| auf•nehmen, er/sie/es nimmt auf, nahm auf, hat aufgenommen | to record (music, pictures) |
| auf•zeichnen; die Aufzeichnung, -en | auf*nehmen (aufnehmen is more commonly used; aufzeichnen sounds more technical); recording (one hears this word frequently on TV, to distinguish prerecorded broadcasts from live broadcasts) |
| der Videokopf, ¨-e | video head |
| der Audiokopf, ¨-e | audio head |
| das Magnetband, ¨-er; das Band, ¨-er | magnetic tape; tape |
| die Ebene, -n | plane (designates a plane surface in a mathematical or conceptual sense, not the concrete surface itself—that would be e.g. "die Oberfläche"), (conceptual) level, plain (as in:"s/he looked out over the plain and saw only devastation") |
| der Träger, -; tragen, er/sie/es trägt, trug, hat getragen | carrier; to carry |
| die Spur, -en | path (used for paths that one could imagine "tracing" with e.g. a pen, or by following tracks, not for regular paths e.g. in a forest--for that, use "der Weg" or "der Pfad"), trace (i.e. something that indicates that someone or something "was there") |
| die Breite, -n | breadth, width |
| der Rand, ¨-er | border, edge (of a surface) |
| der Spalt, -en | (small) gap, chink [not for spark plug gaps, where one speaks of "Elektrodenabstand"] |
| der Winkel, - | angle |
| beliebig | arbitrary, arbitrarily |
| aus•tauschen; tauschen; austauschbar | to exchange, to replace; to swap, to exchange; interchangeable |
| der Mangel, ¨- | defect, deficiency |
| der Speicher, -; speichern; die Speicherung | storage [referring to the space used], memory; to store; storage [referring to the act of storing something] |
| die Geschwindigkeit, -en | speed, velocity |
| verwenden | benutzen |
| schräg | aslant, at an angle, tilted etc. |
| sowie | as well as |
| die Einwirkung, -en; ein•wirken auf | effect, influence (of one thing on another); to affect, influence (something) |
| vermeiden, vermied, hat vermieden | to avoid |
| die Einstellung, -en; ein•stellen | setting, attitude; to set or adjust the settings |
| die Klappe, -n [Note: "Halt die Klappe!" = "Shut up!"] | flap, hinged lid, trap door etc. |
| schützen | to protect |
| auf•bereiten | to prepare, to process, to edit (in order to make it ready for some sort of use) |
| an•schalten, ein•schalten; ab•schalten, aus•schalten | to switch on; to switch off |
| das Video-Kopfrad, ¨-er, die Kopftrommel | video head drum, rotating head drum [this latter term is used on the "how stuff works" page] |
| das Schrägspurverfahren | I don't know of an English equivalent, but this term designates the "slanted path process" by which the video head drum rotates at an angle to the path of the tape. |
| das Längsspurverfahren | designates the process by which information is stored on the tape linearly as it unrolls, used e.g. for cassette tapes |
| fädeln, ein•fädeln; der Faden, ¨- | to thread; thread [thread of a screw is "das Gewinde"] |
| die Umlenkhülse, -n | designates the "diverting roller" that helps guide the tape; "die Hülse" normally means "hull" or "husk"--e.g. ammunition shell casings are "Patronenhülsen" etc. |
| der Umlenkstift, -e | designates the "diverting pin" that helps guide the tape; "der Stift" is normally a peg-like pin, and of course also means "pen." |
| um...versetzt (z.B. um 180 Grad versetzt) | set off (from each other) (e.g. by 180 degrees) |
| die Bildplatte, -n | (optical) videodisk (predecessor to the CD-ROM) |
| der Begleitton | the accompanying audio [begleiten = to accompany] |
| der Azimut | azimuth |
| der Bandzugriff | access to the tape |
| die Umschlingung, -en | enlacement, tight embrace (refers to getting the tape to wind around the video head drum) |
| die Bandeinzugszeit, -en | time it takes to load the tape |
| die Servoeinrichtung, -en | servo system/setup (consisting of little "auxiliary" motors) |
| sich decken mit | to match, to be the same as |
| die Zeile, -n | line (in a text or on a screen) |
| empfangen, er/sie/es empfängt, empfing, hat empfangen; der Empfänger, - | to receive (data, prizes or guests); receiver |
| die Fernsehanlage, -n | TV station |
| der Widerstand, ¨-e | resistance |
| die Bandbreite, -n | bandwidth |