Digital Video

When it comes to digital entertainment, video is perhaps the most important aspect. All of us love movies, music videos and even love to play director with our own home movies. This chapter will give you a better understanding of how to use video as your primary source of leisure and entertainment.

The Evolution Of Video

The entire concept of video is only a few centuries old and true video broadcasting systems are even younger. Like most other technologies, video has grown immensely in the last couple of decades, from something that only professionals or the rich could afford, to a tool for everyone. Within half a century, we’ve gone from the marvels of silent movies on the big screen to personal video recording devices that rival the clarity and colour reproduction of big budget production houses.

The movie industry never looked back after the debut of the first full-colour talking movie, Becky Sharp, released in 1935. In the 70-odd years since, video has taken over our lives. Today, thanks to a combination of hardware and software that most people can afford, you could sit at home and make a pretty decent home movie, complete with special effects and great editing-the only thing holding you back is your talent and understanding of the magic that is digital video.

The first colour movies were made using cameras that passed light over three different coloured films (red, green and blue-RGB), this was later upgraded to film capable of capturing RGB colours. All this was analogue back then, obviously.

However, even with digital imaging, the basic definition of video remains unchanged: “Many still images being displayed one after another at a very fast rate so as to give the ‘illusion’ of movement.” Basically, whether digital or analogue, video works exactly the same way!