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Re: NTSC/PAL



Although VHS video format is the same throughout the World, the video
standard or electronic signal that is recorded on the cassette varies from
country to country.  VHS stands for Video Home System.The standard home
videocassette  format, which has ½" videotape. (in the 1970's there was this
big battle between VHS format and BETA (or Betamax) format.  Both are ½"
tapes. VHS won the market war).

SVHS (Super Video Home System is a high-quality video format with higher
resolution than normal VHS. (I suspect it is
a response to the demand for better quality vhs playback which BETA had
provided). It must  be played on a videocassette recorder that supports the
SVHS format, and to see the sharper image resulting from  the higher
resolution, it must be played on a  high-resolution television set.

NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) is the vhs system or standard
used in North America and most of  South  America for VHS. In NTSC, 30
frames are transmitted each second. Each frame is made up of 525 individual
scan lines.

PAL (Phase Alternation Line) is the predominant video system or standard
used overseas. In PAL, 25 frames are transmitted each second. Each frame is
made up of 625 individual scan lines.

Another standard used overseas is called SECAM which stands for Systeme
Electronique Couleur Avec Memoire. It too has 625 lines and 25 frames per
second. 

Our institution invested in a multiple formats tape player
(/NTSC/PAL/SECAM)some years ago because faculty would bring back tapes from
overseas and find they couldn't play them here.  The player did make them
viewable, but because electrical systems differ too, there were still some
"gliches" in the playback.  The other option was to find a Lab that would
"convert" the tape to NTSC. For special tapes faculty wanted to put "on
reserve" that's what we would sometimes do.

I have no knowledge about how well the digital video players/conversion
works (Elayne's DVD/VCD/CD/MP3 players). 
NTSC/PAL/SECAM are "analog" systems.  Professional broadcast television and
the more recent Digital video formats have their own vocabularies.  (Now
that I own a DVD player, I do find myself buying more DVD's than VHS these
days. Don't you?)  
  
You can check on-line as to which countries in the world tend to use the
various analog standards for video. One is
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/help/help_formats.
 
******************************************************************
Bonnie L. Travers, Special Collections Librarian
P.O. Box 210055 
Tucson, AZ   85721-0055 
Phone: 520.621.4295
Fax:     520.621.9733
E-mail: Traversb@u.library.arizona.edu
<mailto:Traversb@u.library.arizona.edu> 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Smith [mailto:SSmith@MCC.MCCOAK.ORG]
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 9:46 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: NTSC/PAL


This is a very interesting discussion!  I only recently learned that there
were different international media formats.
Would someone be kind enough to explain the acronyms used in these messages?

Thank you,

Susan M. Smith
Archivist
Minnetrista Cultural Center

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