PAL
Encyclopedia
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and SECAM
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system. The articles on broadcast television systems and analogue television further describe frame rates, image resolution and audio modulation. For discussion of the 625-line / 50 field (25 frame) per second television standard, see 576i
576i
576i is a standard-definition video mode used in PAL and SECAM countries. In digital applications it is usually referred to as "576i", in analogue contexts it is often quoted as "625 lines"...
.
History
In the 1950s, the Western European countries commenced planning to introduce colour television, and were faced with the problem that the NTSC standard demonstrated several weaknesses, including colour tone shifting under poor transmission conditions. To overcome NTSC's shortcomings, alternative standards were devised, resulting in the development of the PAL and SECAM standards. The goal was to provide a colour TV standard for the European picture frequency of 50 fieldsField (video)
In video, a field is one of the many still images which are displayed sequentially to create the impression of motion on the screen. Two fields comprise one video frame...
per second (50 hertz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
), and finding a way to eliminate the problems with NTSC.
PAL was developed by Walter Bruch
Walter Bruch
Walter Bruch was a German engineer who invented the PAL color television system at Telefunken in the early 1960s. In Addition to his research activities Professor Bruch taught at Hannover Technical University. He was awarded the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring in 1975.-Biography:He was born at Neustadt an...
at Telefunken
Telefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
in Germany. The format was unveiled in 1963, with the first broadcasts beginning in the United Kingdom in 1964 and Germany in 1967, though the one BBC channel initially using the broadcast standard only began to broadcast in colour from 1967. Telefunken PALcolor 708T was the first PAL commercial TV set. It followed by Loewe S 920 & F 900
Telefunken was later bought by the French electronics manufacturer Thomson. Thomson also bought the Compagnie Générale de Télévision where Henri de France
Henri de France
Henri Georges de France was a pioneering French television inventor. His inventions include the 819 line French standard and the SECAM color system...
developed SECAM, the first European Standard for colour television. Thomson, now called Technicolor SA, also owns the RCA brand
RCA (trademark)
RCA is an American trademark brand owned by Technicolor SA which is used on products made by that company as well as Audiovox, ON Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment...
and licenses it to other companies; Radio Corporation of America
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
, the originator of that brand, created the NTSC colour TV standard before Thomson became involved.
The term PAL is often used informally and somewhat imprecisely to refer to the 625-line/50 Hz (576i
576i
576i is a standard-definition video mode used in PAL and SECAM countries. In digital applications it is usually referred to as "576i", in analogue contexts it is often quoted as "625 lines"...
) television system in general, to differentiate from the 525-line/60 Hz (480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
) system generally used with NTSC. Accordingly, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s are labelled as either PAL or NTSC (referring informally to the line count and frame rate) even though technically the discs do not have either PAL or NTSC composite colour. The line count and frame rate are defined as EIA 525/60 or CCIR 625/50; PAL and NTSC are only the method of embedding colour in the transmission.
Colour encoding
Both the PAL and the NTSC system use a quadrature amplitude modulatedQuadrature amplitude modulation
Quadrature amplitude modulation is both an analog and a digital modulation scheme. It conveys two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, by changing the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude-shift keying digital modulation scheme or amplitude modulation analog...
subcarrier
Subcarrier
A subcarrier is a separate analog or digital signal carried on a main radio transmission, which carries extra information such as voice or data. More technically, it is an already-modulated signal, which is then modulated into another signal of higher frequency and bandwidth...
carrying the chrominance information added to the luminance video signal to form a composite video
Composite video
Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...
baseband signal. The frequency of this subcarrier is 4.43361875 MHz for PAL, compared to 3.579545 MHz for NTSC. The SECAM system, on the other hand, uses a frequency modulation scheme on its two line alternate colour subcarriers 4.25000 and 4.40625 MHz.
The name "Phase Alternating Line" describes the way that the phase of part of the colour information on the video signal is reversed with each line, which automatically corrects phase errors in the transmission of the signal by cancelling them out, at the expense of vertical frame colour resolution. Lines where the colour phase is reversed compared to NTSC are often called PAL or phase-alternation lines, which justifies one of the expansions of the acronym, while the other lines are called NTSC lines. Early PAL receivers relied on the human eye to do that cancelling; however, this resulted in a comb-like effect known as Hanover bars
Hanover bars
Hanover bars, in the simplest PAL television video format, are an undesirable artifact in the reception of a television image.Two signals, B-Y and R-Y are used in the PAL system to carry the color information for a picture, with the phase of the V signal reversed on alternate lines...
on larger phase errors. Thus, most receivers now use a chrominance delay line
Delay line
Delay line may refer to:* Propagation delay, the length of time taken for something to reach its destination* Analog delay line, used to delay a signal...
