How Video Works, 3rd Edition

1Introduction

Since the development of broadcast cameras and television sets in the early 1940s, video has slowly become more and more a part of everyday life. In the early 1950s, it was a treat simply to have a television set in one’s own home. In the 1960s, television brought the world live coverage of an astronaut walking on the moon. With the 1970s, the immediacy of television brought the events of the Vietnam War into living rooms. In the 21st century, with additional modes of delivery such as satellite, cable and the Internet, video has developed into the primary source of world communication.

However, while the television set itself provided a cool fire around which many families in the 20th century sat, today many people choose to watch ...