NTSC vs PAL v SECAM

*** see http://www.high-techproductions.com for very detailed explanations

There are two formats for DVD's - they are either NTSC or PAL.  

 Home DVD Players:
     PAL DVD Players can play both PAL and NTSC Discs
     ***  most NTSC DVD players can ONLY play NTSC - for home DVD players that
            play "everything", goto http://www.codefreedvd.com/

  Computer DVD Drives:
     PAL drives can play both PAL and NTSC
     Most NTSC players can play both NTSC and PAL

There is no such thing as a SECAM DVD disc and there never will be.  SECAM countries use DVD players that can read both PAL and NTSC.

These are very broad standards that include not only DVD formats, but also television systems and tapes (VHS, Betacam, DV, Hi-8, etc).  In the U.S all DVD's are NTSC (National Television System Committee).  

PAL DVD discs are playable in all PAL, PAL-N, PAL-M and SECAM countries. 

• North America Systems use NTSC
• European Systems use PAL, but the PAL players can handle NTSC discs
• For VHS you must have a VCR that can read NTSC. Most European decks are "multi-scan" and can read NTSC.
• For DVD, 95% of the world's DVD players can read NTSC.
• For playing NTSC DVDs in Europe - all PAL DVD players output NTSC, and MOST PAL TVs will display NTSC with no problems.

Television Standards

Most of the world television formats are based on three main television standards. These are known as NTSC, PAL and SECAM (Systeme Electronique Couleur Avec Memoire). The USA standard is NTSC and all television broadcasts (except for HDTV) meet this standard. In the UK, PAL is the dominant format. SECAM is used in France and Russia, some Eastern European, and some African countries.

Make sure that your equipment works together. A device designed only for NTSC will likely not work with a PAL signal and vice versa. But since NTSC and PAL are similar in operation, most companies offer equipment (especially in Europe) that support both standards. SECAM is very different and therefore is not as common in multi standard equipment. But equipment sold in SECAM countries, notably France, can handle PAL since French TV watchers can pick up a lot of PAL signals.

VHS Standards

For video it is pretty straight-forward...make sure that you have multi-scan equipment if you want to play NTSC and do not live in the United States or Japan. For Americans-Decks that read PAL in the USA are NOT STANDARD and you need to buy a special multi-scan VCR.

DVD Standards

The ful DVD standards are so complex, that you could study them your entire life and still not fully comprehend them.  But for us average people, here are the basics . . .

The encoded video (MPEG2) on a DVD is stored in digital format, but it's formatted for one of two mutually incompatible television systems: 525/60 (NTSC) or 625/50 (PAL/SECAM). Therefore, there are two kinds of DVD's: NTSC DVD's and PAL DVD's. Some players play only NTSC discs, others play PAL and NTSC discs. Discs are also coded for different regions of the world but that's a different issue and shouldn't be confused with this particular discussion. See below.

All DVD players sold in PAL countries play both kinds of discs. These multi-standard players partially convert NTSC to a 60-Hz PAL (4.43 NTSC) signal. The player uses the PAL 4.43-MHz color subcarrier encoding format but keeps the 525/60 NTSC scanning rate. Most modern PAL TV's can handle this "Pseudo-PAL" signal. A few multi-standard PAL players output true 3.58 NTSC from NTSC discs, which requires an NTSC TV or a multi-standard TV. Some players have a switch to choose 60-Hz PAL or true NTSC output when playing NTSC discs.

There are a few standards-converting PAL players that convert from NTSC disc to standard PAL output. Proper standards conversion requires expensive hardware to handle scaling, temporal conversion, and object motion analysis and this equipment costs big $$$. Because the quality of conversion in DVD players is poor, using 60-Hz PAL output with a compatible TV provides a better picture. (Sound is not affected by video conversion.)

Americans - Most NTSC players can't play PAL discs. A small number of NTSC players can convert PAL to NTSC - although we have seen this number start to grow.

The three differences between NTSC discs and PAL discs are:

1. Picture size and pixel aspect ratio (720x480 vs 720x576)
2. Display frame rate (29.97 vs 25)
3. surround audio options (Dolby Digital vs MPEG audio)

Video from film is usually encoded at 24 frames/sec. but is preformatted for one of the two display rates. Movies formatted for PAL display are usually sped up by 4% at playback, so the audio must be adjusted accordingly before being encoded. All PAL DVD players can play Dolby Digital audio but not all NTSC players can play MPEG audio. PAL and SECAM share the same scanning format, so discs are the same for both systems. The only difference is that SECAM players output the color signal in the format required by SECAM TV's. Note that modern TV's in most SECAM countries can also read PAL signals, so you can use a player that only has a PAL output.

A List of Countries and their Systems