Analog/Digital Comparison
[rev. 10/12/2006]

ANALOG advantage	ANALOG disadvantage	DIGITAL advantage	DIGITAL disadvantage
truest representation			always some roundoff error
no decoding needed—cave paintings still speak to us			always some decoding needed
splices are always noticeable (an aid for forensic analysis)	splices are always noticeable	splices are often undetectable	splices are often undetectable (disadvantage when trying to detect fraud or establish authenticity or provenance)
	approximate arithmetic	exact arithmetic (up to the machine’s limit of precision)
	primitive encryption/decryption	high-quality encryption/decryption: limited only by the sophistication of the math and computing power available
	compression is generally not possible	data compression!!! (hundreds of cable channels, for example)
	noise	extremely high S/N ratios possible (100 dBV and more)