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Capturing Video with Your Digital Video Camera

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The video output of a digital video camera, or DV camera, has such high resolution that it can transmit up to 500 lines. And DV cameras store the video in a component format which provides a better color accuracy. And colors can be reproduced without a smear or blur. How does this work? The video is sent over three wires, so the red, green, and blue are all sent separately. Capturing video occurs the following ways:

• By painting images: You may not realize this but a typical picture that is seen on a TV screen is made up of 30 pictures per second. In reality, what you are seeing is really frames of images flashing on the screen so fast you can’t tell they are individual frames. You just see moving objects. Basically, each electron gun in the tube shoots a light beam of electricity across the screen one line at a time, moving from top to bottom. A color TV uses three electron guns – one for red, green, and blue. Each gun shoots across the screen as described above. When all three colors hit the same area, that area comes white. These same standards are also used in computer screens.
• Interlaced scanning: With this type of system, when the electron gun shoots the voltage to the CRT, it forms an image on the screen. In reality it illuminates dots on a phosphorus coating on the back of the screen. As the beam moved across the screen the previously illuminated dots would fade. To correct this problem, engineers designed a system where the electron gun would shoot the voltage to the screen on every other line - odd lines first. This was called interlacing and it helped keep the image bright and reduced flicker dramatically.

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