camera FPS and TV frequency at DVinfo.net

Sassi Haham · September 2nd, 2007, 10:29 PM

What happens when I play NTSC HDV footage on a PAL TV (both 60i and 30p)?
I am living in PAL country but the TV's play PAL DV footage as well as NTSC footage. On DV, there was a justification to by a PAL camera because of the picture size and hence a better resolution.
On HDV the frame size is the same (correct?)for both NTSC and PAL, so the difference is in the frame rate.
So would a 60i look worse than 50i on a PAL TV (I think 50Mhz or 100Mhz) ?
What about 30P vs 25p?
I guess that the progressive footage will look the same, but I would like an explanation for the interlaced footage.
Thanks
Sassi

Ervin Farkas · September 5th, 2007, 06:54 AM

Basically if the TV is dual system, it switches between the two to adjust to the source video and display full quality - this is if you connect your camcorder directly to it. But if you play a DVD, the story might be different; the DVD player might transcode the video from one system to the other, in other words you will be able to play an NTSC DVD on your PAL TV thinking that your TV is dual system when in reality your DVD player is dual system and your TV is PAL only. I have the reverse situation, my TV is NTSC only but I can play PAL DVDs on it because my DVD player will transcode them to NTSC.

50 MHz or 100 MHz has no place in this picture! Maybe what you're trying to say is that PAL is 50 Hz (Hertz, not MegaHertz!) vertical refresh rate while NTSC is 60 Hz in order to display 50 interlaced fields (25 frames if progressive) in PAL and 60 interlaced fields (or 30 frames if progressive) in NTSC.

So in the end the difference is that in NTSC you have 5 more frames per second in HDV NTSC compared to PAL - this will give you a little more temporal resolution, in other words your movement will be smoother... but 9 out of 10 people will never notice the difference.

There are other differences you may want to consider - PAL has better color space, but that's an entirely different story.

September 2nd, 2007, 10:29 PM	#1
Sassi Haham Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Yaad, Galilee Posts: 117	camera FPS and TV frequency What happens when I play NTSC HDV footage on a PAL TV (both 60i and 30p)? I am living in PAL country but the TV's play PAL DV footage as well as NTSC footage. On DV, there was a justification to by a PAL camera because of the picture size and hence a better resolution. On HDV the frame size is the same (correct?)for both NTSC and PAL, so the difference is in the frame rate. So would a 60i look worse than 50i on a PAL TV (I think 50Mhz or 100Mhz) ? What about 30P vs 25p? I guess that the progressive footage will look the same, but I would like an explanation for the interlaced footage. Thanks Sassi

September 5th, 2007, 06:54 AM	#2
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	Basically if the TV is dual system, it switches between the two to adjust to the source video and display full quality - this is if you connect your camcorder directly to it. But if you play a DVD, the story might be different; the DVD player might transcode the video from one system to the other, in other words you will be able to play an NTSC DVD on your PAL TV thinking that your TV is dual system when in reality your DVD player is dual system and your TV is PAL only. I have the reverse situation, my TV is NTSC only but I can play PAL DVDs on it because my DVD player will transcode them to NTSC. 50 MHz or 100 MHz has no place in this picture! Maybe what you're trying to say is that PAL is 50 Hz (Hertz, not MegaHertz!) vertical refresh rate while NTSC is 60 Hz in order to display 50 interlaced fields (25 frames if progressive) in PAL and 60 interlaced fields (or 30 frames if progressive) in NTSC. So in the end the difference is that in NTSC you have 5 more frames per second in HDV NTSC compared to PAL - this will give you a little more temporal resolution, in other words your movement will be smoother... but 9 out of 10 people will never notice the difference. There are other differences you may want to consider - PAL has better color space, but that's an entirely different story. __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com