DV is a format for storing digital video. It was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camera recorders; the original DV specification, known as Blue Book, was standardized within the IEC 61834 family of standards. These standards define common features such as physical videocassettes, recording modulation method and basic system data in part 1. Part 2 describes the specifics of 625-50 systems; the IEC standards are available as publications sold by IEC and ANSI. In 2003, DV was joined by a successor format HDV, which used the same tape format with a different video codec; some cameras at the time had the ability to switch between HDV recording modes. All tape-based video formats are becoming obsolete as tapeless HD cameras recording on memory cards, hard disk drives, solid-state drives, optical discs have become the norm, although the DV encoding standard is sometimes still used in tapeless cameras. DV uses lossy compression of video. An intraframe video compression scheme is used to compress video on a frame-by-frame basis with the discrete cosine transform.

Following ITU-R Rec. 601 standard, DV video employs interlaced scanning with the luminance sampling frequency of 13.5 MHz. These results in 480 scanlines per complete frame for the 60 Hz system, 576 scanlines per complete frame for the 50 Hz system. In both systems the active area contains 720 pixels per scanline, with 704 pixels used for content and 16 pixels on the sides left for digital blanking; the same frame size is used for 4:3 and 16:9 frame aspect ratios, resulting in different pixel aspect ratios for fullscreen and widescreen video. Prior to the DCT compression stage, chroma subsampling is applied to the source video in order to reduce the amount of data to be compressed. Baseline DV uses 4:2:0 subsampling in the 50 Hz variant. Low chroma resolution of DV is a reason this format is sometimes avoided in chroma keying applications, though advances in chroma keying techniques and software have made producing quality keys from DV material possible. Audio can be stored in either of two forms: 16-bit Linear PCM stereo at 48 kHz sampling rate, or four nonlinear 12-bit PCM channels at 32 kHz sampling rate.

In addition, the DV specification supports 16-bit audio at 44.1 kHz, the same sampling rate used for CD audio. In practice, the 48 kHz stereo mode is used exclusively; the audio and metadata are packaged into 80-byte Digital Interface Format blocks which are multiplexed into a 150-block sequence. DIF blocks are the basic units of DV streams and can be stored as computer files in raw form or wrapped in such file formats as Audio Video Interleave, QuickTime and Material Exchange Format. One video frame is formed from either 10 or 12 such sequences, depending on scanning rate, which results in a data rate of about 25 Mbit/s for video, an additional 1.5 Mbit/s for audio. When written to tape, each sequence corresponds to one complete track. Baseline DV employs unlocked audio; this means. However, this is the maximum drift of the audio/video synchronization. Sony and Panasonic created their proprietary versions of DV aimed toward professional & broadcast users, which use the same compression scheme, but improve on robustness, linear editing capabilities, color rendition and raster size.

All DV variants. Film-like frame rates are possible by using pulldown. DVCPRO HD supports native progressive format. DVCPRO known as DVCPRO25, is a variation of DV developed by Panasonic and introduced in 1995 for use in electronic news gathering equipment. Unlike baseline DV, DVCPRO uses locked audio and 4:1:1 chroma subsampling for both 50 Hz and 60 Hz variants to decrease generation losses. Audio is available in 16-bit/48 kHz precision; when recorded to tape, DVCPRO uses wider track pitch - 18 μm vs. 10 μm of baseline DV, which reduces the chance of dropout errors during recording. Two extra longitudinal tracks provide support for timecode control. Tape is transported 80% faster compared to baseline DV, resulting in shorter recording time. Long Play mode is not available. In 1996 Sony responded with its own professional version of DV called DVCAM. Like DVCPRO, DVCAM uses locked audio, which prevents audio synchronization drift that may happen on DV if several generations of copies are made; when recorded to tape, DVCAM uses 15 μm track pitch, 50% wider compared to baseline.

Accordingly, tape is transported 50% faster, which reduces recording time by one third compared to regular DV. Because of the wider track and track pitch, DVCAM has the ability to do a frame-accurate insert edit, while regular DV may vary by a few frames on each edit compared to the preview. DVCPRO50 was introduced by Panasonic in 1997 for high-value electronic news gathering and digital cinema, is described as two DV codecs working in parallel; the DVCPRO50 doubles the coded video data rate to 50 Mbit/s. This has the effect of cutting total record time of any given storage medium in half. Chroma resolution is improved by using 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. DVCPRO50 was used in many productions. For example, BBC used DVCPRO50 to record high-budget TV series, such as Space Race and Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. A similar format, D-9, offered

Qasr al-Yahud is the official name of a baptism site in the Jordan River Valley in the West Bank. After the Six-Day War in 1967, it has been under Israeli occupation, the site and facilities are administered by the Israeli Civil Administration and the Israeli Ministry of Tourism as part of a national park, it is the western part of the traditional site of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, in Arabic Al-Maghtas, a name, used for the pilgrimage site on both sides of the river. It is traditionally considered to be the place where the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, the prophet Elijah ascended to heaven; the Arabic name of the baptism site is Al-Maghtas meaning "immersion" and, by extension, "baptism", used for an area stretching over both banks of the river. The Jordanian side uses the names Al-Maghtas, Bethany beyond the Jordan and Baptism Site, while the western part is known as Qasr al-Yahud; the nearby Greek Orthodox Monastery of St John the Baptist has a castle-like appearance, tradition holds that the Israelites crossed the river at this spot.

