Multimedia Systems: Components and Formats
Multimedia Systems
A multimedia environment combines content represented as images, sounds, and text. A multimedia system is a computer system that supports multimedia environments. An interactive multimedia system allows users to actively participate and alter the content through their interactions. Multimedia devices are hardware components that capture multimedia information, whether audio, video, or text.
Sound Cards
A sound card processes audio signals within a computer. It is divided into:
- Digital Signal Processor: A small microprocessor that performs complex mathematical calculations on the audio signal, freeing the motherboard’s microprocessor.
- Analog/Digital Converter: Converts analog audio signals into digital format.
- Digital/Analog Converter: Converts digital audio signals into analog format.
- Mixer: A circuit that collects sounds from different sources and directs them to the appropriate component.
Color Codes:
- Pink: Microphone Input
- Blue: Line Input
- Green: Stereo Output
- Black: Stereo Output
- Orange: Digital Output
- Yellow: Center Speaker Output
Other Multimedia Devices
- Speakers: Electroacoustic transducers that convert electrical current into sound waves for sound reproduction.
- Microphones: Electroacoustic transducers that convert acoustic energy into electrical impulses.
- Video Card: Processes image and video data from the CPU and sends it to the imaging device.
- Scanners: Obtain optical images or characters from paper, books, or photographs, digitizing the information.
- OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Software that analyzes a digital image from a scanner to recognize text and encode it in ASCII format.
Multimedia Applications
Multimedia applications are programs that allow users to manage multimedia information, simplifying the complexity of hardware and compression devices.
Formats
- Format: A specific way of encoding information in a computer.
- Physical Formats: CD, DVD, Mini CD, and Blu-ray.
- Algorithm: An ordered set of steps to perform a task.
Image Formats
- BMP: Stores uncompressed values belonging to a color palette.
- TIFF: Contains information about the image’s points.
- JPEG: Stores images in a compressed format, widely used in digital cameras. It eliminates certain image features.
- GIF: Can store images or animations. It is a lossless compressed format, but loses quality if using only 256 colors.
- PNG: Stores images in a compressed format without quality loss, but uses a 256-color palette.
Audio Formats
- WAV: Stores uncompressed sound data; the default format for Windows sound recorders and other applications.
- MP3: A lossy compressed audio format. Its main advantage is the ability to adjust the compression factor to control file size.
- WMA: A lossy compressed format with copyright protection infrastructure.
Bit Rate
Bit rate is a measure of the number of bits per second transmitted by a digital transmission system.
Video Formats
MPG, QT, ASF, WMV, FLV, OGG
Layers
A layer is a software component with a specific responsibility within an application.
DirectX
DirectX is an API that provides a platform to facilitate complex operations related to game programming, sound, video, and multimedia features.