Unbalanced
This refers to a way of connecting audio signals using wires carring a single core and screen.
Upper Drum
This is the part of the video drum which lies above the video heads. In most Betamax machines it fixed and does not rotate. Sony VCR's in particular suffer from wear of the upper drum which causes the tape to judder especially during rewind. See also the upper drum page.
Umatic-SP
Recording in which the luminance FM deviation is from 5.6 to 7.2 MHz and the colour under frequency is 924 kHz.
User bits
Sections of the time code consisting of a total of 32 bits used for recording information such as the year, month and day, tape ID number or a program ID number.
V-blanking
The portion of the video signal that occurs between the end of one field and the beginning of the next. During this time, the electron beams in the cameras and monitors are turned off so that they can return from the bottom of the screen to the top without showing traces of movement on the screen. When the position of V-blanking is not adjusted correctly, a horizontal black bar appears on the screen.
VBR
Variable Bit Rate. MPEG video compression where the amount of compression can be varied to allow for minimum degradation of the image in scenes that are harder to compress.
VBS
Abbreviation of Video, Burst and Sync. A composite signal consisting of video signal, burst signal and sync signal.
VCR
Video Cassette Recorder.
Vertical Interval
Non-visible (off-screen) part of a video picture signal.
VHS
These letters stand for Very Horrible System or is that Video Home System :-) This was JVC's rival 1/2-inch home video format. Other possabilities.
VITC
Abbreviation of Vertical Interval Time Code. Time code recorded on a video signal track during V-blanking interval. It can be read correctly even during slow or still picture playback.
Video Head
This is the rotary disc which contains the video head tips. See also the heads page.
Video Head Tip
These are the delicate tips which actually record/replay the video signal onto the video tape. There are between two and five tips depending on the machine.
Video Insert
The ability to dub over the video track using flying erase head.
VTR
Video Tape Recorder.
VITC Vertical Interval Time Code
Timecode stored in the vertical interval of the video signal. Has the advantage of being readable by a VTR in still or jog. Multiple lines of VITC can be added to the signal allowing the encoding of more information than can be stored in normal LTC.
Webring
A webring is a collection of sites on the world wide web which agree to link together in a ring.
XBR
Series of Sony U-matic tapes for use in the SP mode. It is also a line of Sony Receiver/Monitor TVs in the U.S. See also the U-matic tape page.