SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION BANK

Samples from actual examinations are provided below for the readers to test
themselves. The right hand side column indicates the marks.
1.

What is a pixel? Explain briefly the role of pixels in creating an image on 5

a CRT screen.

2.

Discuss some of the main differences between a CRT monitor and an 5

LCD monitor.

3.

What is meant by the color depth of a monitor? Does it have any 5

relationships with the amount of display memory in the adapter card?

4.

A monitor of aspect ratio 4:3 with 900 dots along a vertical column, needs 6
to display images with 32768 colors. Calculate the minimum amount of
adapter display memory required in MB. Also calculate the monitor
resolution in dpi for a 20 inch monitor.

5.

Explain why an image on a CRT screen needs to be refreshed at least 60 4

times per second.

6.

Describe the technique of interlacing mentioning its merits and demerits

7.

What is the utility of a video adapter card in a personal computer?

8.

A 15-inch monitor having an aspect ratio 4:3 has 1080 pixels along a 6
single horizontal line and a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz. Calculate its
horizontal scan rate in kHz, resolution in dpi and dot pitch in mm (1 inch =
2.54 cm)

9.

Explain the following terms with reference to a cathode ray tube : (a) 33
vertical scan rate (b) resolution (c) dot-pitch

10. How is the movement of the electron gun inside a CRT controlled?

11. Write short notes on : (a) VGA (b) AGP (c) LCD

33

12. Compare a CRT monitor with an LCD monitor

13. What is optical resolution of a scanner? How is it related to the quality 4

of scanned images?
14. Explain the terms anti-aliasing and dithering as used in image 6
processing mentioning clearly how they help in enhancing the quality of
images.
15. What is the role of a color lookup table (CLUT) in image compression? Is 6
such compression lossy or lossless?

16. What is the difference between the operating principles of a LASER 7

printer and an ink jet printer?
17. What is meant by the statement orange is comprised of 90% red, 40% 10
green, 15% blue? A 24-bit image has dimensions of 1024 by 768 pixels.
Calculate the time taken to transmit the image using a 64 kbps line and
its file size in MB.
18. What are the merits of vector graphics format compared to the bitmap 4
format?
19. The on-screen size of an image depends both on the image resolution 5
and the monitor settings Explain
20. What is a color model? Why is there a need for multiple such color 5
models?
21. The colors of an image may appear different when viewed on different 6
monitors Explain. How can such differences be reduced?
22. Image compression always produce degradation in image quality 5
Comment on the correctness of the statement
23. Write short notes on : (a) CCD (b) TWAIN (c) TIFF (d) JPEG (e) GIF

54

24. Compare RGB and CMYK color model with respect to (a) application 33
area (b) gamut (c) device dependency
25. Explain how a uni-directional microphone operates and discuss about its 7
polar plot.
26. Explain the terms sampling rate and sampling resolution as related to 7
digitization of sound with proper diagrams.
27. What is meant by a decibel? What do we mean when we speak of a 60 6
dB sound?
28. Explain the basic difference between a WAV file and a MIDI file.

29. Explain the terms lossy and lossless as related to audio compression 7
and discuss the same with respect to sub-band coding and DPCM.
30. Explain the terms loudness, pitch and timbre as used with sound 6
waves.
31. Describe a scheme to convert the contents of an audio cassette into a 8
digital audio file on your personal computer, mentioning the parameters
involved.
32. Quantization error in a digital audio file can be reduced by increasing the 5

sampling rate Comment on the correctness of the statement

33. An audio clip has a duration of 8 minutes. The maximum frequency of the 10
sound wave is 15 kHz. This is to be sampled using 8 bits per sample and
in stereo mode. Estimate the minimum data rate in KB/sec required to
play back the digital file and the audio file size in MB.
34. What is Nyquists theory and where is it used? What effect is noticed if 6
Nyquists theory is violated while digitizing a wave?
35. Explain the phenomenon of masking by a diagram. How can making be 8
applied to reduce the size of a digital audio file?
36. Write short notes on : (a) amplifier (b) loudspeaker (c) MP3

33

37. Why are RGB signals converted to YC format during video broadcasting?

38. What is chroma sub-sampling and how does it help in video 6

compression?
39. How would you interface a VCR with your personal computer for 8
digitizing a video clip? Give special references to the terms composite
video / S-video and NTSC/PAL
40. Discuss some of the typical facilities that should be provided by a video 7
capture card and capture software.
41. Explain the principle of operation of an analog video camera.

42. What is the difference between SMPTE 30 Non-drop and SMPTE 30 6

Drop modes? How is this difference handled by video editing software?
43. What is meant by video compression? Explain the difference between 6
(a)intra-frame and inter-frame compression (b)symmetrical and
asymmetrical compression
44. In relation to video editing software what is meant by the following : (a) 43
timebase (b) timecode (c) rendering (d) edit decision list
45. . Describe the MPEG-1 encoding process, with special mention to I, P 8
and B frames. Why should the transmission order of frames need to be
different from the playback order?
46. Discuss some of the important characteristics of major video file formats
(a) AVI (b) MOV (c) MPG

47. An NTSC encoded video clip has a frame size of 720 by 480 pixels and is 8
digitized using a bit-depth of 8 bits for each of Y, Cb and Cr and a
chroma sub-sampling scheme of 4:2:2. Calculate the file size of 1 minute
of the video clip and the total time taken for it to be transmitted over a 2

Mbps line.
48. Explain the role of DCT in MPEG compression.

49. Using the concepts of pits and lands explain how digital data is 6
recorded on the CD surface.
50. Explain the difference between CAV for magnetic disk and CLV for 6
compact disc.
51. Describe the physical layers in a compact disc and their functions.

52. How is the CD-DA standard different from the CD-ROM standard?

53. Explain the principle of operation of a CD-R disc. In this context explain 6
multi-session.
54. Explain the principle of operation of a CD-RW disc. How can the data be 8
deleted and re-written on the CD surface?
55. Explain how both magnetic recording and optical recording is used for 6
magneto-optical discs.
56. Mention some of the important advantages of a DVD as compared to a 5
CD.
57. What is meant by saying that the rated speed of a CD drive is 32X?

58. A CD-ROM contains 333000 blocks of data to be played back in 74 8

minutes. Calculate the capacity of the CD-ROM in mode 1 and mode 2.
59. Write short notes on : (a) white book (b) WORM (c) ATAPI

43