It is often difficult trying to make sense of producs in a sea of ever changing acronyms.  Below is a "short" list of acronyms commonly encountered when trying to navigate through the consumer electronics / digital media marketplaces.

3GP: 3GP is the MPEG-4 based video format used mostly in mobile terminals, such as mobile phones. This file format is designed for 3rd generation mobile devices.  3GPP is defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and 3GPP is defined by 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2. They are the worldwide standards for the creation, delivery and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation. These standards seek to provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia over newly evolved, broadband mobile networks (3rd generation networks) to the latest multimedia-enabled wireless devices, such as cell phones.   Source: Multimedia Glossary

AAC: Advanced Audio Coding -a newer kind of audio file that has been promoted as a successor to the MP3. It offers higher-quality sound than an MP3, but takes up about the same amount of space. See also Advanced Audio Coding (Wikipedia) for a more in-depth description.

AMOLED: Active Matrix OLED - a hybrid display technology that pairs the active matrix backplane from a traditional TFT display with an OLED display. As a result of their active matrix natures, AMOLED displays have faster pixel switching response times than do traditional OLED displays, which are prone to ghosting when displaying fast moving animations.   Source: MobileBurn.com

AMV: A proprietary video file format, produced for early and entry level MP4 players, as well as S1 MP3 players with video playback. There are now two different MTV formats: the older one for the Actions chip, and a newer one for ALi’s M5661 chip. This format for ALi one was ALIAVI.  Low decoder overhead is paramount as the S1 MP3 players have very low-end processors (a Z80 variant). Video compression ratio is low — around 4 pixels/byte, compared with over 10 pixels/byte for MPEG-2 — though as the files are of low resolution (96×96 up to 208×176) and frame rate (10, 12, or 16 frame/s), file sizes are small in bytes per second. With a resolution of 128×96 pixels and a framerate of 12 frame/s, a 30-minute video will be compressed into 80 MB.  Source: Wikipedia.   See also: MultiMediaWiki.

APE: A file with the extension .ape, is an audio file compressed using Monkey's Audio. Monkey's Audio is a lossless compression, which means it does not permanently discard data during compression. It achieves compression rates of around 40%. Since it is lossless, the quality of the audio after compression will be the exact same.  Source: WonderShare.   See also Monkey's Audio (Wikipedia).

AVI: Audio Video Interleave is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.  The encoding of the encapsulated audio and video data is often specific to the device that the file is intended to be displayed with.  For instance, video resolutions, frame rates, audio sampling rates and others set set at the time the file is created.  Many devices, in particular, early MP4 players only supported playback of video encoded with very specific paramaters.  As such, the creation of working AVI video for these devices and interoperability across such devices is low.  See also:  Audio Video Interleave and Container Format (digital) (Wikipedia).

BMP: The BMP format is a commonly used raster graphic format for saving image files. It was introduced on the Windows platform, but is now recognized by many programs on both Macs and PCs.  The BMP format stores color data for each pixel in the image without any compression. For example, a 10x10 pixel BMP image will include color data for 100 pixels. This method of storing image information allows for crisp, high-quality graphics, but also produces large file sizes. The JPEG and GIF formats are also bitmaps, but use image compression algorithms that can significantly decrease their file size. For this reason, JPEG and GIF images are used on the Web, while BMP images are often used for printable images.  Source: TechTerms.com

CMMB: China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting is a mobile television and multimedia standard developed and specified in China by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT).  CMMB is intended for use on small screen devices (such as GPS,PDA,smartphone...) in a mobile scenario.  Source: China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (Wikipedia)

CODEC: (1) Short for compressor/decompressor, a codec is any technology for compressing and decompressing data. Codecs can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. Some popular codecs for computer video include MPEG, Indeo and Cinepak.  (2) In telecommunications, (short for coder/decoder) a device that encodes or decodes a signal. For example, telephone companies use codecs to convert binary signals transmitted on their digital networks to analog signals converted on their analog networks.   Source: Webopedia

DAT: Files with this extention are usually found on Video CDs (VCDs) and contain MPEG1 encoded video content.

DivX: DivX, a trademark of DivXNetworks, Inc. DivX is a digital video compression format based on the MPEG-4 technology. DivX files can be downloaded over high-speed lines in a relatively short time without sacrificing the quality of the digital video.  Source: Webopedia

DPF: Digital Photo Frame.   See also: Introduction to Digital Photo Frames (Jade Connections)

DVB-T: An abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television. This system transmits compressed digital audio, video and other data in an MPEG transport stream, using COFDM modulation.  See also: DVB-T, Digital Terrestrial Television, and Digital Television (Wikipedia)

DVR: Digital Video Recorder

FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player just like you would an MP3 file.  See also: Free Lossless Audio Codec (Sourceforge project page) and Wikipedia page.

