bitstreamn.
/ˈbɪtstriːm/, U.S. /ˈbɪtˌstrim/ Electronics.
1. Freq. in forms bit stream, bit-stream. A stream of data in binary form. Cf. stream n.
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1961 Flight 79 431/2 A digitizer converts the signals into a serial bit stream of binary data for transmission.
1972 Sci. Amer. Sept. 138/3 Coaxial cables can carry the bit stream directly at ‘baseband’, that is, without modulation of a carrier signal.
1992 EBU Techn. Rev. Autumn 64/1 It is convenient in practice to use standard multiplexing arrangements which..mean that eight signals are carried in the bit-stream.
1994 Denver Post 2 Jan. h5/4 Modems are devices that allow..computers to communicate over telephone lines, converting a computer's digital bitstream into analog waves and back again.
1997 New Scientist 10 May 40/1 (caption) The Schlüsselzusatz 40 split messages into five bitstreams and passed each one through two coding wheels.
2. Also with capital initial. A system of digital-to-analogue signal conversion used in some audio CD players, whereby the signal from the CD (which consists of a stream of 16-bit words) is first processed digitally to give a stream of single-bit words at a higher frequency. Freq. attrib.
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society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > [noun] > systems of
phonography1861
wire recording1933
stereophony1950
half-track1956
stereo1956
stereophonics1958
lip-synchronization1959
mono1959
monophony1959
pretaping1959
over-recording1961
Dolby1966
quadraphonics1968
quadraphony1969
surround sound1969
periphony1970
quad1971
multitrack1972
quadraphonic1972
quadro1972
pseudoquadraphony1975
multitracking1977
vertical recording1982
bitstream1989
1989 Q Dec. 183/3 Some of the questions asked repeatedly over the four days of The Hi-Fi Show concerned Bitstream, the new piece of CD electronic trickery which promises to make CDs sound like ‘real records’.
1991 Daily Tel. 14 Dec. (Weekend Suppl.) p. x/2 There are fine bitstream players (the Rotel RCD-965, or the Pioneer PD-8700, both £299), but also stunning ones still using what the fickle might regard as old technology.
1998 What Hi-Fi? May 94/2 Bitstream digital-to-analogue converters process single bits of digital data much faster than multibit DACs, which work on chunks of digital data.
2001 Total DVD 6 Feb. 87/2 You can toggle the audio settings, choosing between bitstream or PCM output for Dolby Digital and MPEG-2, as well as turning DTS off.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2016).
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n.1961