What is the difference between PAL and NTSC?

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Soundtech98

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Topic # 126983 25-Jul-2013 20:18

What is the difference between PAL and NTSC?

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timmmay

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Reply # 866154 25-Jul-2013 20:28

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Info here.

More on WikiPedia for PAL and NTSC

You're welcome.

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josephhinvest

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Reply # 866468 26-Jul-2013 11:31

PAL is technically better, but often NTSC looks nicer IMHO, consider nz shows like Shortland St versus american made shows. The "look" is quite different.
NTSC - Never The Same Colour

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Joseph

ajobbins

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Reply # 866474 26-Jul-2013 11:37

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Are these formats still relevant today with modern screens?

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Inphinity

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Reply # 866475 26-Jul-2013 11:39

ajobbins: Are these formats still relevant today with modern screens?

No, they're analogue formats, and are not (particularly) relevant to digital media. However, there are some factors which may be influenced by which standard a particular country or region has historically used.

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trig42

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Reply # 866476 26-Jul-2013 11:39

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josephhinvest: PAL is technically better, but often NTSC looks nicer IMHO, consider nz shows like Shortland St versus american made shows. The "look" is quite different.
NTSC - Never The Same Colour

Cheers,
Joseph

I always hear NTSC - Never Twice (the) Same Colour

robjg63

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Reply # 866509 26-Jul-2013 12:12

trig42:
josephhinvest: PAL is technically better, but often NTSC looks nicer IMHO, consider nz shows like Shortland St versus american made shows. The "look" is quite different.
NTSC - Never The Same Colour

Cheers,
Joseph

I always hear NTSC - Never Twice (the) Same Colour

Thats what I have always heard it jokingly called.
Certainly NTSC used to be pretty awful in the earlier days of colour TV here.
The US programs used to have really patchy colour compared to the NZ or UK programs - though maybe the conversion process they used to get them broadcast here were not too good.
I dont see any difference in picture quality in these days of digital.

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Brunzy

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Reply # 866527 26-Jul-2013 12:30

NTSC suffered from phase errors causing colour change which is why they had tint controls. It is now ATSC ( equiv to our DVB T)

cyril7

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Reply # 866569 26-Jul-2013 13:13

Hi as Brunzy says, NTSC was prone to phase errors at any point in the video chain which would directly result in colour shifts (sorry color shifts).

Not long after NTSC was introduced (by the way NTSC means National Televisions Standards Committee) the Brits (and other Euro vendors) decided that they could not run with such an issue and devised PAL which stands for Phase Alternate Line which throws the colour phase through a 90deg shift every alternate line. When the two are combined in the receiver either by simple summing or summing plus a line delay any chroma phase error from the entre proceeding video chain could be significantly mitigated, hence PAL does not suffer from serious colour shift that NTSC did, albeit with a halving of the effective chroma bandwidth compared to NTSC.

These days of digital standards, its all irrelevant.

Cyril

Edit, and oh there are the obvious differences, ie 525/60 as opposed to 625/50 for the line/field rate.