Video Standards
NTSC
NTSC stands for National Television System Committee,
which devised the NTSC television broadcast system in 1953. NTSC is also
commonly used to refer to one type of television signal that can be
recorded on various formats such as DVD and VHS.
The NTSC standard has a fixed vertical resolution of
525 horizontal lines stacked on top of each other, with varying amounts of
"lines" making up the horizontal resolution, depending on the electronics
and formats involved. There are 59.94 fields displayed per second. A field
is a set of even lines, or odd lines. The odd and even fields are
displayed sequentially, thus interlacing the full frame. One full frame,
therefore, is made of two interlaced fields, and is displayed about every
1/30 of a second.
NTSC countries are: USA, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Burma, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greenland, Guam,
Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Mexico,
Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico,
St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts, Saipan, Samoa, Surinam, Taiwan,
Tobago, Trinidad, Venezuela, Virgin Islands.
PAL
PAL stands for Phase Alternation by Line, and was adopted in 1967. PAL is
also commonly used to refer to one type of television signal that can be
recorded on various formats such as DVD and VHS.
PAL has 625 horizontal lines making up the vertical
resolution. 50 fields are displayed and interlaced per second, making for
a 25 frame per second system. An advantage of this system is a more stable
and consistent hue (tint). PAL-M is used only in Brazil. It has 525 lines,
at 30 frames per second.
PAL countries include: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina
(PAL-N), Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei,
Cameroon, Canary Islands, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ghana,
Gibraltar, Greece (also SECAM), Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, North Korea, Kuwait, Liberia,
Luxembourg (also SECAM), Madeira, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman,
Pakistan, Paraguay (PAL-N), Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (also SECAM),
Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom,
Uruguay (PAL-N), Yemen (the former Yemen Arab Republic was PAL, and the
former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen was NTSC ), Yugoslavia,
Zambia, Zimbabwe.
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