Posted by mv on 10/10/06 19:28

It's the same patriotism that always asserts its misunderstood creed
when NTSC (Never Twice the Same Colour) and PAL (Pictures Always Lovely)
comparisons come up here. SECAM is of course just the French being
typically awkward by having their own special version of PAL

The fact is that PAL is hugely better quality than NTSC in all the
important facets including resolution, chroma fidelity and bandwidth
without the gated correction overlays that NTSC can't live without. It's
the reason Europe waited another ten years for colour TV after rejecting
NTSC as being too primitive. It's the reason Europeans can produce high
grade TV in terms of glossy period dramas et al on PAL video when in NTS
lands video is only good for news and lower aspiratonal production
standards. It's the reason that until the advent of HD formats even the
most trite and prosaic TV programmes had to be shot on film in the USA.
It's the reason why 25f PAL is still better for high quality telecine
than even 24p NTSC and the reason why manufactures rarely bother to
provide 24p options for PAL cameras even when equipped with 25p.
Naturally HD formats are something else.

With the regard to the comical flicker issues, this is of course to do
with electricity cycles. Unconverted PAL appears to flicker when viewed
in American homes just as unconverted NTSC will appear to flicker in
European homes. The flicker has nothing intrinsically to do with either
formats. For example when Americans see British TV programmes that have
been shot on PAL on their NTSC TV's they wont see flicker, unless of
course the standards conversion was of poor quality, which in America it
often shockingly is. With such clever machines as the Snell and Wilcox
Alchemist about there really is no excuse for it.
--
John Lubran

[Back to original message]