Charged Couple Device- the key image-processing component. A semiconductor chip which coordinates photo sensors (pixels) to turn a picture into electronic signals. Most cameras have a 1 chip but the best is a 3CCD unit with a chip for each color element (red, green and blue). The higher the number of pixels the more information can be resolved resulting in a better picture.

A circuit or software module used to compress and/or decompress data. When an analog video signal is converted to a digital signal, the resulting digital data is a massive 20MB per second. The codec is used to compress this data for recording (for example, to a memory card), and then to decompress it to its original form for playback

The video signal is separated into its component form i.e. red, green and blue (RGB). For television, the signal is modified and referred to as YUV. It offers the highest quality of picture reproduction, especially from a DVD source. Component video input connections are usually three RCA photo-type plugs colour coded red, green and blue. Often labeled Y, Pb, Pr

The HD crystal engine is a special image processing circuit for the 3CCD HD video camera. Able to process large amounts of data with high speed and precision, this engine achieves truly superb color reproduction for high quality pictures.