Video and the different formats – what are the differences?
• PAL/SECAM/NTSC – You can’t get higher video resolution than the broadcast standard. The PAL/SECAM video system has a vertical line resolution of 625 lines, but only approximately 575 lines are holding picture information. TV systems that are utilizing the NTSC standard have 525 lines (vertical resolution), but only 480 lines will be holding picture information. The aspect ratio in all systems are 4:3 and the NTSC standard has consequently 480×4/3 = 640 dots/pixels of horizontal resolution. The native resolution of an XGA based projector (1024 x 768) is 768 lines (vertical resolution), but the source most probably will not provide 768 lines of vertical resolution. A SVGA based projector (800 x 600) has 600 lines of vertical resolution. Most video projectors can display over 500 lines of vertical resolution. • Component video (no defined standard) – The normal interpretation of a component video signal is one in which the luminance and chrominance are sent as separate components called
