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Class Presentation
On

NTSC (National Television System Committee)/ PAL (Phase

Alternating Line)/ and VHS (Video Home System)

NTSC- National Television System Committee

NTSC- it’s the acronym of National Television System Committee. The NTSC
standard is adopted mainly by Americas and Canada and also in Japan. The first NTSC
standard was developed in 1940 in America to resolve the conflicts that arose between
companies over the introduction of a nationwide analog television system in the States.
It was developed for black and white TV broadcast and latter it was developed for
colour TV in January 1950.

TECHNICALS

NTSC is of 60 half frames or 30 frames sec-1. Each frame consists of a total of 525
scanlines. An NTSC television channel is transmitted between bandwidth of 500KHz-
6 MHz. Color information was added to the black-and-white image by adding a color
sub carrier of 3.58 MHz approx. to the video signal. So a tint control is unnecessary to
remove hue errors.

VERSIONS
NTSC 4.43-that transmits NTSC encoding (525/29.97) with a color subcarrier of
4.43 MHz instead of 3.58 MHz.

PAL- Phase Alternating Line

PAL- is the short form for Phase Alternate Line . It was developed by Walter
Bruch at Telefunken in Germany. The main purpose for its development was to address
the several weaknesses of NTSC including colour tone shifting under poor transmission
conditions in Western European countries in 1950s.

Initially BBC channel used for broadcast1967.

TECHNICALS

It is 50 half or 25 frames sec-1. Each consisting of 625 lines approx. The

transmission band is either VHF or UHF or the both, at the bandwidth rate of 5.0 MHz.
The Sound Carrier transmitted at a range of 4.5- 6.5 MHz and the channel Bandwidth

1
transmission in PAL is 6 -8 MHz. It automatically removes hue errors by utilising phase
alternation of the colour signal, so a tint control is unnecessary.

VERSIONS

PAL B/G/D/K/I- used in most of Western Europe, UK, Ireland, Hong Kong and
Macau, its also known as PAL-L. PAL-M (Brazil) is used in Brazil, PAL-Nc is in
Argentina. PAL-N is used in Paraguay and Uruguay.

In large parts of the world this analogue television encoding system is used in
broadcast television systems. Including India over 120 countries and territories use PAL
system.

VHS -Video Home System

VHS was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago on June
4, 1977. Initially it stood for Vertical Helical Scan, later changed to Video Home
System. It’s the system that used in broadcast of films. Films are converted into electro-
magnetic wave and it is broadcast by using this system.

TECHNICALS

A VHS cassette is 187 mm wide, 103 mm deep, 25 mm thick and a maximum

playing time of about 3.5 hours for NTSC and 5 hours for PAL at standard quality. In
the cassette there is plastic clamshell held together with five head screws and a
12.7 mm wide magnetic tape. The tape speed is 3.335 cm/s for NTSC, 2.339 cm/s for
PAL. Audio is recorded as base band in a single linear track. Dolby-B is used to
neutralize tape hiss and to reduce noise while recording and playback.

VERSIONS

Super-VHS (S-VHS)- it improved the luminance with improved video

bandwidth. ADAT- enables to record multi-track digital audio using S-VHS media,
SVHS-ET is for camcorders and VCRs, VHS-Compact (VHS-C)- is mainly used in
palm-sized camcorders, W-VHS- for high definition television, Digital-VHS (D-
VHS)- for recording high definition digital video specially used in Japan. D9- the
official name for Digital –S, it is used in digital professional production. D9 is used by
FOX TV network.

Since 1985 Hi-Fi audio is added to VHS to delivered flat full-range frequency
response. The sound quality of Hi-Fi VHS stereo is comparable to CD audio quality.

By : W Rorrkychand Singh