Analog television
original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio; in an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by rapid variations of either the amplitude, frequency or phase of the signal
Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, brightness, color, and sound are represented by the amplitude, phase, and frequency of the signal.
The strength of an analog signal varies over a continuous range of possible values, meaning that electronic noise and interference may be introduced. Thus, 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 certain threshold (the "digital cliff"), where reception is either no longer possible or becomes intermittent.
Analog television may be wireless (as in terrestrial and satellite television) or distributed over a cable network (cable television).
Traditionally, all broadcast television systems used analog signals. Starting after the year 2000, motivated by the lower bandwidth requirements of compressed digital signals, a digital television transition has been underway in most of the world, with different deadlines for the cessation of analog broadcasts. Countries that still primarily use analog systems are mostly in Africa, Asia, and South America.
Development
The earliest systems of analog television were mechanical television systems that used spinning disks with patterns of holes punched into the disc to scan an image.
“Analog television” enters the record as original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio; in an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by rapid variations of either the amplitude, frequency or phase of the signal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Analog, television and original can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Analog television” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Analog, television and original provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q258137. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Analog television” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.