Color Television - Color Standards

Color Standards

There are three main analog broadcast television systems in use around the world, PAL (Phase Alternating Line), NTSC (National Television System Committee) and SECAM (Séquentiel Couleur à Mémoire—Sequential Color with Memory).

The system used in North America is NTSC. Western Europe, Australia, Africa and Eastern South America use PAL. Eastern Europe used SECAM, but switched to PAL after the change of the political regimes there. France still uses SECAM. Generally, a device (such as a television) can only read or display video encoded to a standard which the device is designed to support; otherwise, the source must be converted (such as when European programs are broadcast in North America or vice versa). Because a tint control is unnecessary in PAL, NTSC has jokingly been said to stand for Never The Same Color or Never Twice the Same Color.

This table illustrates the differences:

NTSC M PAL B,G,H PAL I PAL N PAL M SECAM B,G,H SECAM D,K,K',L
Lines/Fields 525/60 625/50 625/50 625/50 525/60 625/50 625/50
Horizontal Frequency 15.734 kHz 15.625 kHz 15.625 kHz 15.625 kHz 15.750 kHz 15.625 kHz 15.625 kHz
Vertical Frequency 60 Hz 50 Hz 50 Hz 50 Hz 60 Hz 50 Hz 50 Hz
Color Subcarrier Frequency 3.579545 MHz 4.43361875 MHz 4.43361875 MHz 3.582056 MHz 3.575611 MHz
Video Bandwidth 4.2 MHz 5.0 MHz 5.5 MHz 4.2 MHz 4.2 MHz 5.0 MHz 6.0 MHz
Sound Carrier 4.5 MHz 5.5 MHz 5.9996 MHz 4.5 MHz 4.5 MHz 5.5 MHz 6.5 MHz

Digital television broadcasting standards, such as ATSC, DVB-T, DVB-T2, and ISDB, have superseded these analog transmission standards in many countries.

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