, which stores the received colour information on each line of display; an average of the colour information from the previous line and the current line is then used to drive the picture tube. The effect is that phase errors result in saturation changes, which are less objectionable than the equivalent hue changes of NTSC. A minor drawback is that the vertical colour resolution is poorer than the NTSC system's, but since the human eye also has a colour resolution that is much lower than its brightness resolution, this effect is not visible. In any case, NTSC, PAL, and SECAM all have chrominance bandwidth (horizontal colour detail) reduced greatly compared to the luminance signal.
The original colour carrier
Carrier wave
In telecommunications, a carrier wave or carrier is a waveform that is modulated with an input signal for the purpose of conveying information. This carrier wave is usually a much higher frequency than the input signal...
is required by the colour decoder to recreate the colour difference signals. Since the carrier is not transmitted with the video information it has to be generated locally in the receiver. In order that the phase
Phase
-In physics:*Phase , a physically distinctive form of a substance, such as the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of ordinary matter**Phase transition is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase to another*Phase...
of this locally generated signal can match the transmitted information, a 10 cycle burst of colour subcarrier
Subcarrier
A subcarrier is a separate analog or digital signal carried on a main radio transmission, which carries extra information such as voice or data. More technically, it is an already-modulated signal, which is then modulated into another signal of higher frequency and bandwidth...
is added to the video signal shortly after the line sync pulse, but before the picture information, during the so called back porch. This colour burst is not actually in phase with the original colour subcarrier, but leads it by 45 degrees on the odd lines and lags it by 45 degrees on the even lines. This swinging burst
Burst phase
Burst phase is the first ten cycles of colour burst in the "porch" of the synchronising pulse in the PAL broadcast television systems format...
enables the colour decoder circuitry to distinguish the phase of the R-Y vector which reverses every line.
PAL vs. NTSC
NTSCNTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
receivers have a tint control
Tint control
Because the NTSC color television standard relies on the absolute phase of the color information, color errors occur when the phase of the video signal is altered between source and receiver...
to perform colour correction manually. If this is not adjusted correctly, the colours may be faulty. The PAL standard automatically cancels hue
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
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
Delay line
Delay line may refer to:* Propagation delay, the length of time taken for something to reach its destination* Analog delay line, used to delay a signal...
resulting in lower saturation, which is much less noticeable to the eye than NTSC hue errors.
However, the alternation of colour information — Hanover bars
Hanover bars
Hanover bars, in the simplest PAL television video format, are an undesirable artifact in the reception of a television image.Two signals, B-Y and R-Y are used in the PAL system to carry the color information for a picture, with the phase of the V signal reversed on alternate lines...
— 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
Telefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
. 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
Delay line
Delay line may refer to:* Propagation delay, the length of time taken for something to reach its destination* Analog delay line, used to delay a signal...
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
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
control.
PAL and NTSC have slightly divergent colour space
Colorimetry
Colorimetry is "the science and technology used to quantify and describe physically the human color perception."It is similar to spectrophotometry, but is distinguished by its interest in reducing spectra to the physical correlates of color perception, most often the CIE 1931 XYZ color space...
s, but the colour decoder differences here are ignored.
PAL vs. SECAM
SECAMSECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
is an earlier attempt at compatible colour television which also tries to resolve the NTSC hue problem. It does so by applying a different method to colour transmission, namely alternate transmission of the U and V vectors and frequency modulation, while PAL attempts to improve on the NTSC method.
SECAM transmissions are more robust over longer distances than NTSC or PAL. However, owing to their FM nature, the colour signal remains present, although at reduced amplitude, even in monochrome portions of the image, thus being subject to stronger cross colour. Like PAL, a SECAM receiver needs a delay line.
