This document discusses various standards and technologies related to video. It begins by explaining the different analog television color encoding systems used in different countries: PAL, SECAM, and NTSC. It then provides more details on each system, including lines, frames per second, and regions of use. The document also covers standards conversion between these analog systems, aspect ratios, composite and component video, and digital interfaces like HDMI and DVI.

1. Understanding video technology

2. TELEVISION STANDARDS

3. PAL, SECAM, NTSC
• Analogue television color encoding system
used for broadcasting.
• Varies in different countries:
• These are NOT COMPATIBLE with each other.
(This is why you need to choose your region
before playing some DVDs)

4. Phase Alternating Line (PAL)
• 625 lines
• 25 frames per second(with the exception of
Pal-M in Brazil. Pal-M is very similar to NTSC)
• Parts of south America, Europe, Middle
East, north and east Africa, most of
Asia, Australia and New Zealand use PAL.
• Has a frequency of 4.4 MHz.

5. National Television System
Committee (NTSC)
• 525 lines
• 29.97 interlaced frames per second
• Japan, south Korea, north America, and parts
of south America use NTSC
• Has a frequency of 3.5 MHz.

6. Sequential Colour with Memory
(SECAM)
• Also 625 lines
• Russia, Mongolia, Madagascar, and west Africa
use SECAM
• Has frequencies of 4.4 and 4.2 MHz
(alternating).

7. STANDARDS CONVERSION

8. Standards conversion
• Process of changing one analogue TV system
to another (e.g. NTSC to PAL and vice versa)
allowing content made from a different
country to be viewed in different countries.

9. ASPECT RATIO

10. What is an aspect ratio?
• The aspect ratio is a way to measure a size of a
image, video or film. It can vary in length and
width depending on what screen it is shown on /
how far a projector is away from a screen
however a ratio Is kept.
• Five of the most common ratios are:
- 4:3
- 3:2
- 16:9
- 1.85:1
- 2.39:1

11. Problems
• Most film cameras will record in a wide screen aspect ratio
(1.37:1) and old television aspect ratios were 4:3. This
meant that the movie could not be viewed as it is filmed as
to fit it on the screen would mean to cut off a significant
amount of the movie off.
• One solution to this was the ‘pan and scan’ where either
the camera or the post production editing made the film
move sideways for the audience watching on the television
to see what was in the rest of the frame.
• A more modern solution was letterboxing where instead of
trying to fill the whole screen of the television with the
film, they would place the film in the middle of the screen
with blank space (black) showing on the top and bottom.

12. COMPONENT AND COMPOSITE
VIDEO

13. Composite video
• Composite video cables are normally either
just a single yellow cable (yellow is color code
for ‘video’) or accompanied with red and
white audio cables.
• A composite video cable is made of all the
components in a video signal (it’s limited to
480 lines which is standard definition).

14. Component video
• A component cable separate the luminence
and chroma parts of the analogue color signal
which allows a better picture. Requires 3
cables color coded as red, blue and green.
• A component cable is able to carry a high
definition video unlike the composite video
cable .

15. HDMI AND DVI

16. HDMI and DVI
• HDMI (High definition multimedia interface) is a DIGITAL
composite cable where both image and audio can be
transferred.
• DVI (Digital video interface) does not transfer audio.
• The HDMI is a more preferred choice over DVI as it
supports both audio and video, is high definition
(1920*1200 max), and supports BluRay – another high
quality piece of equipment.
• DVI can be analogue or digital. It’s appearance is similar to
that of a VGA cable (analogue only) however the prongs
inside of the cable are different. The DVI cable also
supports up to 1920*1200 but it doesn not support Blu Ray.

17. BROADCAST SYSTEMS