What is the difference between PAL and NTSC ?
There are two video standards, PAL (Phase Alternating Line) and NTSC (National Television System Committee). NTSC is used mainly in North America, Japan, Mexico and Canada, and PAL is used almost everywhere else in the world including Europe, Australia and New Zealand. A PAL signal cannot be played on a NTSC DVD player, and conversely a NTSC signal cannot be played on a PAL DVD player. Please check your DVD player for what standards it can play before purchasing a PAL formatted DVD. *If you have a computer with a DVD-ROM, it should be able to play both formats.
Europe and Australia are PAL (as is a big part of Asia, most of Africa and a large part of South America). NTSC U/C is the US and Canada and NTSC-J is Japan. Basically each region has a standard television mode. This mode determines the resolution of the picture, the frequency of the picture, how many lines make up each picture and how many frames per second each broadcast has. What version you get always depends on where you live as explained above. If you import games though then you need to have a converter or a compatible TV as the picture can be in black and white (if you view NTSC U/C with a PAL TV) or scrambled (if you view PAL in NTSC) so you need to make sure you have something compatible.
NTSC:National Television Standards Committee. The NTSC sets United States TV and video standards. The NTSC TV standard defines a composite video signal with a refresh rate of 60 interlaced half-frames per second. Each frame contains 525 lines and can contain 16 million different colors. To use on most PCs today, special video adapters are needed to convert computer video signals to conform to NTSC standards and vice versa. PAL:Phase Alternating Line. The PAL TV standard defines a composite video signal with a refresh rate of 50 half-frames per second where each frame contains 625 lines. To use on most PCs today, special video adapters are needed to convert computer video signals to conform to PAL standards and vice versa.
Both PAL and NTSC are video formats. PAL is the format used in Australia, parts of Asia, and some European countries. PAL stands for Phase Alternation Lines (625 lines) and offers more picture detail and wider luminance (color signal) bandwidth. PAL has been adopted by almost all 50 Hz countries in the world. NTSC is the format used in the United States and Canada. NTSC stands for National Television Standard Committee which established the American TV broadcast TV standard as a 525 line broadcast. The NTSC system has higher frame rate (60 Hz) which reduces visible flicker and picture noise. PAL delivers a scanning/frame rate of 25 fps (frames per second) with 625 lines, while NTSC delivers a scanning/frame rate of 29.97 fps using 525 lines. A TV signal is made from interlaced half-frames, hence the 25 fps in 50 Hz countries, and 30 fps in 60 Hz countries. The color information of the signal is also encoded differently. Although most TVs have the ability to display both 50 and 60 Hz si
