Analog television

Early monochrome analog receiver with large dials for volume control and channel selection, and smaller ones for fine-tuning, brightness, contrast, and horizontal and vertical hold adjustments.

Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio.[1] In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, phase and frequency of an analog signal.

Analog signals vary over a continuous range of possible values which means that electronic noise and interference may be introduced. Thus with analog, a moderately weak signal becomes snowy and subject to interference. In contrast, picture quality from a digital television (DTV) signal remains good until the signal level drops below a threshold where reception is no longer possible or becomes intermittent.

Analog television may be wireless (terrestrial television and satellite television) or can be distributed over a cable network as cable television.

All broadcast television systems used analog signals before the arrival of DTV. Motivated by the lower bandwidth requirements of compressed digital signals, beginning in the 2000s, a digital television transition is proceeding in most countries of the world, with different deadlines for the cessation of analog broadcasts. Several countries have made the switch already, with the remaining countries still in progress mostly in Africa and Asia.

  1. ^ "Television Technical Performance Code" (PDF). Ofcom – office of Communications. December 2006. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2010.