Digital Video Covergage

As a technology, analog is the process of taking an audio or video signal (the human voice) and translating it into electronic pulses. Digital on the other hand is breaking the signal into a binary format where the audio or video data is represented by a series of "1"s and "0"s. Simple enough when it's the deviceanalog or digital phone, fax, modem, or likewisethat does all the converting for you.
Digital versus analog can refer to method of input, data storage and transfer, the internal working of an instrument, and the kind of display. The word comes from the same source as the word digit and digitus. The digital technology breaks your voice (or television) signal into binary code a series of 1s and 0s transfers it to the other end where another device (phone, modem or TV) takes all the numbers and reassembles them into the original signal. The beauty of digital is that it knows what it should be when it reaches the end of the transmission. That way, it can correct any errors that may have occurred in the data transfer. What does all that mean to you? Clarity. In most cases, you'll get distortion-free conversations and clearer TV pictures. The nature of digital technology allows it to cram lots of those 1s and 0s together into the same space an analog signal uses. Like your button-rich phone at work or your 200-plus digital cable service, that means more features can be crammed into the digital signal. Digital offers better clarity, but analog gives you richer quality. Digital like the VCR or the CD is coming down in cost and coming out in everything from cell phones to satellite dishes.

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