermarking format that includes Macrovision, Philips, and Digimarc.
mixed mode A type of CD containing both Red Book audio and Yellow
Book computer data tracks.
MKB (Media Key Block) A set of keys used in CPPM and CPRM for
authenticating players.
MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) A lossless compression technique
(used by DVD-Audio) that removes redundancy from PCM audio signals
to achieve a compression ratio of about 2:1 while allowing the signal
to be perfectly recreated by the MLP decoder.
MO Magneto-optical rewritable discs.
modulation Replacing patterns of bits with different (usually larger)
patterns designed to control the characteristics of the data signal. DVD
uses 8/16 modulation, where each set of eight bits is replaced by 16 bits
before being written onto the disc.
mosquitoes A term referring to the fuzzy dots that can appear around
sharp edges (high spatial frequencies) after video compression. Also
known as the Gibbs Effect.