The d.c. component of video signals is to a great extent eliminated for a wide range of content, sufficiently for recording, for example, without the introduction of redundancy in the digital coding, when the digital words corresponding to samples of the analog signal are converted into a binary code in which the number of bits of one logic level is approximately linearly dependent upon the magnitude of the analog signal. In such a code, there are successive ranges of the analog signal in which the number of bits of one logic level remains the same, and within said ranges the change in digital words from one analog level to the next involves the change of two bits of the word. The digital words are serially provided for recording or transmission.