Qasr al-Yahud is located in the West Bank, a little southeast from Jericho and is part of the Jericho Governorate of Palestine. Qasr al-Yahud is close to the ancient road and river ford connecting Jerusalem, via Jericho, to several Transjordanian biblical sites such as Madaba, Mount Nebo and the King's Highway. According to Procopius, emperor Justinian I had a cistern constructed here. In 1883 it was described as "still visible, in perfect condition"; the modern site reopened in 2011 after being closed since the 1967 Six-Day War. The restoration project was approved before the 2000 millennium celebrations but was delayed due to the Second Intifada and flooding in the region in 2003. In 2000, Pope John Paul II held a private worship at the site. Qasr al-Yahud is administered by the Israeli Civil Administration and the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. Before the site became accessible, baptisms took place at Yardenit. Aenon Bethabara Al-Maghtas New Testament places associated with Jesus Survey of Western Palestine, Map 18: IAA, Wikimedia commons Qasr al-Yahud, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority

"Honor to Us All" is a song written by composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel for Walt Disney Pictures' 36th animated feature film Mulan. Recorded by singers Beth Fowler, Marni Nixon and Lea Salonga, the latter two of whom provide the singing voices of Grandmother Fa and Fa Mulan the song is a character number performed by several older Chinese women and female members of Mulan's family as they prepare the main character to be evaluated by the Matchmaker in the scene towards the beginning of the film. Songwriter Stephen Schwartz was enlisted to write the songs for Mulan, had written a song called "China Doll" intended for the scene in which Mulan prepares to meet the Matchmaker. After the songwriter resigned from Mulan in favor of writing songs for rival studio DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt, Schwartz was replaced with Wilder and Zippel, who wrote "Honor to Us All" with which to replace "China Doll". Nixon's casting as Grandmother Fa's singing voice influenced Disney to recast the voice actress, hired to supply Grandmother Fa's speaking voice with actress June Foray due to closer similarities between Nixon's and Foray's voices.

Intended to be ironic, "Honor to Us All" features lyrics that instruct Mulan on how to become an ideal bride by emphasizing her physical appearance, remaining obedient to her prospective husband and bearing children. Parodying traditional gender roles and cultural expectations of women, "Honor to Us All" has been identified as an East Asian-influenced song that incorporates Asian instrumentation, more-so than any other musical number in the film; the song's use of pentatonic scales and Chinese flutes help establish the film's setting, as does referencing the Chinese tradition of praying to one's ancestors. "Honor to Us All" has received mixed reviews from film and music critics, who were divided over both the song's quality and intended message. Songwriter Stephen Schwartz had been slated to write both the music and lyrics for Mulan, he left the project to write songs for rival studio DreamWorks' animated film The Prince of Egypt after Disney executives forced him to choose between the two.

Schwartz had completed only two songs for Mulan before his resignation, one of, entitled "China Doll" which, according to Schwartz, "more or less corresponds to the scene in the film in which Mulan goes to the Matchmaker". Schwartz was replaced by composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel, who wrote "Honor to Us All" to replace "China Doll". Disney cast American singer and actress Marni Nixon, one of Hollywood's best known ghost singers, as the singing voice of Grandmother Fa, Mulan's paternal grandmother. Nixon received the sheet music for "Honor to Us All" to review prior to auditioning for the role; the filmmakers showed Nixon a drawing of the character, by whose comedic appearance the singer was "enchanted", telling herself "you've just got to give her a voice... or, in this case, an unvoice." Nixon decided to make the character sound as though she was attempting to sing, rather than singing, keeping in mind that the elderly character is toothless. Nixon made no effort to sound like the actress, cast as Grandmother Fa's speaking voice, at the time, reconsidered auditioning for the role upon realizing how different she sounded from Grandmother Fa's speaking voice actress.

Nixon's approach impressed the studio, her recording, which took the singer only thirty-two minutes to complete, was kept. In the score of Mulan, Nixon performs only one verse in the song, her musical contribution to "Honor to Us All" marked the singer's return to film roles following a lengthy hiatus. Mulan was Nixon's first Disney film in 10 years. Nixon was joined by Broadway performers Beth Fowler and Lea Salonga, although the three singers never recorded together; the studio enjoyed Nixon's performance so much that they decided to recast the actress, providing Grandmother Fa's speaking voice at the time with someone who sounded more like Nixon, hiring June Foray to provide the speaking voice for the role. Disney had been considered hiring actresses Lauren Bacall and June Havoc to record "Honor to Us All" prior to hearing Nixon; the songwriters first based "Honor to Us All" on a rough cut they had seen of the scene. Author Jennifer Fleeger wrote in her book Mismatched Women: The Siren's Song Through the Machine that the studio's decision to cast Nixon, an American who had done similar work as the singing voices of a Puerto Rican and Englishwoman in the musical films West Side Story and My Fair Lady as an elderly Chinese woman "speaks volumes about the desired singing voices of these diverse new characters."

"Honor to Us All" was one of Nixon's final film performances before her death in 2016. The film's use of "Honor to Us All" has been described as "expository" by Billboard's Andrew Unterberger. Within the context of Mulan, the song both introduces audiences to the title character while demonstrating some Chinese traditions, revealing that Mulan must rely on marriage to "settle her fate" at the beginning of the film. A character piece, "Honor to Us All" is performed by several older Chinese women, including Mulan's mother and grandmother Fa Li and Grandmother Fa to Mulan as they prepare to the character to present her to the Matchmaker, hoping that she will be paired with a suitable husband and uphold their family's heritage. Before Mulan is introduced, the character can be