DPHARP01@ULKYVX.BITNET (03/13/86)
NTSC video is a 525-line, 30 frame format with each frame made up of two
fields. The field rate is 59.94 fields/sec. PAL is totally different,
not only with a different field rate, but a different line format. PAL
standard is around 600 lines if I remember correctly. In summary, it's
a real pain to convert the stuff. There are several production companies
in New York which specialize in converting video from-to various formats.
The gear to do this is VERY expensive. The networks do this in certain
instances, but even they contract out to these companies. As far as doing
it on a consumer level, I seriously doubt you are going to be able to get
it done for a reasonable cost.
If you are interested in the specifics on the various formats, let
me know and I'll look it up.
David P. Harpe
University of Louisville
BellNet: (502) 588-6303
Bitnet: DPHARP01@ULKYVX
NTSC - [N]ever [T]he [S]ame [C]olorMRC%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Mark Crispin) (03/14/86)
Here in Silicon Valley (lots of AV stuff done here), TV standard
conversion (NTSC <=> PAL <=> SECAM) conversion generally costs $80/hour
for an electronic conversion. This is reasonable unless you are converting
PAL <=> SECAM, since that is a very simple conversion that can be done with
an inexpensive transcoder commonly available in Europe.
A less expensive and often quite acceptable conversion is an optical
one. That generally costs $40/hour around here. Literally, they put your
PAL tape into a PAL VCR connected to a PAL monitor and point an NTSC camera
at it. Needless to say, if you are going to do a non-trivial amount of
optical conversion you are best off renting a PAL TV/VCR (usually $80-$100/day)
and doing it yourself. If you take the time to get the light levels right
you will get an agreeable copy without an annoying amount of flicker.
If you just want to watch PAL programming, you can generally get a
PAL VCR and monitor for $1000 or so. Another alternative is to buy an
Instant Replay VCR. This is a GE (VHS, sigh!) VCR modified by IR. It remains
an NTSC VCR (and completely capable of operating in NTSC), but if you flip a
switch it drives the motors at PAL speed and kludges up the signal. The
result is a 50hz signal with NTSC colors (although red is a bit washed out
since NTSC heads can't read the full bandwidth PAL signal). Most TV's and
monitors can grok this signal, provided you adjust the vertical hold a bit
and adjust the tint all the way to red to compensate for the lower red
response. The notable exception to this are these new cutesy RCA TV's that
don't have vertical hold controls.
-------JRCooper.PA@XEROX.COM (03/14/86)
RE: NTSC<->PAL "As far as doing it on a consumer level, I seriously doubt you are going to be able to get it done for a reasonable cost." On the Contrary, there are Video dubbing houses in the San Francisco Bay Area who are Blowing a hole in the bottom of the Standards conversions Market. Three weeks ago VidiCopy of Sunnyvale Ca announced that they would be dropping their prices on Standards conversion to the price of a regular dub. (the price before this announcement was in the range of $150--$250/hr of program material.) Other Local companies offering this service have had no choice but to follow suit. What is happening along those lines elsewhere? B/W NTSC was 525 lines 60 hz PAL is 625 lines 50Hz Jim Cooper <Jrcooper.pa@xerox.com>
dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (03/25/86)
> NTSC video is a 525-line, 30 frame format with each frame made up of two > fields. The field rate is 59.94 fields/sec. PAL is totally different, > not only with a different field rate, but a different line format. PAL > standard is around 600 lines if I remember correctly. In summary, it's > a real pain to convert the stuff. There are several production companies > in New York which specialize in converting video from-to various formats. (Once again) PAL has NOTHING TO DO WITH LINE AND FIELD FORMATS. NOTHING. There is indeed a standard known as PAL-M which uses NTSC scanning rates and simply adds the logic and delay line circuitry required to cope with opposite phase burst on every line. System M is 525 lines, 60 fields/sec, 2:1 interlace System B is 625 lines, 50 fields/sec, 2:1 interlace System M is utilised in the United States, Canada, etc. and typically uses NTSC as its colour system System B (and its variants) is utilised in the UK, etc; and typically uses PAL as its colour system. So, if you want to discuss conversion, let's use the correct terminology NTSC-M to PAL-B (or whatever). The conversion in component form (RGB or YIQ) from M to B is nontrivial but not horribly expensive; I expect the next generation of standards converters to cost under $20,000. (You can now buy a frame store TBC for under $5,000 including rudimentary digital video effects!!) Composite (encoded) form conversion is not possible at the present state of the art, and why would anyone want to in the first place?? Actually, the colour system is irrelevant except in the case of SECAM to NTSC (which requires additional temporal processing due to that stupid line multiplexing technique -- I don't care if the sets don't have a hue control ) because all conversions are performed RGB or YIQ. There are other 625 line systems out there, but the suffix letter refers to the luminance bandwidth and audio subcarrier frequency. The 819 line standard is, I believe, obsolete (or rapidly becoming so) to permit interchange of videotape amongst members of the EBU. Keeping NTSC the best television system in the world... David Anthony Director of Engineering DataSpan, Inc