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From: hamilton@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Doug Hamilton)
Newsgroups: comp.ivideodisc
Subject: Re: British vs American VCRs
Message-ID: <4695@dogie.macc.wisc.edu>
Date: 7 Nov 90 03:04:16 GMT
Sender: news@dogie.macc.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Academic Computing Center
Lines: 43

In article <27920@usc>, lfreeman@phad.hsc.usc.edu (Leny Freeman) writes...

> 
>Since British TV screens have more "lines" than those in the US,
>one presumes that British VCR's are different too.  My question is: 
>are the actual videotapes different? 

YES!

>In other words, will a US
>tape play on a British machine, or vice versa?  

NO!

Perhaps the tapes
>are the same, but the VCR processes them differently?  Anyone know?
> 


The UK, and most of Europe except France, uses the PAL system. The USand 
Japan use NTSC (Never Twice the Same Color)--in many ways an inferior 
system, and there's a story behind how we ended up with the inferior 
system (and a lesson to be learned as we make decisions about HDTV).

 PAL video has 600 lines of vertical resolution as opposed to NTSC's 525 
lines. In addition, the color encoding for PAL is supposedly superior.

Although PAL and NTSC videotapes physically look the same, neither will 
play in a machine designed for the other, as I confirmed for myself this 
summer in Denmark.



d.




   ............hamilton@macc.wisc.edu or hamilton@wiscmacc.bitnet
    ............Douglas Hamilton, Instructional Technology Support
     ............Academic Computing Center, University of Wisconsin
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