PAL Camcorders: The Most Popular Standard Worldwide

PAL means Phase Alternate Line, which is a video standard used in the majority of European countries, even though France and a few other countries use SECAM, and this format is highly incompatible with the US’s NTSC format. This means that if a person is using a PAL camcorder it would not be useable on a United States VCR where a different format is being used. This is despite the advances that have taken place in the entertainment and especially video standards throughout the world.

Use A CMD-1200 To Convert PAL Into NTSC And Use In NTSC Countries

This disparity in video standards means that a PAL camcorder will not be of much use for VCR’s using standards different to PAL. The reason behind these different video standards is that a few countries had established their own video standards with the U.S. having its own, ditto the U.K and France. However, PAL is the dominant format throughout the world in the analog television broadcasting and video display fields even though the US does not have this format on its VCRs. The PAL camcorder is based on a 625 line, 50 field and 25 frames per second format that is also a 50 Hz system.

The signal of the PAL camcorder is interlaced much like the NTSC into two fields consisting of 312 lines each. In addition, the PAL camcorder has several distinguishing features that set it apart from others. Some of these features are providing a better overall picture than NTSC as well as more color consistency between television and stations. The better picture quality of the PAL camcorder can be attributed to the fact that it has an increased number of scanned lines. The more consistency in colors is because from the beginning PAL camcorders were incorporating color standards and this resulted in better color consistency.

PAL camcorders do suffer from a major drawback; the picture tends to flicker, somewhat like that seen on a projected film because there are only 25 frames displayed per second. Countries that have PAL are U.K., Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China, India, most of Africa, and the Middle East, to name but a few. PAL camcorders work only with a PAL or multi system TV and these are found mainly outside the US. But, in order to use a PAL camcorder in the US there is need to first buy the CMD-1200 which will convert the PAL signal to NTSC and this will enable the user to use a PAL camcorder in countries like USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, etc, which are basically NTSC countries.