What's the difference between NTSC and PAL?

Last Revised: 2017-07-13 16:47:48

FAQ for the following product:

NTSC and PAL are two main TV standards in the world. NTSC standards for National Television System Committee, while PAL for Phase Alternating Line. Both PAL and NTSC are analog systems that deliver TV signals so you can watch TV at home. With the growth of digital television all around the world, NTSC and PAL will disappear one day.

Countries using NTSC vs PAL

NTSC is mainly used in US, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and so on. PAL is adopted by China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, , Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, etc. PAL is the most widely used TV standard.

The difference of TV standard means that you can't play PAL DVD movies in countries that use NTSC TV standard, and vice versa.

Quality Difference between NTSC and PAL

Although PAL uses a lower fewer frames rate than NTSC (25fps vs 30fps), it has more lines than NTSC (625 vs 525). More lines contains more visual information, which generate better picture quality. That's also why black bars would be added to compensate for the smaller resolution when you try to convert NTSC videos to PAL videos.

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