This may be a philosophical discussion to some, but here are some points to ponder: both analog and digital transmissions both contain instructions for compatible tuner/display systems to produce images that our eye/brain visual system can perceive and understand. Digital transmissions just take advantage of compute power at both ends of the transmission to transport and recover the instructions more accurately. So regardless of whether the transmission is digital or analog, if you don't decode the instructions properly, you'll just perceive garbage.
DLPs and plasmas do control the brightness of their pixels through a process known as pulse width modulation. Electronic pulses of fixed width and amplitude are sent more or less frequently to a given pixel to vary its brightness as perceived by our visual system. Since the pulses are of fixed width and amplitude, I suppose the term digital applies to this context pretty easily.
On the other hand, LCDs control the amount of light allowed to be passed through them through a process known as pulse amplitude modulation. Although the frequency, duration and amplitude of the pulses is controlled with digital precision, because the amplitude isn't fixed the term analog can be applied to this context.
In any event, these seemingly discrete steps are either happening too fast for our visual systems to discern as independent events or they are filtered by our retinas in such a way that only certain changes are actually sent along to our brains for integration into smooth, continuous moving images.
DLPs and plasmas do control the brightness of their pixels through a process known as pulse width modulation. Electronic pulses of fixed width and amplitude are sent more or less frequently to a given pixel to vary its brightness as perceived by our visual system. Since the pulses are of fixed width and amplitude, I suppose the term digital applies to this context pretty easily.
On the other hand, LCDs control the amount of light allowed to be passed through them through a process known as pulse amplitude modulation. Although the frequency, duration and amplitude of the pulses is controlled with digital precision, because the amplitude isn't fixed the term analog can be applied to this context.
In any event, these seemingly discrete steps are either happening too fast for our visual systems to discern as independent events or they are filtered by our retinas in such a way that only certain changes are actually sent along to our brains for integration into smooth, continuous moving images.
