hmmm that's a bit unclear, I don't quite understand that myself!
but here's my interpretation of it:
the HSDU notes have two slightly different definitions of them:
- coarse grained synchronisation - used to synchronise different components e.g. a video and a sound clip; used to ensure that the audio and video components remain active for the correct duration
- fine grained synchronisation - used for synchronisation between components e.g. 2 or 3 sound clips played one after another; used to ensure the 2nd audio or video component starts the right length of time after the first
So what I guess it means is that coarse grained involves 2 different types of media componenets and getting them to play together at the same time. So it's like if you've got a video, ur gonna want the sound to play at the exact same time as the video.
And then fine grained involves getting different media components (which could be of different types) to play one after another. So if you've got 2 video files you want to play then you don't want the 2nd one starting half way through the 1st one. So fine grained synchronisation would make sure the 2nd video started AFTER the 1st one.
So that's how I interpret it, which I can't guarantee you is right coz Dexter & Amsterdam confuse me, they'd confuse anyone! To be honest, ur best bet is to just learn the definitions in the bullets above from the notes, even if you don't understand them.