PAL signal details
For PAL-B/G the signal has these characteristics.| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Pixel Clock frequency (digital sources with 704 or 720 active Pixel/Line) |
|
| Bandwidth | |
| Horizontal sync polarity | Negative |
| Total time for each line | |
| Front porch Front Porch Front Porch, Inc. provides services to Internet Service Providers. Front Porch technology enables an Internet Service Provider to insert its own messages to be presented to users as they use their web browsers, such as customer service notices or online advertising... (A) |
|
| Sync pulse length (B) | |
| Back porch (C) | |
| Active video (D) | |
(Total horizontal sync time 12.05 µs)
After 0.9 µs a colorburst
Colorburst
Colorburst is a analog video, composite video signal generated by a video-signal generator used to keep the chrominance subcarrier synchronized in a color television signal...
of cycles is sent. Most rise/fall times are in range. Amplitude is 100% for white level, 30% for black, and 0% for sync.
The CVBS electrical amplitude is Vpp and impedance of 75 Ω
Ohm
The ohm is the SI unit of electrical resistance, named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm.- Definition :The ohm is defined as a resistance between two points of a conductor when a constant potential difference of 1 volt, applied to these points, produces in the conductor a current of 1 ampere,...
.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Vertical lines | 313 (625 total) |
| Vertical lines visible | 288 (576 total) |
| Vertical sync polarity | Negative (burst) |
| Vertical frequency | |
| Sync pulse length (F) | (burst) |
| Active video (H) | 18.4 ms |
(Total vertical sync time 1.6 ms)
As PAL is interlaced, every two fields are summed to make a complete picture frame.
Luminance
Luma (video)
In video, luma, sometimes called luminance, represents the brightness in an image . Luma is typically paired with chrominance. Luma represents the achromatic image without any color, while the chroma components represent the color information...
,
, is derived from red, green, and blue (
) signals:
and 
are used to transmit chrominanceChrominance
Chrominance is the signal used in video systems to convey the color information of the picture, separately from the accompanying luma signal . Chrominance is usually represented as two color-difference components: U = B' − Y' and V = R' − Y'...
. Each has a typical bandwidth of 1.3 MHz.
Composite PAL signal
timing where 
.Subcarrier frequency
is 4.43361875 MHz (±5 Hz) for PAL-B/D/G/H/I/N.PAL broadcast systems
This table illustrates the differences:| PAL B | PAL G, H | PAL I | PAL D/K | PAL M | PAL N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission Band | VHF | UHF | UHF/VHF* | VHF/UHF | VHF/UHF | VHF/UHF |
| Fields | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 | 50 |
| Lines | 625 | 625 | 625 | 625 | 525 | 625 |
| Active lines | 576 | 576 | 582** | 576 | 480 | 576 |
| Channel Bandwidth | 7 MHz | 8 MHz | 8 MHz | 8 MHz | 6 MHz | 6 MHz |
| Video Bandwidth | 5.0 MHz | 5.0 MHz | 5.5 MHz | 6.0 MHz | 4.2 MHz | 4.2 MHz |
| Colour Subcarrier | 4.43361875 MHz | 4.43361875 MHz | 4.43361875 MHz | 4.43361875 MHz | 3.575611 MHz | 3.58205625 MHz |
| Sound Carrier | 5.5 MHz | 5.5 MHz | 6.0 MHz | 6.5 MHz | 4.5 MHz | 4.5 MHz |
PAL-B/G/D/K/I
The majority of countries using PAL have television standards with 625 lines and 25 frames per second576i
576i is a standard-definition video mode used in PAL and SECAM countries. In digital applications it is usually referred to as "576i", in analogue contexts it is often quoted as "625 lines"...
, differences concern the audio carrier frequency and channel bandwidths. Standards B/G are used in most of Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, standard I in the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa and Macau, standards D/K in most of Central and Eastern Europe and Standard D in mainland China. Most analogue CCTV cameras are Standard D.
Systems B and G are similar. System B is used for 7 MHz-wide channels on VHF, while System G is used for 8 MHz-wide channels on UHF (and Australia uses System B on UHF). Similarly, Systems D and K are similar except for the bands they use: System D is only used on VHF, while System K is only used on UHF. Although System I is used on both bands, it has only been used on UHF in the United Kingdom due to 405-line TV services on VHF operating until the 1980s.
