Philips HDRW720/69 Operating Instructions Manual page 82

Also known as 'scenes', a DVD movie can be broken up into sections
much like the chapters of a book, that can be accessed quickly and
easily via the DVD menu or remote control.
This method of transmitting pictures produces the highest quality as
the video signal is split into its Y (brightness), U and V (blue minus
brightness, red minus brightness) components. The signals are
transmitted via separate cables. The plugs on these cables and the
associated sockets are mostly coloured red, green and blue.
NICAM is a digital sound transmission system. Using NICAM, you can
transmit either 1 stereo channel or 2 separate mono channels.
However, if reception is poor and the sound distorted you can turn off
NICAM.
National Television Systems Committee. The colour TV broadcast
system used in the US, Canada and Japan. An NTSC picture is made up
of 525 horizontal lines and has inferior picture quality in comparison to
the PAL system. All Australian-sold DVD players are NTSC compatible,
however DVD's that are played on a television that is not compatible
will appear in black and white.
Phase Alternating Line. The colour TV broadcast system used in
Australia, UK & Europe. A PAL picture delivers a better quality picture
than NTSC due to its 625 horizontal lines (sharper picture and better
colours).
Since DVD films are not normally released in all parts of the world at
the same time, all DVD players have a specific regional code. Discs can
be given a regional code. If the regional codes differ between the player
and the disc, playback is not possible.
The regional code of the DVD recorder is shown on the type plate at
the back or bottom.
Some TV programmes transmit an extra audio signal in stereo in
addition to the normal audio signal (2-channel sound). In most cases
this means that an additional language is available. If a TV programme is
available in, say, English and German, German may be available as the
second language.
To record TV programmes in 2-channel sound, you can select the
language you want as the default setting. This setting does not become
active until the sound of a TV programme is transmitted in 2-channel
sound.
When you play back the recording you can play back the sound only in
the language you used for the recording.
Macrovision is a copy-protection technique intended to keep you from
making copies of DVDs with your VCR. It works by continuously
adjusting the video signal level that results in a recording where the
brightness of the picture continuously fluctuates between light and
dark, and the color levels fluctuate between oversaturated and washed
out. Macrovision "encoded" DVDs contain a bit of data that tells the
DVD player to activate its internal macrovision circuitry in order to
prevent copying.