FLV: Flash Video Files are a binary file format that delivers "bitmapped" video, limited to one video and one audio stream per file.  Originally designed for video delivery over the Internet to the Macromedia / Adobe Flash Player, this format is starting to be used as a standalone video format.  The format has quickly established itself as the format of choice for embedded video on the web. Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other news providers.  Source: Flash Video (Wikipedia)

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format - a bitmap graphics file format, developed by CompuServe, Inc. and widely used on the World Wide Web. GIF is a compact graphic file format limited to 256 colors. It is appropriate for logos, line drawings, and other images with solid colors and distinct borders between colors. GIF format files are often smaller than the same files would be if stored in JPEG format as GIF files employ lossless data compression, which allows the file size of an image to be reduced without impairing the visual quality. There are two versions of GIF, named after their year of introduction - GIF87a and GIF89a. GIF89a allows the possibility of an animated GIF, which is a short sequence of GIF frames, displayed one after the other to simulate movement.  Source: phoneArena.com

H.263: A video codec standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing.  H.263 has found many applications on the internet: much Flash Video content (as used on sites such as YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, etc.) is encoded in this format, though many sites now use VP6 encoding, which is supported since Flash 8. The original version of the RealVideo codec was based on H.263 up until the release of RealVideo 8.  Source: Wikipedia

H.264: An ITU standard for compressing video based on MPEG-4 that is popular, especially for high-definition video. Taking advantage of today's high-speed chips, H.264 delivers MPEG-4 quality with a frame size up to four times greater. It can also provide MPEG-2 quality at a reduced data rate, requiring as little as one third the original bandwidth.  Formerly known as "H.26L" by the ITU, H.264 is also known as "MPEG-4 Part 10" by the ISO MPEG group, which jointly developed the codec.  Source: PCMag.com

HDD: A hard disk drive (often shortened as "hard disk" or "hard drive"), is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Strictly speaking, "drive" refers to a device distinct from its medium, such as a tape drive and its tape, or a floppy disk drive and its floppy disk. Early HDDs had removable media; however, an HDD today is typically a sealed unit with fixed media.  Source: Wikipedia

HDMI: High Definition Multimedia Interface - a specification that combines video and audio into a single digital interface for use with digital versatile disc (DVD) players, digital television (DTV) players, set-top boxes, and other audiovisual devices. The basis for HDMI is High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) and the core technology of Digital Visual Interface (DVI). HDCP is an Intel specification used to protect digital content transmitted and received by DVI-compliant displays.  Source: SearchCIO.   See also: Wikipedia, HDMI FAQ (HDMI Licensing), Birds-Eye.net

HDTV: Any system producing significantly greater picture resolution than that of the ordinary 525-line (625-line in Europe) television screen. Conventional television transmits signals in analog form. Digital HDTV systems, by contrast, transmit pictures and sounds in the form of digital data. These numerical data are broadcast using the same high radio frequencies that carry analog waves, and computer processors in the digital television set then decode the data. Digital HDTV can provide sharper, clearer pictures and sound with very little interference or other imperfections. Of perhaps greater importance, digital television sets will potentially be able to send, store, and manipulate images as well as receive them, thereby merging the functions of the television set and the computer.  Source: TheFreeDictionary.com.   See also: High Definition Television (Wikipedia)

ID3: A field of meta-data in MP3 and MP3pro audio files. The tags describe the contents, including song title, artist, album, year, comment, CD track and genre. ID3 tags are used for searching as well as displaying the title being played. In many cases, ID3 tags are not filled in or are erroneous, and an "ID3 tagger" utility, also called an "audio tagger" or "MP3 tagger," can be used to update them.  Source: PCMag.com

IDE: Integrated Drive Electronics is a standard electronic interface used between hard disk drives (HDD) and computer motherboard or other electronics that need access to data stored on a HDD (digital video recorders and players for instance).   An enhanced version of IDE called Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) is also in widespread use.

JPG / JPEG: an image compression format widely used for storing and transmitting photographs on the World Wide Web. Actually the name stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is the committee that developed the format. JPEG is not limited to a certain number of colors, which makes it suitable for compressing photographic images. It is not suitable for graphs, charts and other textual or iconic graphics, because the compression makes them look blurred. JPEG is referred to as a lossy compression method as it removes information from the compressed image. The image deteriorates in quality every time it is compressed.  Source: phoneArena.com

M4A: Typically an MPEG-4 encoded file with audio content only.  The audio file format used by Apple in their popular iTunes Music Store often appears on systems with the ".M4A" filename extension.  M4A can produce better audio quality than MP3 using less physical space for the files.

MP3: Stands for MPEG1 (or MPEG2) Audio Layer III. Too often people refer MP3 as MPEG3, which is incorrect, because such format doesn't even exist.  MP3 is a popular compression format used for audio files on computers and portable devices. It is a method to store good quality audio into small files by using psychoacoustics in order to get rid of the data from the audio that most of the humans can't hear.  MP3's bitrates vary from 8kbps to 320kbps. A typical MP3 file encoded at 128kbps is near CD quality. MP3 audio is increasingly being used in video production coupled with various MPEG4 video codecs like divx.  Source:  Multimedia Glossary

MP4 / MPEG-4: A collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV) digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) under the formal standard ISO/IEC 14496. Uses of MPEG-4 include compression of AV data for web (streaming media) and CD distribution, voice (telephone, videophone) and broadcast television applications.   Source: Wikipedia.  See also MP4 Player (Wikipedia), MPEG-4 Part 14 (Wikipedia)

MP5: A marketing term used by Chinese Portable Media Player manufacturers.  MP5 as a standard does not exist (at the time of this writing at least).  Basically it refers to the next generation of MP4 players (most of which do not conform to the MPEG-4 Part 14 specs), but with additional features, such as more supported video formats, and more flexibility in terms of what encoded video sizes can be rendered.

