What is that screen with the multi-colored bars that is on TV when a station is having techincal difficulties?

Question

What is it called?

Answer 1

They are called color bars.  They are a test pattern used to set up video and monitors.  There are may versions, full field (the bars go from top to bottom), split field (the bars cover the top 3/4 of the screen and the bottom is a second signal called "pluge"), SIMPTE bars (split field bars with a strip of the bars in reverse order), and the newer digital split field bars with a ramp pattern (wash) in the bottom 1/4 of the screen.

Around a TV station, they are usually just called "bars".  I worked with one director that called them "stripes & sound", just to be different . . . He always was a bit strange . . .

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

I learned it in college but I have forgotten after 20 years...I think it is a Chroma-graph but we also called them just 'color bars'  and on Video University web they are NTSC color bars...they use this for calibration of the video.

Answer 3

SMPTE color bars or just color bars  (SMPTE= Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_color...