Page 1 of PAL vs NTSC

People say that PAL is the best picture and much better than NTSC so how come north americans use NTSC? Are they stupid? Do they not want a better picture for everyone?

Historical reasons, mainly. Changing from one to the other would necessitate a change of TV for everyone, and for a marginal improvement in resolution and colour bandwidth it simply isn`t worth it.

hmmm

Back in my dim and distant past, I can remember the UK broadcasts (kinda) `switching` from 405 line transmissions to 625. I know only a few TVs were affected before the turnover i.e. 405 Line broadcast stopping,(and I know how massive a change in the USA would be), but isn`t this why we still type with a bl**dy QWERTY keyboard - the usual resistance to change (even though, I grant you an expensive one).

Ultimately it`s retailing again - we`re all waiting for some sort of HDTV so why bother.....

SN

NTSC DVD`s often have different extras on them. There is a website that compares NTSC and PAL discs and tells you which one is the best value for money:

http://www.dvdrumble.co.uk/

And do you know how long the changeover from 405 to 625 lines took? Twenty-one years! BBC2 launched on 625 lines in 1964, and the 405 line transmitters weren`t turned off until 1985.

I think people underestimate how difficult it is to change established standards. It`s 2001, and folk are already talking about an analogue TV switch-off in 2006-2010 - it just can`t happen in such a short space of time.


Mike

Surely it will if the Government, as looks likely, subsidise digital TV for everyone.

Mind you, you`ve gotta feel for those people on Watchdog the other week who have a choice - no TV or digital cable TV - due to the shutdown of one of the masts by ntl !!

As far as I remember, NTSC was developed long before PAL as a colour standard, and the reasons for it not being as "good" are purely historical. The colour system had to be compatible with the black and white sets in most American homes, so they were stuck with 525-line definition and of course 30 frames per second because of the mains frequency 60Hz. When Britain converted to PAL, they were able to switch up from VHF transmission to UHF, so compatibility was less of an issue. 625 lines was judged the best picture for household viewing and of course we had to stick with 25fps because of our 50Hz mains frequency.

I think someone in the Gov`t`s got their sums wrong about the switch to digital, and I don`t think we`ll see a signal switchoff for a good while yet. It`s not like Sky switching off their analogue system this summer, there are enough Luddites out there watching black and white pictures on their 1971 Bush portable to keep the Consumer`s Association on this little crusade.

Incidentally, although NTSC has a lower definition than PAL and a higher frame rate, they can run movies at the proper 24fps than the 25fps required by PAL, so the movie`s the right length and the sound`s not out by half a semitone (for the perfect of pitch).

It depends on what subsidised "digital TV for everyone" means. Many households have multiple TV sets and VCRs - will they get a new receiver to replace every single analogue piece of equipment they use? I doubt it somehow.

Far better to postpone switch-off until a time when (a) most people have upgraded to digital equipment in the natural course of break-down and replacement, and (b) digital receivers are so cheap that the switch-off isn`t so much of a hardship for the remaining analogue users.

At the moment, that is far from being the case. If you don`t want to buy into subscription TV (Sky, OnDigital, Cable etc.) then digital TV sets and boxes are very expensive, and there are *no* digital tuner-equipped VCRs yet.


Mike

I gotta stop that chap who made NTSC sound good for a moment there - the americans don`t run films at 24fps either - they run at a simulation of it by repeating some frames. So yeah they get 24 film frames each second - but so could we if we repeated a frame.

this is apparently a bad thing and introduces image stutter - the so called "pull-down" effect on NTSC dvd`s

I sit corrected. I`d always believed they could run films at 24fps because of 24 and 30 being multiples of six (or some other mathematical stuff - like Ernst Stavro Blofeld it never was my strong suit.)

That also explains that mysterious thing called 3:2 pulldown and why on American tv shows and movies cars travelling at a steady speed keep freezing momentarily (about twice a second). Used to drive me nuts.

Fortunately I`ve changed my medication.