PAL-M (Brazil)
In Brazil, PAL is used in conjunction with the 525 line, 29.97 frame/s system M, using (very nearly) the NTSC colour subcarrier frequency. Exact colour subcarrier frequency of PAL-M is 3.575611 MHz. Almost all other countries using system M use NTSC.The PAL colour system (either baseband or with any RF system, with the normal 4.43 MHz subcarrier unlike PAL-M) can also be applied to an NTSC-like 525-line (480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
) picture to form what is often known as "PAL-60" (sometimes "PAL-60/525", "Quasi-PAL" or "Pseudo PAL"). PAL-M (a broadcast standard) however should not be confused with "PAL-60" (a video playback system — see below).
PAL-N (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay)
In Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay the PAL-N variant is used. It employs the 625 line/50 field per second waveform of PAL-B/G, D/K, H, I, but on a 6MHz channel with a chrominance subcarrier frequency of 3.582 MHz very similar to NTSC.VHS tapes recorded from a PAL-N or a PAL-B/G, D/K, H, I broadcast are indistinguishable because the downconverted subcarrier on the tape is the same. A VHS recorded off TV (or released) in Europe will play in colour on any PAL-N VCR and PAL-N TV in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Likewise, any tape recorded in Argentina or Uruguay off a PAL-N TV broadcast, can be sent to anyone in European countries that use PAL (and Australia/New Zealand, etc.) and it will display in colour. This will also play back successfully in Russia and other SECAM countries, as the USSR mandated PAL compatibility in 1985 - this has proved to be very convenient for video collectors.
People in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay usually own TV sets that also display NTSC-M, in addition to PAL-N.
Direct TV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
also conveniently broadcasts in NTSC-M for North, Central and South America. Most DVD players sold in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay also play PAL discs - however, this is usually output in the European variant (colour subcarrier frequency 4.433618 MHz), so people who own a TV set which only works in PAL-N (plus NTSC-M in most cases) will have to watch those PAL DVD imports in black and white as the colour subcarrier frequency in the TV set is the PAL-N variation, 3.582056 MHz.
In the case that a VHS or DVD player works in PAL (and not in PAL-N) and the TV set works in PAL-N (and not in PAL), there are two options:
- images can be seen in black and white, or
- an inexpensive transcoder (PAL -> PAL-N) can be purchased in order to see the colours
Some DVD players (usually lesser known brands) include an internal transcoder and the signal can be output in NTSC-M, with some video quality loss due to the system's conversion from a 625/50 PAL DVD to the NTSC-M 525/60 output format. A few DVD players sold in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay also allow a signal output of NTSC-M, PAL, or PAL-N. In that case, a PAL disc (imported from Europe) can be played back on a PAL-N TV because there are no field/line conversions, quality is generally excellent.
Extended features of the PAL specification, such as Teletext, are implemented quite differently in PAL-N. PAL-N supports a modified 608 closed captioning format that is designed to ease compatibility with NTSC originated content carried on line 18, and a modified teletext format that can occupy several lines.
PAL-L
The PAL L (Phase Alternating Line with L-sound system) standard uses the same video system as PAL-B/G/H (625 lines, 50 Hz field rate, 15.625 kHz line rate), but with 6 MHz video bandwidth rather than 5.5 MHz. This requires the audio subcarrier to be moved to 6.5 MHz. An 8 MHz channel spacing is used for PAL-L.System A
The BBC tested their pre-war 405 line monochrome system with all three colour standards including PAL, before the decision was made to abandon 405 and transmit colour on 625/System I only.PAL interoperability
The PAL colour system is usually used with a video format that has 625 lines per frame (576 visible lines, the rest being used for other information such as sync data and captioning) and a refresh rateRefresh rate
The refresh rate is the number of times in a second that a display hardware draws the data...
of 50 interlaced fields per second (i.e. 25 full frames per second), such systems being B, G, H, I, and N (see broadcast television systems for the technical details of each format).
This ensures video interoperability. However as some of these standards (B/G/H, I and D/K) use different sound carriers (5.5MHz, 6.0MHz 6.5MHz respectively), it may result in a video image without audio when viewing a signal broadcast over the air or cable. Some countries in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
which formerly used SECAM
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
with systems D and K have switched to PAL while leaving other aspects of their video system the same, resulting in the different sound carrier. Instead, other European countries have changed completely from SECAM-D/K to PAL-B/G.
The PAL-N system has a different sound carrier, and also a different colour subcarrier, and decoding on incompatible PAL systems results in a black and white image without sound.
The PAL-M system has a different sound carrier and a different colour subcarrier, and does not use 625 lines or 50 frames/second. This would result in no video or audio at all when viewing a European signal.
