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From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.tv
Subject: NTSC vs. PAL (525/30 vs. 625/25)
Message-ID: <873@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Jan-86 15:22:35 EST
Article-I.D.: vortex.873
Posted: Sun Jan 19 15:22:35 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jan-86 08:26:05 EST
References: <215@unh.cs.cmu.edu>
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
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Xref: watmath net.misc:9171 net.tv:3898

As long as we're on this topic, I'm going to put in a comment about
NTSC vs. PAL that I've been wanting to say for a long time.  It is
popular to call NTSC "never twice same color" and demean it in 
comparison to PAL.  Frankly, I consider this sort of treatment
to no longer be accurate.

In the mid-60's when NTSC color was becoming popularized here in the
U.S., there were indeed serious color control problems.  The need to
adjust the flesh tones away from purple or green using the "tint" and
"color" knobs was frequent and delicate.  HOWEVER, the main reason
for this problem was lack of accurate color references and stability
in the broadcast and transmission systems used at that time.  As the
years went on, color stability improved massively, until now, as far
as I'm concerned, ongoing manual color adjustments are no longer required
on modern NTSC receivers.

For example, I have a five year old SONY NTSC set.  It does not have
special VIR reading adjustments or anything of that nature.  Still,
I set the color controls once five years ago and have NEVER had to change
them since then.  And we're not talking about just a few channels,
but seven VHF, many UHF, and incredibly many midband and superband
cable channels.  The color is rock solid and always correct.
So much for "never twice same color."

Secondly, while PAL color looks fine, I find the flicker rate
on 625/25 sets to be rather distracting.  Frankly, I notice the
flicker on a 625/25 set MUCH more than I notice the 625 vs. 525
PAL vs. NTSC line density difference.  In fact, I'm hard-pressed
to notice the density difference at ALL at normal viewing distances.
But 625/25 sets flicker quite noticeably even on relatively small
areas of solid color.  The difference between 25 frames and 30 frames IS
significant to the human eye.

Frankly, a 625/30 system would be nice, but as far as I'm concerned,
I would not want to trade NTSC's 30 frame rate for a 25 frame rate,
and NTSC's color control these days is just fine.

--Lauren--