I have heard many people talking about NTSC and PAL and region locks and whatsoever. What actually means NTSC? What about PAL? And what is region lock? I have also heard that NTSC hardware don't execute PAL software and many things like this. What is the reason behind NTSC and PAL which don't support each others' contents?
What’s the meaning of NTSC and PAL?
NTSC – meaning “National Television System Committee.” Used in most American States except Latin America, some Asia Pacific Region like Japan, Philippines, Burma, South Korea and other Asian Countries. Developed by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in United States in 1940.
PAL – meaning “Phase Alternating Line.” Used in some parts of Africa, South America, Middle East, China and Central East Asia. Discovered by Walter Burch at Telefunken – Germany in 1950’s-1960.
PAL vs. NTSC
PAL has higher resolution (20%) than of NTSC. Both have 24 frame rate per second. PAL provides better transition between frames. PAL was developed to eliminate the lapses in NTSC. NTSC signals over transmission lines do have problem in converting colors or reception issues. This made European countries to develop PAL to correct color problems with NTSC. NTSC uses tint color adjusters to correct color issues unlike in PAL it automatically adjusts this error so adjusters are not necessary anymore.
NTSC and PAL Region Lock is established for “PRICING.”
Regional Lock Out causes difficulties in using games, videos and other multimedia files. This may arise different issues. This is being implemented for securing the rights or patents of any specific media/video products. Regional Lock Out is implemented to stumble the release of product or to follow “Grey Market” principle. Grey market is trade style or commodity that are legal that a manufacturer intended to release such product in limited location. Regional Lock causes price differences that will produce higher price from NTSC countries than of PAL countries or vice-versa. In order to break this barrier between countries with different formats, companies have to hire a grey market reseller like cable providers or third party vendors. This arises the control of “Plagiarism.” Plagiarism is the unauthorized publication of one’s creation/property or publication of unauthorized person using someone’s licensed products.
Changes in pricing that’s why Regional Lock was established. If a manufacturer will sell NTSC format to PAL countries, they have to hire a third party vendor which that vendor will purchase it from NTSC Market in a cheaper price and sell it to higher price in PAL regions. Which is in fact same thing that is happening in Apple products. Apple produces devices that is much higher in their local states. The price of their products and the integrity is being degraded to bring it to generic format markets.
What’s the meaning of NTSC and PAL?
Hi,
NTSC is National Television System Committee. PAL is Phase Alternation by Line. NTSC and PAL are color encoding systems. These are used for visual quality of content. NTSC standard is used in places like U.S. And Japan. PAL standard is used in places like Australia, UK. The basic difference in NTSC and PAL is frame rate and aspect ratio. NTSC is based on 30 frames per second and aspect ratio 720*480. PAL is based on 25 frames per second and aspect ratio 720*576. The reason behind NTSC and PAL don't support each other is NTSC support manual color correction and PAL support automated color correction.
