NTSC vs PAL

Flying

Junior Member
I heard somewhere that the PAL and NTSC versions of Hobbyking's fpv cameras cope with light differently compared to one another. Is this true or is the only real difference resolution and the counties they are optimized for?

Does anyone which would be best for New Zealand: PAL or NTSC.
 

ananas1301

Crazy flyer/crasher :D
Wikipedia says this:

"PAL vs. NTSC

NTSC receivers have a tint control to perform colour correction manually. If this is not adjusted correctly, the colours may be faulty. The PAL standard automatically cancels hue errors by phase reversal, so a tint control is unnecessary. Chrominance phase errors in the PAL system are cancelled out using a 1H delay line resulting in lower saturation, which is much less noticeable to the eye than NTSC hue errors.

However, the alternation of colour information — Hanover bars — can lead to picture grain on pictures with extreme phase errors even in PAL systems, if decoder circuits are misaligned or use the simplified decoders of early designs (typically to overcome royalty restrictions). In most cases such extreme phase shifts do not occur. This effect will usually be observed when the transmission path is poor, typically in built up areas or where the terrain is unfavourable. The effect is more noticeable on UHF than VHF signals as VHF signals tend to be more robust.

In the early 1970s some Japanese set manufacturers developed decoding systems to avoid paying royalties to Telefunken. The Telefunken license covered any decoding method that relied on the alternating subcarrier phase to reduce phase errors. This included very basic PAL decoders that relied on the human eye to average out the odd/even line phase errors. One solution was to use a 1H delay line to allow decoding of only the odd or even lines. For example, the chrominance on odd lines would be switched directly through to the decoder and also be stored in the delay line. Then, on even lines, the stored odd line would be decoded again. This method effectively converted PAL to NTSC. Such systems suffered hue errors and other problems inherent in NTSC and required the addition of a manual hue control.

PAL and NTSC have slightly divergent colour spaces, but the colour decoder differences here are ignored."

Also this is quite useful for you considering where you are now on earth ^^

Reagions of NSTC and PAL marked on earth
 

bmsweb

Site Moderator
I think NTSC has a higher resolution (more TV lines)
Its actually the other way around PAL 720 x 576 and NTSC 720 x 480.

The question you need to be asking your self is what do you intend on doing with the footage? If you're not planning on burning it to DVD then it really doesn't make all that much difference. Its also worth noting the YouTube and Vimeo seem to handle NTSC motion footage much better. As in shots with smooth movements.