OGG: Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented.  Ogg is the name of Xiph.org's container format for audio, video, and metadata.  Vorbis is the name of a specific audio compression scheme that's designed to be contained in Ogg. Note that other formats are capable of being embedded in Ogg such as FLAC and Speex.  Source: Vorbis.com FAQ

OLED: Organic Light-Emitting Diode - an electronic device made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. This process is called electrophosphorescence. When used to produce displays, OLED technology produces self-luminous displays that do not require backlighting. These properties result in thin, very compact displays. The displays also have a wide viewing angle, up to 160 degrees and require very little power, only 2-10 volts. OLED displays have other advantages over LCDs as well: - Increased brightness - Faster response time for full motion video - Lighter weight - Greater durability - Broader operating temperature ranges.   Source: phoneArena.com

PMP: Portable Media Player.   See also Portable Media Players (Jade Connections)

PNG: Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve upon and replace GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) as an image-file format not requiring a patent license.  Starting to be seen in Portable Media Players, but not yet common.  Source: Wikipedia

QVGA: Short for Quarter Video Graphics Array, and more commonly abbreviated as Quarter VGA, QVGA is the term used to describe computer displays that use 320x240 resolution (320 pixels horizontally by 240 pixels vertically) or 240x320 resolution if the display is taller than wide. This display is commonly used in smartphones, digital cameras, PDAs and other handheld computing devices. LCD displays using the QVGA specification will have full-color viewing capabilities, and some QVGA displays may also offer touch screen compatibility.  Source: Webopedia

RM / RMVB: RealMedia (RM) is a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. Its extension is ".rm". It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio.  RealVideo is a proprietary video format developed by RealNetworks.  RealMedia Variable Bitrate (RMVB) is a variable bitrate extension of the RealMedia multimedia container format developed by RealNetworks.  As opposed to the more common RealMedia container, which holds streaming media encoded at a constant bit rate, RMVB is typically used for multimedia content stored locally. Files using this format have the file extension ".rmvb".   Source: RMVB, RealVideo, RealMedia (Wikipedia)

SATA: A specification for consumer hard drive connections that boosts the data transfer rate up to 150MB/second. In addition, it changes IDE/ATA from a parallel interface requiring 40 separate wires to connect components to a serial interface requiring only 6 wires. 2x and 4x versions of Serial ATA double and quadruple the speed of Serial ATA.

TF: TransFlash (T-Flash) - now more commonly known as microSD.   Many PMP vendors still label microSD slots with a TF label, and continue to use TF in sales literature.

TFT: Short for "Thin Film Transistor Film", is a technology used to produce displays used in media players (TFT LCD's).  TFT's work through the use of a backlight, with the LCD panel only allowing through the desired light.  Relatively inexpensive and until recently the best technology for small devices.  Newer OLED based displays however have lower power consumption and are not as thick (no need for backlight), with better intensity / contrast.

WAV: Short for WAVeform Audio Format, it is normally used in an uncompressed format on the Microsoft Windows platform. This raw audio format, which was developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, stores audio data in blocks. On the digital music scene, its usefulness has diminished over time with the development of better lossless audio formats, such as FLAC and Apple lossless. It is a standard that will probably be used for some time yet due to its widespread use in professional music recording and is still a very popular format for audio/video applications.   Source: About.COM

WMA: Windows Media Audio - an audio format owned by Microsoft, is a part of Microsoft's Windows Media technology, which includes Microsoft's Digital Rights Management tools, Windows Media Video encoding technology and Windows Media Audio encoding technology.
Windows Media Audio is one of today's most popular Net audio formats. Though not as popular as MP3, WMA tends to outperform MP3 in the area of sound quality, particularly with files encoded at lower bitrates like 64 or 96 Kbps. This performance advantage makes it handy for applications like portable digital audio players, where total play time is limited by a finite amount of internal memory.  Source: MultiMedia Glossary

WMV: Windows Media Video - developed by Microsoft, is a generic name of Microsoft's video encoding solutions and doesn't necessarily define the technology what it uses. In WMV7, Microsoft has used its own flavour of MPEG4 video encoding technology.  Windows Media Video is used for both streaming and downloading content via the Internet.   Source:  MultiMedia Glossary

WQVGA: Wide QVGA is any display resolution having the same height in pixels as QVGA, but wider. This definition is consistent with other 'wide' versions of computer displays.  Source: Wikipedia

XviD: An ISO MPEG4 compliant video codec. It's not a product but an open source project which is developed and maintained by people around the world. XviD, like many other MPEG4 formats, can be played with certain MPEG4 compatible, stand-alone DVD/DivX/XviD players.  Source:  XiliSoft   See also Xvid Website