International Standards Conversions

Three major television standards are currently in use throughout the world. Unfortunately, the standards are incompatible -- which means a tape you purchase in England cannot be viewed here. At Action Duplication we can convert tapes from any world standard to any other world standard.. Technical details of the 3 systems are listed below.

NTSC is the system in use in the United States. This system, developed by the National Television Systems Committee, is defined by 525 scan lines and a 60 cycle per second electrical system. It was developed to be compatible with the black and white sets that were in use when color broadcasting began.

PAL (Phase Alternation by Line) is the system in use in England, former British colonies and most of Europe. This system is defined by 625 scan lines and a 50 cycle per second electrical system.
SECAM (Séquential Couleur à Mémorie) is the system in use in France and former French colonies. This system is also defined by 625 scan lines and a 50 cycle per second electrical system.

PAL and SECAM are extremely similar, differing only in their handling of the color portion of the video signal. The PAL system reverses the relative phase of the color signal on each scan line. This process reduces the color distortion found in NTSC broadcasts. The SECAM system transmits the color information sequentially (R-Y than B-Y) for each scan line using a frequency modulated subcarrier. This process also reduces the color distortion found in NTSC broadcasts. However, the SECAM system is not fully black and white compatible.

Generally speaking, PAL and SECAM broadcasts will look sharper than NTSC broadcasts because of the additional 100 scan lines.

Click here for a list by country or by standard:

NTSC, PAL, SECAM, Country List
Download a standards listing