Universal Framerate / Resolution...

[cybermage26]

How come there is NTSC and PAL ..? Why no universal video settings? Anyone with a knowledge of TV history willing to explain..?

[Truman]

I don't have the knowledge, but I hope this helps:
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Truman on 2002-01-12 20:54:29 ]</font>

[vitualis]

Good stuff...

So basically, it is the fault of the Americans...

Regards.

[KoalaBear]

I rather enjoyed that link myself. Thanks, Truman.

There are some additional historical details you may find interesting:

In the U.S., one of the engineering requirements for color television was that any system proposed would have to be directly compatible with the installed base of millions of B&W TV sets -- no mass obsolescense, no add-on converter boxes, no reallocation of the broadcast spectrum.

It was the necessity of overloading the monochrome signal with a color component that led to the field rate reduction to 59.94Hz from 60. Some of the necessary bandwidth could be borrowed from the high-frequency picture details, but not exactly enough, thus the remainder was extracted through time.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was good enough to allow color broadcasting to commence in the U.S. in the early 1960s while color TV wasn't broadcast in the U.K. until 1970.

[vitualis]

It's funny how these historical things turn out... No "pain" in the 1960s but we're feeling the after effects now with the irritatingly difficult to convert framerates of 24 for film, 25 for PAL and 29.97 for NTSC.

I think I can deal with some mass obsolescense now if it means that world TV systems can be unified in a standardised way...

Enough ranting.

Regards.