ADC (A-D

Analog to Digital Conversion. Also referred to as digitization or quantization. The conversion of an analog signal into the digital data representation of that signal--normally for subsequent use in a digital machine. For TV, samples of audio and video are taken, the accuracy of the process depending on both the sampling frequency and the resolution of the analog amplitude information--how many bits are used to describe the analog levels. For TV pictures eight or 10-bits are normally used; for sound, 16 or 20-bits are common, and 24-bits are being introduced. The ITU-R 601 standard defines the sampling of video components based on 13.5 MHz, and AES/EBU defines sampling of 44.1 and 48 kHz for audio.
For pictures, the samples are called pixels, each containing data for
brightness and color.

See also: Binary, Bit.