What Do Pixels Reveal About Color and Meaning in Our Daily Lives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GAGS
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Screen
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of pixels, their role in displaying color on screens, and the differences in color representation between various display technologies such as CRT and modern LCDs. Participants explore theoretical and practical aspects of pixels, including their definitions, color encoding, and the technology behind different types of displays.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants define a pixel as a "picture element" and discuss its role in reproducing color on screens.
  • Questions are raised about the differences in color display between devices like TVs and oscilloscopes, with some explaining the mechanism of color TVs using phosphor dots and electron guns.
  • Participants note that older CRT technology can provide better image quality for certain broadcasts compared to fixed pixel screens, due to variable beam width and sweep rates.
  • There is mention of the complexity of color encoding for analog television, with references to historical methods and challenges in representing non-spectral colors.
  • Some participants discuss the resolution capabilities of modern displays, comparing them to older technologies and noting advancements in pixel density.
  • Technical details about video compression standards like MPEG and the structure of digital video are also introduced, although some participants express uncertainty about the specifics of digital broadcast specifications.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying levels of understanding and knowledge about pixels and color representation, with some points being clarified while others remain contested or uncertain. There is no clear consensus on several technical aspects discussed.

Contextual Notes

Some discussions include assumptions about the audience's familiarity with technical terms and concepts, and there are unresolved questions regarding the specifics of digital broadcasting and color encoding techniques.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals exploring topics in display technology, color theory, and digital media, as well as those curious about the historical and technical evolution of visual display systems.

GAGS
Messages
53
Reaction score
0
Theoretically in daily life we come across the word pixels like mega pixel camera or on computer screen or on T.V. we watch the pictures clearly due to large no. of pixels.But following questions come to my mind regarding this
1.) What is mean by the word pixel and how can we understand it ?
2.) Why we get multi colour on screen (computer or T.V.) ,while in physics lab on CRO, i get some greenish colour fluorescene.
if u know more interesting and curious fact regarding this,let me know please.
with regards
 
Engineering news on Phys.org
Last edited by a moderator:
GAGS said:
2.) Why we get multi colour on screen (computer or T.V.) ,while in physics lab on CRO, i get some greenish colour fluorescene.

To get monochrome TV (one color only, whether it is white or green or whatever), there is only one color of phosphur coating inside the faceplate, and the electons hitting the phosphur is what causes the glow. In a color TV, there is a very clever arrangement of a "shadow mask" layer before the inside of the faceplate, and the shadow mask only allows electrons from each of the 3 electron guns to hit the appropriate color phosphur dot (there are red and green and blue phospur dots coating the inside of the faceplate in a color TV).

Kind of hard to explain without pictures -- here's a link to an article that should help:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tv10.htm
 
Last edited:
On older CRT rear projection TV, 3 separate CRT are used, one red, one green, and one blue. The main advantage is that there is no mask or fixed pixel size, since the beam width and sweep rate are variable. Standard DVD's (480p) and standard NTSC broadcasts will look better on a CRT rear projection, because there's no upconversion to re-pixelate the image onto a fixed pixel screen, such as LCD, LCOS, or Plasma type screen. The hi-def pictures also look good, and you can get true "blacks". Link to a pro and con section:

http://hometheater.about.com/cs/television/a/aarearprotv.htm

Monochrome monitors are usually white or green on black background. Green is easier on the eyes. Some applications don't need moving or scrolling text, and could use terminals like the IBM 3270. The monitor used a high persistance (took a long time to fade away) green phosphor, combined with a very narrow beam, which produced an extremely clean text oriented screen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3270
 
It's also worth pointing out that the color information is encoded for (analog) television transmission in an incredibly complicated (some would say highly elegant) scheme:

"Principles of Color Television, Hazeltine Laboratory Staff (Wiley, 1956).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC

The wiki article doesn't fully convey the huge amount of science involved- deciding how to represent a non-spectral color like brown, for example; or how the color encoding was chosen based on vision.

I have no idea how the digital broadcast specification transmits the information.
 
Andy Resnick said:
It's also worth pointing out that the color information is encoded for (analog) television transmission in an incredibly complicated (some would say highly elegant) scheme:
Even more elegant it allows exisiting BW sets to continue to receive a BW signal while layering the colourdata on top. It also fits all the colour data into less bandwidth than the BW signal.

I have no idea how the digital broadcast specification transmits the information.
Basically the same as a DVD. It uses a jpeg technique where the picture is cut into small (8*8) pixel blocks and then Fourier transformed to only store the most significant spatial frequencies.
 
GAGS said:
Theoretically in daily life we come across the word pixels like mega pixel camera or on computer screen or on T.V. we watch the pictures clearly due to large no. of pixels.

A "pixel" (defined above as a picture element) can be thought of as a small element that can reproduce one color. When you have thousands or millions of them together, all displaying the necessary color, you can display an image. Individual pixels can be seen up-close on large LCD and Plasma televisions (or LCD projection TV's).

A megapixel is defined as 1 million pixels. Note that the highest resolution HD-TV's on the market right now have an HD resolution of 1080p, which is 1920*1080 pixels. This equates to 2.07 megapixels (1920 x 1080 = 2073600). Standard DVD's have a resolution of 480p, which is 720x480 or 0.34 megapixels; HD-DVD's and Blu-Ray discs use 1080p.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You can actually get 3,840 x 2,160 pixels with the new samsung 82-inch lcd, but I don't think it has been released just yet.
 
Higher reolution displays definitely exist, espcially in computer monitors. The Dell 30" LCD has a 2560x1600 native resolution; some high-end drafting monitors can probably go much higher.

My 8 year old 19" Trinitron CRT can display a max resolution of 1800x1440 (albeit only at 70 hz), and high-end 21" displays of the same period could display 2048x1536. The mark of a good gaming display back then was being able to display 1600x1200 or higher at 85hz.
 
Last edited:
  • #10
mgb_phys said:
Basically the same as a DVD. It uses a jpeg technique where the picture is cut into small (8*8) pixel blocks and then Fourier transformed to only store the most significant spatial frequencies.

Close,

DVD uses a digital standard known as MPEG layer II, this stands for Motion Picture Expert Group,

the format is put inside of a "container" as multiple program streams, usually one video and one audio, on the audio side Program Stream (but under the ISO/IEC 13818-1 standard it also includes a transport stream which can be seen in DVB-T/C/S or in HDV .m2t implementations) can use multiple types of digital audio compressions: LPCM, MP2, AC3 48kHz @ 5.1 surround and max 448kBits

The video is made up of GOP (18 for PAL, and 15 for NTSC) structure that inlcudes the I/P/B intra frame compression.

erh yes and it goes on... :D
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
6K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
460
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
7K
Replies
6
Views
3K
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
5K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
6K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
4K