Multisystem PAL support and "PAL 60"
Recently manufactured PAL television receivers can typically decode all of these systems except, in some cases, PAL-M and PAL-N. Many of receivers can also receive Eastern European and Middle Eastern SECAM, though rarely French-broadcast SECAM (because France uses the unique positive video modulation) unless they are manufactured for the French market. They will correctly display plain CVBS or S-video SECAM signals. Many can also accept basebandBaseband
In telecommunications and signal processing, baseband is an adjective that describes signals and systems whose range of frequencies is measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used as a noun for a band of frequencies...
NTSC-M, such as from a VCR or game console, and RF modulated NTSC with a PAL standard audio subcarrier (i.e. from a modulator), though not usually broadcast NTSC (as its 4.5 MHz audio subcarrier is not supported). Many sets also support NTSC with a 4.43 MHz subcarrier.
Many 1990s onwards VCR players sold in Europe can play back NTSC tapes/discs. When operating in this mode most of them do not output a true (625/25) PAL signal, but rather a hybrid consisting of the original NTSC line standard (525/30), but with colour converted to PAL 4.43 MHz - this is known as "PAL 60" (also "quasi-PAL" or "pseudo PAL") with "60" standing for 60 Hz (for 525/30), instead of 50 Hz (for 625/25). Some video game consoles also output a signal in this mode. Most newer television sets can display such a signal correctly, but some will only do so (if at all) in black and white and/or with flickering/foldover at the bottom of the picture, or picture rolling (however, many old TV sets can display the picture properly by means of adjusting the V-Hold and V-Height knobs — assuming they have them). Some TV tuner cards or video capture cards will support this mode (although software/driver modification can be required and the manufacturers' specs may be unclear). A "PAL 60" signal is similar to an NTSC (525/30) signal, but with the usual PAL chrominance subcarrier at 4.43 MHz (instead of 3.58 as with NTSC and South American PAL variants) and with the PAL-specific phase alternation of the red colour difference signal between the lines.
Most European DVD players output a true NTSC-M signal when playing NTSC discs, which many modern European TV sets can resolve.
Countries and territories using PAL
Over 120 countries and territories use or once used the terrestrial PAL system. Many of these are currently converting terrestrial PAL to DVB-TDVB-T
DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
(PAL still often used by cable TV or in conjunction with a digital standard, such as DVB-C
DVB-C
DVB-C stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable and it is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable...
).
PAL B, G, D, K or I
(DVB-T introduction started in 2004) Ascension IslandAscension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
(PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2012, simulcast in DVB-T) (DVB-T introduction started in 2001, PAL-B to be abandoned for DVB-T by 2013) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (migrated from SECAM 1994–1996) (set to migrate to DVB-T in 2012, although such broadcasts are currently only available in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
) (PAL-D, digital broadcast using DMB-T/H
DMB-T/H
DTMB is the TV standard for mobile and fixed terminals used in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although at first this standard was called DMB-T/H , the official name is DTMB.DTT broadcasting systems...
) (historic, Chile adopted NTSC-M and now will be abandoned for ISDB-T) (see Australia) (see New Zealand) (PAL broadcast abandoned by the end of 2010; broadcasting now in DVB-T, introduction started in 2005) (migrated from SECAM 1992–1994) (DVB-T introduction started in 2006, PAL to be abandoned for DVB-T by 2012) (Timor-Leste) (migrated from SECAM 1990–1992) (UHF only) (used SECAM, completely migrated to PAL-D/K in 2000s) (East Germany used SECAM, after reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
migrated to PAL in early 1990s; PAL broadcast abandoned at the end of 2008; DVB-T introduction started in 2003) (State TV ERT
ERT
ERT can stand for:*Earth-received time, a measurement used when dealing with interplanetary spacecraft*Electrical resistivity tomography, a geophysical imaging technique...
migrated from SECAM in ca. 1992- private channels use PAL since their launch in 1989 - DVB-T introduction started in 2006.) (PAL-I, DMB-T/H
DMB-T/H
DTMB is the TV standard for mobile and fixed terminals used in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although at first this standard was called DMB-T/H , the official name is DTMB.DTT broadcasting systems...
