Method of evaluating degradation of electrical signals

Abstract

Method of evaluating degradation of electrical signals is disclosed. The method involves visually comparing a visual representation of a reference signal generated by a test signal source, which can be made identical to an original signal, and a degraded signal generated by another test signal source after passing through a video system.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method of evaluating degradation of an electrical signal caused by a circuit comprising the steps of: 
 (a) placing a first electrical signal in communication with an input of the circuit;    (b) passing said first electrical signal through the circuit thereby causing the circuit to output a degraded electrical signal;    (c) providing a means of synchronizing and combining electrical signals having at least a first and a second input and one output, placing said degraded electrical signal in communication with the first input of said means of synchronizing and combining electrical signals;    (d) placing a second electrical signal, identical to said first electrical signal, in communication with the second input of said means of synchronizing and combining electrical signals;    (e) placing the output of said means of synchronizing and combining electrical signals in communication with a plurality of means for creating visual representations of electrical signals in a way that the visual representation of said degraded electrical signal and the visual representation of said second electrical signal are presented separate from each other and each representation is not altered by the representation of any other signal; and    (f) comparing said visual representation of said degraded image and said visual representation of said second electrical signal.    
     
     
         2 . A method of evaluating the degradation of an electrical signal caused by a circuit as recited in    claim 1    wherein one of the plurality of means for creating visual representations recited in step e is an oscilloscope.  
     
     
         3 . A method of evaluating the degradation of an electrical signal caused by a circuit as recited in    claim 1   , in which the electrical signal further comprises a video signal.  
     
     
         4 . A method of evaluating for the degradation of an electrical signal caused by a circuit as recited in    claim 1   , in which the video signal further comprises a signal selected from a group consisting of NTSC, PAL, SECAM, or video signals generated by a computer.