DCT is a
digital recording
In digital recording, an audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is saved to a storag ...
component video
Component video is an analog video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Compo ...
videocassette
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...
format developed and introduced by
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...
in 1992. It was based on the
D1 format, and unlike the uncompressed recording scheme of D1, it was the first digital videotape format to use
data compression
In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compressio ...
. Like D1 (and
D2), it uses a similar cassette loaded with 3/4" (19mm) width tape.
One of the models of VCR released for the format was the Ampex DCT-1700D.
The type of data compression used by the format,
discrete cosine transform (DCT), shares the same acronym as the format, but the meaning is different for the latter (the format's acronym meaning Data Component Technology).
[Mika Iisakkila]
, ''Video recording formats''
DST (
Data Storage Technology), a data-only version of DCT, was also developed by Ampex at the same time for the backup and archiving of data from servers and other enterprise-oriented IT systems.
References
External links
Cutaway view of a DCT VCREncyclopedia Pro's entry on DCTAmpex's History
{{Homevid
Videotape