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Posted by Jukka Aho on 10/28/06 10:30
Martin Underwood wrote:
>> NTSC 4.43 places the subcarrier at 4.43 MHz instead of the usual 3.58
>> MHz. I have an old Sony production monitor here which supports NTSC
>> 4.43. It's a U.S. model, so it's got a SMPTE C phosphor rather than
>> an EBU phosphor.
> Don't PAL VCRs *still* produce NTSC 4.43 when playing an NTSC tape?
The signal format they produce is called "PAL 60" (sometimes "PAL60" or
"PAL-60"). As far as VHS VCRs are concerned, this capability is often
marketed with the phrase "NTSC playback on PAL TV", or simply "NTSC
playback". For example, I have a VHS VCR (by Philips) that has this
phrase on its front panel.
As far as I know, PAL 60 and NTSC 4.43 differ in that NTSC 4.43 does not
have the characteristical alternating phase of a PAL signal. For more
discussion about that, see:
<http://google.com/groups?selm=7m3bjl$1qt$1@phlebas.demon.co.uk>
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
<http://google.com/groups?selm=1995Jun8.205235.27410@amylnd.s.ba
wue.de> (or rather, the whole thread)
> Or do modern VCRs produce genuine NTSC (3.58) which modern TVs are
> expected to be able to sync with?
The spec sheets for modern "PAL" tv sets often list "PAL", "PAL 60",
"SECAM", "NTSC 3.58" and "NTSC 4.43". (Note that "PAL 60" and "NTSC
4.43" are listed separately.)
The PAL VCRs [1] (with the "NTSC playback on PAL TV" capability) still
produce PAL 60 signal, not genuine NTSC signal.
Between the introduction of the current multi-standard "PAL" sets and
the old "PAL only" sets there were PAL sets that could (only) display
both 50 Hz (652/50) PAL signal and ~60 Hz (525/60 or 525/59.94) PAL
signal ("PAL 60"), but not other standards. [2] The "NTSC playback on
PAL TV" VCRs, logically enough, first appeared at about the same time as
the PAL 60 capable tv sets.
The transition from "PAL only" to "PAL 60" capable sets to "PAL" / "PAL
60" / "SECAM" / "NTSC 3.58" / "NTSC 4.43" multistandard sets happened
during the 1990s. "PAL 60" capable sets might have been available as
early as in late 1980s, but I'm not sure about the exact years or dates.
I first got my hands on a "PAL 60" capable set in 1990 or 1991.
____
[1] VHS VCRs are on their way out in the PAL land. People are
increasingly buying HDD recorders for time-shifting purposes and DVD
recorders for archival purposes. One contributing factor to the
impending demise of the VHS standard is that there do not seem to be VHS
VCRs available with a DVB-T/C tuner/decoder. (Not analog VHS VCRs and
not digital D-VHS recorders, either.) For example, Finland (where I
live) is going to switch to completely digital broadcasts (cable and
terrestrial alike) by the next September. Even those who have been the
slowest to adopt digital broadcasts are now slowly finding out that
their old VHS VCRs - which of course only have an analog tuner - are
quite useless and awkward in this new digital world. They would either
need to buy a separate set-top-box for their VCR or ditch the VCR and
buy a HDD-based (time-shifting) DVB set-top-box with twin tuners. The
choice is usually obvious. On the other hand, the quality of the
available VCR models has come down and "prosumer" VHS VCRs (or S-VHS
VCRs, for that matter) don't seem to be available or in production any
longer.
[2] Well, they could display 625/50 and 525/60 RGB signals, too, via the
SCART socket. As can the modern sets.
--
znark
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