PAL and NTSC

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:12 am

Whats PAL and NTSC?

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:37 am

PAL

(1) Short for Phase Alternating Line, the dominant television
standard in Europe. The United States uses a different standard,
NTSC. Whereas NTSC delivers 525 lines of resolution at 60
half-frames per second, PAL delivers 625 lines at 50 half-frames
per second. Many video adapters that enable computer monitors
to be used as television screens support both NTSC and PAL signals.

NTSC

Short for National Television System Committee. The NTSC is
responsible for setting television and video standards in the
United States (in Europe and the rest of the world, the
dominant television standards are PAL and SECAM). The NTSC
standard for television defines a composite video signal with
a refresh rate of 60 half-frames (interlaced) per second.
Each frame contains 525 lines and can contain 16 million different
colors.

The NTSC standard is incompatible with most computer
video standards, which generally use RGB video signals.
However, you can insert special video adapters into
your computer that convert NTSC signals into computer
video signals and vice versa.

deffinitions taken from webopedia.com Very Happy

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:47 am

NTSC games diferrent than PAL games? or is it just the res. thats diferrent?

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 12:11 pm

They run at different frequencies so if we're going to connect the 2 versions together, the game must be able to synchronise them properly.

You can find a good post about this on Bungie's forums (Halo was incompatible with NTSC-PAL).

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:53 pm

ok... so, is NTSC best or PAL?

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:17 pm

There is no "best". They are just different. Gameplay is the same.

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 274

yep but NTSC games release before PAL games

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:00 pm

Zegita @ Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:53 pm wrote:

ok... so, is NTSC best or PAL?

It's not that you are going to see a difference but PAL has a beter way to transport colors and will give you beter colors and a higher resolution but then again, it's not likely that you will see a difference.

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:58 pm

ViErRi @ Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:22 pm wrote:

yep but NTSC games release before PAL games

Wrong. If you need examples, I'll get you some. Wink

One being Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorrow.
Two being Halo2
3 being: Neighbors from Hell
4 being Leisure Suit Larry
5 Worms
6 Constantine

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 274

yes you have right but mostly are NTSC games earlier

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:05 am

NTSC games can't be "better" than PAL. Games are generally released in USA or Japan first, and it just so happens that their video mode is NTSC. UK, Aus, Europe use PAL, and everyone knows those countries get their games a little later than everywhere else.

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:00 am

in respect to which one is better in terms of equipment such as a TV. if you get a high quality tv then the odds are you wont be able to tell the difference. some tvs support both standards. my tv seems to have no problem running both pal and ntsc games

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:48 pm

can i use NTSC saves in a PAL game? or PAL saves in a NTSC game?

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:32 am

Depends on the game. Some yes, some no.