Bridging analog and digital video in the surgical setting.

Editing surgical videos requires a basic understanding of key technical issues, especially when transforming from analog to digital media. These issues include an understanding of compression-decompression (eg, MPEGs), generation quality loss, video formats, and compression ratios. We introduce basic terminology and concepts related to analog and digital video, emphasizing the process of converting analog video to digital files. The choice of hardware, software, and formats is discussed, including advantages and drawbacks. Last, we provide an inexpensive hardware-software solution.