Editing Digitization (section)

== Process ==

The term digitization is often used when diverse forms of information, such as an object, text, sound, image, or voice, are converted into a single [[binary code]]. The core of the process is the compromise between the capturing device and the player device so that the rendered result represents the original source with the most possible fidelity, and the advantage of digitization is the speed and accuracy in which this form of information can be transmitted with no degradation compared with analog information.

Digital information exists as one of two digits, either 0 or 1. These are known as [[bit]]s (a contraction of ''binary digits'') and the sequences of 0s and 1s that constitute information are called [[byte]]s.<ref>Flew, Terry. 2008. New Media An Introduction. South Melbourne. 3rd Edition. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.</ref>

Analog signals are [[continuum (theory)|continuously]] variable, both in the number of possible values of the signal ''at'' a given [[time]], as well as in the number of points in the signal ''in'' a given period of time. However, digital signals are [[discrete signal|discrete]] in both of those respects – generally a finite sequence of integers – therefore a digitization can, in practical terms, only ever be an [[approximation]] of the signal it represents.

Digitization occurs in two parts:
;Discretization: The reading of an analog signal ''A'', and, at regular time intervals ([[sampling frequency|frequency]]), [[sampling (signal processing)|sampling]] the value of the signal at the point. Each such reading is called a ''sample'' and may be considered to have infinite precision at this stage;
;Quantization: Samples are rounded to a fixed set of numbers (such as integers), a process known as [[Quantization (signal processing)|quantization]].
In general, these can occur at the same time, though they are conceptually distinct.

A series of digital integers can be transformed into an analog output that approximates the original analog signal. Such a transformation is called a [[digital-to-analog conversion]]. The [[sampling rate]] and the number of bits used to represent the integers combine to determine how close such an approximation to the analog signal a digitization will be.