How a TV Works in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys

What people said

kevincox · 2026-03 · Recommendation

That's not quite true. Only one pixel is being activated at a time but the phosphors continue to emit light for many pixels. In practice you get a handful of lines lit to varying degrees at at time. Maybe 1-2 lines quite brightly lit and then a trail of lines that are fading pretty significantly (but still emitting light). They yes, our persistence of vision fills in the rest to provide the appearance of a fully lit screen. This video has some great slow-mo of CRTs [VIDEO]

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retrac · 2025-07 · Recommendation

CRTs are still slightly magical to me. The image doesn't really exist. It's an illusion. If your eyes operated at electronic speeds, you would see a single incredibly bright dot-point drawing the raster pattern over and over. This YouTube video by "The Slow Mo Guys" shows this in action: [VIDEO]

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rcxdude · 2025-01 · Reference

They frequently flicker or are only showing part of an image in video footage or photos, for exactly this reason. They're a right headache to film clearly. (see this youtube video showing one in slow-motion to get an idea: [VIDEO] )

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