What is meant by PAL / NTSC?

Question

WHAT IS MEAN BY PAL / NTSC

Answer 1

Not sure about what they stand for, but NTSC discs play in the US, and PAL play in Europe.

Answer 2

PAL - short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analog television systems are SECAM and NTSC.

NTSC - is the analog television system in use in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and some other countries (see map). It is named for the National Television System Committee[1], the U.S. standardization body that adopted it. [1]. The first black-and-white NTSC standard for broadcast was developed prior to the Second World War and had no provision for color transmissions. The standard called for 525 lines of picture information in each frame, and 30 frames per second; the frame rate was later slightly adjusted for the color standard. Civilian development of commercial television was halted with the entry of the United States into the war. In 1950 a second standard was issued, which allowed color broadcasting to be compatible with the existing stock of black-and-white receivers, while maintaining the broadcast channel bandwidth already in use. This was an important commercial advantage over incompatible color systems that had also been proposed. NTSC was the first widely adopted broadcast color system. After over a half-century of use, over-the-air NTSC transmissions will cease in the United States in 2009. Various digital television systems have replaced the vacuum-tube era standard.

Answer 3

What he said. They are both video formats. The main difference (aside from America using NTSC and most places using PAL) is resolution and frame rate. PAL gives you 25 frames a second at a resolution of 720x576. NTSC has a better framerate of 30 frames per second but it is only 640x480. NTSC doesn't show colours as well as PAL, which has led people to joke that it stands for "Never Twice the Same Colour".

There is also similar french standard called SECAM, which we like to think stands for "System Even Crapier than American Method".

None of these standards are as good as High Definition, or HD, which itself comes in many different flavours.

Answer 4

PAL is short for Phase-Alternating Line and is a color encoding system used in broadcast television systems in Europe and other parts of the world.

The National Television System(s) Committee (NTSC) format is the analog television system in use in Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, the United States, and some other countries, mostly in the Americas. The NTSC format consists of 29.97 interlaced frames of video per second.

Answer 5

The 3 major differences are in

(the 2 first were mentioned before)

- the dimensions of the frame, PAL being bigger in Standard definition .  btw the same dimensions, like  1280x720 and 1920x1080, are used in HD for both format .

- the number of frames per seconds. 25 or 30

- the way the color are coded.

About the initial question: "What is meant by PAL/NTSC?". It depends of the context. If you were talking about a TV which handle "PAL/NTSC", it means it would handle both signals.

Answer 6

PAL and NTSC are TV picture formats. Unless your TV / Monitor can display both formats you need to purchase the appropriate format for your Country. This applies to both DVD and VHS video.

As far as we are aware, all DVD players can play both PAL & NTSC formats, however it is your TV set or monitor that either plays PAL or NTSC or both.

If you are unsure you should check with the distributor of your DVD and/or check the instruction manual.

  NTSC is the standard picture format in the USA, Canada & Japan. For playback in these countries, you should buy only DVDs marked NTSC and not those marked PAL unless you have a TV capable of playing PAL images. If you are from the USA, Canada or Japan and can play PAL DVD's - PLEASE type CAN PLAY PAL in the additional comments field when ordering.

  PAL is the standard picture format in the Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe. Most modern TV sets sold in Australia can also play NTSC these days but you should check the player instruction manual and/or contact the distributor if you are not sure.

Answer 7

There are two TV video standards, NTSC and PAL. NTSC is used in North

America, and PAL is used almost everywhere else in the world. Most

hardware devices (DVD or VCD players) that play PAL video resolution

out on a NTSC monitor correctly will cut approximately 24 lines of

resolution from the top and bottom of a PAL image.

Almost all VCDs are in PAL resolution, as they are manufactured in

Asia. This is usually not an issue, because not much details are lost

by such truncation.

Note : NTSC has 352 X 240 video resolution and PAL's video resolution

is 352 X 288. This PAL to NTSC video conversion / truncation problem

does not exist when viewed on a PC monitor as the PC just displays the

whole image. Nowadyas, most TVs and DVD players are multisync, meaning

that it will play both NTSC or PAL format, thus VCDs in PAL format will

play well on these players.