The basic process used to digitize images to create video sequences is the sampling of image elements (pixels) for intensity and color. For color video, each element contains intensity (brightness) and color components (red, green, and blue - RGB). These components are periodically sampled and converted into a digital format.

Analog video digitization involves analyzing each scan line of video, separating the color and intensity levels and digitizing each component. For digital video capturing from optical sensors (such as video recorders with CCD sensors), each pixel element is converted into a color type (red, green, and blue) which has an intensity level (brightness).

Converting video signals at 30 frames per second into digital streams of data results in large amounts of data. The uncompressed data rate for standard definition television (SDTV) is 270 Mbps (SDI format). The uncompressed data rate for high definition television (HDTV) is 1.5 Gbps.

This figure shows a basic process that may be used to digitize images for pictures and video. For color images, each line of image is divided (filtered) into its color components (red, green and blue components). Each position on filtered image is scanned or sampled and converted to a level. Each sampled level is converted into a digital signal.