introduced since 31 December 2007, PAL-I broadcast planned to be abandoned in 2015) (migrated from SECAM 1995–1996; PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 31 December 2014; is converting to DVB-T) (PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2018; simulcast in DVB-T since 2008) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (VHF and UHF) (PAL transmitter shutdown started 31 March 2011 and completed on 13 June 2011; converted to DVB-T) (PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2012, already abandoned in some provinces; currently converting to DVB-T) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (migrated from SECAM 1997–1999; PAL to be abandoned by 29 October 2012, Simulcast in DVB-T)
(PAL-I, digital broadcast using DMB-T/H) (PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2012; DVB-T introduction started in 2005) (Preliminary DVB-T Trials ended, further trials planned. Set top box and Digital TV not yet available on sale, but USB DVB-T receivers for viewing on a computer are widely available now. Plans to abandon PAL broadcast by 2015) (Broadcasting now in DVB-T) (PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2012–2017, simulcast in DVB-S (since 2007) & DVB-T (gradually rolled out since mid-2008 starting with major centres)) (see Australia) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (Gaza
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
& West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
, DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (migrated from SECAM 1993–1995; PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2013; is converting to DVB-T), including
Madeira and 
Azores (PAL broadcast to be fully abandoned by 2011, DVB-T simulcast since 2007) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) (PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2010–2011; is converting to DVB-T since early 2007) (Samoa is converting to NTSCNTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and probably ATSC) (DVB-T introduction started in 2005, PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2015) (DVB-T introduction started in 2004, PAL to be fully abandoned by 2015-2020) (migrated from SECAM 1992–1994; PAL to be fully abandoned by 2012, converted to DVB-T) (PAL to be abandoned by 2013, is converting to DVB-T) (Tonga is converting to NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and probably ATSC) (along with SECAM) (UHF only, PAL broadcast to be abandoned by 2012, already abandoned in some regions. Simulcast in DVB-T. DVB-T introduction started in 1998, DVB-T2 added from 2009.) (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment)
PAL-M
(simulcastSimulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
with digital format in SBTVD-T
SBTVD
ISDB-T International or SBTVD, short for Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital is a technical standard for digital television broadcast used in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Philippines, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Uruguay, based on the Japanese ISDB-T...
, an update to ISDB-T, started in December 2007. PAL broadcast continues until 2016)
PAL-N
(H264 video over ISDB-T, at 576i@50Hz (SD) or 1080i@50Hz (HD)) (will use ISDB-T, but no date decided yet)Countries and territories that once used PAL
| Country | Switched to | Switchover completed |
|---|---|---|
 Andorra |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
25 September 2007 |
 Austria |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
7 June 2011 |
 Belgium |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 March 2010 |
 Independent State of Croatia |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
5 October 2010 |
 Denmark |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 November 2009 |
 Estonia |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 July 2010 |
 Finland |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 September 2007 |
 Israel |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
13 June 2011 |
 Latvia |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 June 2010 |
 Luxembourg |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 September 2006 |
 Malta |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
31 October 2011 |
 Netherlands |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
14 December 2006 |
 Norway |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 December 2009 |
 Slovenia |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
1 December 2010 |
 Spain |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
3 April 2010 |
 Sweden |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
29 October 2007 |
 Switzerland |
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998... |
26 November 2007 |
See also
- PALplusPALplusPALplus is an extension of the PAL analogue broadcasting system for transmitting 16:9 programs without sacrificing vertical resolution. It followed experiences with the HD-MAC and D2-MAC, standards that were incompatible with existing receivers but featured a 16:9 aspect ratio...
- Broadcast television systemBroadcast television systemBroadcast television systems are encoding or formatting standards for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. There are three main analog television systems in current use around the world: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM...
s- ATSC Standards
- BTSC
- NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
- NTSC-JNTSC-JNTSC-J is an analog television system and video display standard for the region of Japan.While NTSC-M is an official standard, "J" is more a colloquial indicator as used in Marketing definition but not an official term.-Technical definition:...
- RCARCARCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
- SECAMSECAMSECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
- Moving image formatsMoving image formatsThis article discusses moving image capture, transmission and presentation from today's technical and creative points of view; concentrating on aspects of frame rates.- Essential parameters :...
- Early television stations
- Digital televisionDigital televisionDigital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
- Broadcast safe
- PAL regionPAL regionThe PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...
- Differential gainDifferential gainDifferential gain is a kind of linearity distortion which affects the color saturation in TV broadcasting.- Composite color video signal :Composite color video signal consists of three terms:*Luminance signal...