How does a television work?

Answer 1

Televisions are complex devices and are the result of a century of invention and development. However, the principles remain the same and are very simple. A picture is captured by a camera by breaking the image into a series of dots or pixels across the width of the picture. Each string of dots makes up one line of the image. In an HD signal, there are 1920 dots in each line and 1080 lines from top to bottom. As each dot is captured, the amount of red, green and blue light is recorded as three numbers. These numbers are sent as a continuous stream of data. When the whole image has been sent, the whole process starts over to deliver the next image. The images are captured 25 or 30 times every second. The television receives the stream of data and decodes it into a brightness for each of the three colors in every pixel. There are many other processes that go on alongside this process but the description shows the main principle - Identical to the one used by John Logie Baird in 1925.
A television works by sending and receiving electronic signals.

Answer 2

So seriously oversimplifying it as to be nearly useless (but the full explanation is beyond the scope of this website):

1. a TV camera converts images to a series of individually coded (either analog or digital) pixels; microphones convert sounds to coded audio signals
2. the pixels are transferred one at a time along with synchronization signals from the TV camera and audio signals from the microphones to the TV display (this can happen via radio transmission, coaxial cables, internet, etc.)
3. a TV display converts the series of individually coded (either analog or digital) pixels back to images; and the audio signals back to sounds via speakers

Answer 3

Like a big TV?