Question: What format for Puerto Rico? PAL or NTSC?

[FulciLives]

Hello

Does anyone know if Puerto Rico is PAL or NTSC and if NTSC is it "normal" NTSC or something funky like South America (which is NTSC but with a PAL color subcarrier or some such nonesense).

I am assuming Puerto Rico is 7.5 IRE NTSC since it is almost a part of the USA ... or so I always hear ... but I need to know for sure.

Thanks!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[manono]

Hi-

I don't know if this is definitive, and maybe you've already seen similar:

Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada

http://www.laserrot.com/info/lrinfo/dvdmap.html

Southeast of Cuba and East of Haiti/Dominican Republic is the yellow Region 1 dot where Puerto Rico is located. That would make it standard NTSC.

[edDV]

Hello

Does anyone know if Puerto Rico is PAL or NTSC and if NTSC is it "normal" NTSC or something funky like South America (which is NTSC but with a PAL color subcarrier or some such nonesense).

I am assuming Puerto Rico is 7.5 IRE NTSC since it is almost a part of the USA ... or so I always hear ... but I need to know for sure.

Thanks!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

Puerto Rico is a USA Territory and uses standard NTSC M.

The South American countries that differ for analog broadcast are

Brazil PAL-M (uses NTSC 3.58MHz subcarrier frequency and 525/60Hz scan but PAL color)
Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay PAL-N*
French territories SECAM K

All the rest are NTSC M similar to North America. Contrary to what you might think, Cuba is NTSC, not SECAM.
http://www.kropla.com/tv.htm


*PAL N uses 625/50Hz scan, but NTSC like 3.58MHz subcarrier (with PAL color) and 4.2 MHz bandwidth.


PS: If you are wondering about DVD authoring:

PAL-M is identical to NTSC at the DVD disc level.
PAL-N and Secam K are identical to PAL at the DVD disc level.

DVD players make the conversion to PAL-M, PAL-N or SECAM. You need the right local player.

[FulciLives]

Thanks guys!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[TaoTeWingChun]

Fulci,

edDV is correct - sorry I didn't catch this thread until now. I spend an average of 4-5 months a year there on business, and it is indeed standard NTSC territory. You can also find Pal/NTSC and region free DVD players all over the place, you just need to know where to look.

I'll be there next month, and cannot wait to escape the onset of Fall!!

Cheers!

TTWC

[AlecWest]

This topic raises an interesting question. I know that there's pretty much only one NTSC format. But, there are a number of variants to PAL and a number of variants to SECAM. Most conversion scenarios treat the formats like there are only two - NTSC and PAL. SECAM is a forgotten format. And just because you convert an NTSC program to PAL doesn't mean it's the right kind of PAL for every player. Likewise, since there are variants to SECAM, even conversion to SECAM doesn't mean it's the right kind of SECAM for every player. Or does it?

Are PAL and SECAM DVD players made so they recognize all the variants ... and reproduce a picture that will play according to the correct variant? Or do people who want to convert programs have to have a "specific" conversion tool to convert to the "specific" variant before the DVD is burned?

Finally, is there a software tool out there that will convert an NTSC MPEG2 file to SECAM format or a VCD-compliant NTSC MPEG1 file to VCD-compliant SECAM?

[InXess]

Unlike NTSC. PAL video gear is more often then not multisystem with at least capability to read SECAM signal. Most TV sets sold in continental Europe were PAL/SECAM/NTSC with either manual or auto selection of a broadcast system flavor like B/G/D/K/M). My Sony mutlisystem TV set (purchased in US) has manual selection of all standards. Generic PAL DVD or VCD home recording does not have to adhere to specific subsystem. This is negotiated between the DVD player or camera/camcorder/deck and the TV set. Procoder, Vegas can produce video in PAL and NTSC (not sure about SECAM). Tools like AlSoft Video Converter can give you full flexibility (SECAM included).


More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_television_system

[BJ_M]

no such thing as a secam only dvd player anyway - there are some NTSC/PAL/SECAM DVD players though ..

[edDV]

Actually, NTSC comes in two frustrating flavors: 0.0 IRE setup (black level) for Japan and Taiwan and 7.5 IRE setup in the Americas. Since many of the camcorders and DVD players are made in Japan or Taiwan, they often output NTSC with black at 0.0IRE (crushed).

There are many PAL and SECAM variants but these mostly differ at transmission (encoding) and RF reception (tuner) levels.

At the DVD disc level, most 625/50 PAL and SECAM regions use identical DVD disc encoding although the players will differ for composite, S-Video or SCART specs.

On the TV production side, most 625/50 regions have standarized to composite PAL (old days), YPbPr analog components (mid 80's to mid 90's) and now REC-601 720x576 digital components or digital component HDTV. There is no longer any PAL or SECAM in the production stages. PAL and SECAM only come into play for analog transmission.