How Analog Video Works

There are a lot of short videos on analog video, but you'd have to watch a lot of them to get the full picture, and there's a fair bit of misinformation out there. This video is for my students in media technical theory class, but I hope that others will enjoy it. Here's a fundamental explanation of how NTSC analog video works. Even in today's digital video universe, it's good to know the elements of analog video, as we're still living in an analog world, and because digital video equipment still starts off as analog.

[JennyAnnTea]

My dad told me all this when I was younger. He was very into the electronics of it when the first person on his road got one of the very first tv.’s. He became an electrical engineer and taught me as I was growing up. I even helped him as a keen child and teenager. Thanks dad. Miss you xx

[ct-hvuz]

You explain more clearly than any teacher I've ever had.

[jennifermunro]

Dana Lee unfortunately passed away over 6 years ago. He was a professor in the Radio Television Arts faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson Uni at the time) for many years.

I was fortunate enough to have him as my professor for first year technical class for my university degree in 2016. He passed away a year later from brain cancer, but he was telling stories and getting visits from students right up until the end.

May these videos carry his passion and spirit for the craft and history of television for a long time to come.

[frankservant]

I am continoually amazed at just how complex analogue black and white tv is, i keep reading articles over and over but still cant seem to recall all of it, its magical

[music_ph]

I am an electronic technician for so many years. Fixed crt tv many times but I've never known how the crt actually works until I saw this video. Thank you so much.

[Zyphen]

i personally am fascinated on how analog and UHF/VHF television works.

[vitaplex]

this is one of the best explained videos i've ever seen :D

[neilforbes]

When I was 14 years old in 1969, on my way home from high school I would pass by a shop in Hunter Street, Newcastle, called "Radio Rentals". For some weeks they had this TV set on display, either in the front showcase window, or inside the shop itself. It was a "Baird"(brand) colour TV, switched on and showing a colour bar generated by a TV pattern generator. This set sticks in my memory for one real reason, and that's the way the stations were selected. It had a vertical column of knobs labelled BBC1, BBC2, then ITV1 through to ITV9. Below the station selector knobs were the customary picture and sound controls, Volume and Tone for the audio, Brightness and Contrast for the video, plus, being a colour set, it had the Colour control which would adjust the saturation of colour, then a Tint control which controlled the hue. Not being able to see inside the set I couldn't tell if it was valve or transistor circuitry, so, being 1969, I can only assume it was valve circuitry. But being British-made, it was a PAL-system set. I learned many years later that the Tint control, even in valve-circuitry PAL sets was superfluous. It was just an added extra to give the user an extra knob to twiddle, nothing more.

[themoley]

I have a side gig digitizing home videos and was looking for a way to explain analog video (and why it's never going to look quite the same when digitized) to a client and this was the first one that came up, which gave me a chuckle. I had Dana as a prof while at Ryerson RTA and it's nice to hear his voice again. Not sure why so many of the good ones leave us before their time but I'm glad he left us a bunch of his knowledge.

[bobskie]

The NTSC (National Television System Committee) is the first compatible color broadcast which is backward compatible to the existing black and white TV receivers. And the color NTSC receivers is also backward compatible with the existing monochrome signal. Therefore it deserves respect. The Never Twice Same Color often happens during the vacuum tube era which as the tube heats up more, you need to re-adjust the tint control. But during the 1970s when transistor TV receivers was developed although out TV still has a tint control but we hardly touch it.

[ericphantri]

On flashing difference entire screen at a time instead of pixel at a timd and angling shadding of difference time banwidth then motion display happened. So 3 timers drive three lamps then sine or cosine timer is all data needed is time phase angle. Thanks. This is best engineering textbook presentation i had seen. Supper..you deserve great reveer and respect and reward from youtube...🎉

[carloseduardomayerdeolivei]

It´s amazing what they did and the concepts related with analog broadcast TV. Outstanding video! Thank You!

[pdxfunk]

Damn, that was awesome. I'm an analog audio guy and honestly had very little clue how video works (until now!). This all makes total sense and that was a FANTASTIC explanation! Thank you!

[roncaruso]

Ill never forget our first color TV set. It was a Zenith large rectangular picture tube. I think the year was 1963. I was 7 years old. I was fascinated. That TV set set me on my journey into electronics. I am now a retired electronics engineer. It still amazes me how the people who designed B&W and then color TV, were able to do that with only tubes, resistors, caps and picture tube.

[karaokeingoa]

this is awesome! I mean you would rarely find videos on study material soo good that it covers half of my portion in one video... amazing explanation.. thanks. :)

[hooperscooper]

I find analog distortion very satisfying

[CoopMusic]

Excellent video! Thank you (9 years later it's still great)

[bobanalog]

Excellent tutorial! It's always good to explain how it all works in an analog way, cause as much as its all digital now, it always starts out analog, and eventually gets converted back to analog. I ve been in tv broadcasting for 30+ years and went thru this big change to digital broadcasting... interesting how we still use analog in some way. Folks still need to know analog. Nice vid!

[simonwillis]

This so fascinating
Even as a kid I loved playing with my aunts tv the tuning the picture going fuzzy I loved seeing a picture come through or going fuzzy
And how things worked analoge is great

[thatonelonelyeagle]

This type of tv was the inspiration for my art movement, clothes photograghing!