Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 1780)

Glossary 429
P2 (Professional Plug-in) A compact solid-state memory card designed for
professional and broadcast media gathering. Since they have no moving parts, these
cards are compact and sturdy as well as resistant to heat and cold. P2 cards typically
store DVCPRO or DVCPRO 50.
PAL format Acronym for Phase Alternating Line, a 25 fps (625 lines per frame)
interlaced video format used by many European countries. PAL has a frame size of
720 x 546. Compare with NTSC format.
Parade scope A waveform monitor mode that shows the video signal as separate red,
green, and blue waveforms. Useful for comparing the relative levels of reds, greens, and
blues between two clips, or within a single clip.
peak (1) Short, loud bursts of sound that last a fraction of a second. In spoken
dialogue, letters like P, T, and K at the beginnings of words can result in little peaks if
the person speaking is close to the microphone. (2) Occurrences of clipped audio
appearing in Final Cut Pro as 0 dBFS peaks. Excessive peaks tend to indicate that the
audio was recorded at unsuitable levels. A command in the Tools menu, Mark Audio
Peaks, lets you identify 0 dBFS audio peaks in clips or sequences.
peak meter A digital audio meter that displays the absolute level of an audio signal as
it plays. So named because every peak in the signal can be accurately seen.
phase (1) In audio, the timing relationship between two identical, or similar, audio
signals. (2) In video, the timing relationship between the composite video chroma
signal and the chroma subcarrier signal which determines the hue.
PICT A still-image file format developed by Apple Computer. PICT files can contain
both vector images and bitmap images, as well as text and an alpha channel. PICT is a
common image format on Mac OS X computers.
pixel One dot in a video or still image. A typical medium-resolution computer screen is
1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels high. Digital video movies for the web are often
320 pixels wide and 240 pixels high.
pixel aspect ratio The width-to-height ratio for the pixels that compose an image.
Pixels on computer screens and in high definition video signals are square (1:1 ratio).
Pixels in standard definition digital video signals are non-square.
playhead A navigational element in the Viewer and Canvas scrubber bar and in the
Timeline. It corresponds to the frame displayed in the Canvas and the Viewer. You drag
the playhead to navigate through a sequence.
postproduction The phase of film or video editing in which all of the production
elements are organized, assembled, and output for the distribution phase.