After refering to the website for telecommunications company, HelloDirect.com, the understanding I have of of analog and digital is as follows. Analog, a more simplistic form of technology is taking an audio or video signal and converting it into electronic impulses. Digital on the other hand is taking the audio and video signals and changing them to binary format. Examples of these technologies can be find in analog or digital phones, faxes, modems, or other machines that convert information for an individual.
Analog capabilities has been around for many decades, while digital is a newer ability. Among the disadvantages of analog are the limitations of the amount of data it can carry. Analog technology can only handle so much information at a time until it is overwhelmed. The new digital technology however, in breaking up sound and video and placing it into binary code, can carry more data. Disadvantages of digital are that since the technology is consistantly encoding and decoding, the quality of the end message isn't as clear as the analog version since it has been dismantled and put back together when recieved.
In today's world, we are consistantly hearing of new digital availabilities. Digital satellite television, or digital phones service. Having not really known what the big difference is, the way they make it sound in commercials is that digital is far superior to analog. And while it may be better, the disadvantage of bad quality is a concerning.
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I agree with you there. I think that quality is the most important when it comes to radio, TV, and internet. Digital seems great in theory, but the downside like you said, bad quality, could make a lot of people unhappy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's just me, but in reading about how digital technologies are converted and distributed reminds me of a scene from Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I remember the scene where the boy who was such a huge fan of TV actually became a part of the TV. Like a digital signal, he was a whole that, in order to be transmitted, had to be broken up into small pieces and then put back together (like how a signal is encoded and decoded). However, like one of the disadvantages of digital signal, the final result of the boy was not how it was originally intended. He was about the size of an inch and he (like the message) was not as clear as the original version (analog) since he had been broken up and reassembled. Maybe this example is a bit of a stretch, but it just reminded me of how when something is broken up, it's not always put back together the right way.
ReplyDeleteI have to slightly disagree with NJ. I dont think that digital sacrifices so much quality that i would prefer analog. Especially with growing technologies like mp3s and blueray disks, I think digital is on the rise more than ever. In addition, you dont have to worry about outside interference when it comes to digital signals.
ReplyDeleteDigital technologies have always been sold on the basis of their superior quality, although some claim that something important has been lost in the move from vinyl to CD. But both technologies present different kinds of problems and possibilities for noise. I like Laurn's point, it reminds me of debates in the Star Trek milieu about the transporter they use.
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