The technology represents a pared-down engineering feat when compared with analog photo booths.

Yet the analogico-digital photo does retain something of the chain of light events which characterised the analog photo: insofar as it remains a photo.

The ability to do so derives from the fact that even the analog photo is a technical synthesis, and as such exposed to an irreducible potential for falsification.

Although it is possible to manipulate the analog photo, this is as it were an "accidental" possibility, whereas manipulation is the essence of the digital photo.

Digitalisation is a form of "discretisation": whereas the analog photo relies on the continuity of the chain of luminances, and the continuity of the way in which the spectrum is recorded, these two aspects become, in the digital photo, discontinuous.

The analog picture is a visualization of human memory.

There are holographic storages for analog pictures and digital data.

It can be quite difficult to adjust the antenna, because of the lack of feedback that would be provided by a gradually degraded analog picture.

Strong multipath can cause the analog picture to "tear" or momentarily lose synchronization, causing it to roll or flip.

However, because standard definition digital video was originally based on digitally sampling analog television, the 720 horizontal pixels actually capture a slightly wider image to avoid loss of the original analog picture.

In contrast to early analog picture tube companies that manufactured their own sets and did not share their technology, display panels and integrated chips for digital television are made by various companies for sale to virtually anyone.

For example, in water less than 1,200 meters deep, they also use sidescan sonar to generate analog pictures of the bottom - these look something like black-and-white photographs taken with a point light source, with the exception that shadows are white instead of black.

Manufacturers of high-definition TV's have tried to skirt the problem by offering various special screen "modes," all of which amount to some stretching, scrunching or otherwise fouling up of the geometry of the analog picture so that it will fit the wide-screen shape.