The Wide World of Multimedia
Playing Back Sound, Video and Animation Files
Part I: Getting To Know Your Computer
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A frame is a still picture that, when combined with thousands
of others, makes a motion picture.
Full-motion video means motion pictures played back at 30
frames per second.
Interleaving video is the process of displaying every other row
of pixels each time the computer refreshes the screen. This
increases the rate at which the system updates the screen.
A pixel is the smallest dot on your screen that can be con-
trolled by software.
Resolution is the number of pixels on the screen.
MPEG Files
Fifteen frames per second is not adequate for the games and multi-
media titles the industry wants to produce. The Motion Picture
Expert Group (MPEG) has developed compression and decom-
pression standards that are capable of delivering true full-motion
video on your computer.
MPEG files have the extension .MPG.
Full-Motion Video on the Portégé 650CT
For best results, MPEG-2 requires specialized hardware to bypass
the computer’s Central Processing Unit (CPU) and system bus
(the backbone of the computer to which all internal devices are
connected).
