WorldWide Television Video Formats

The world has developed 3 primary television video standards, PAL, NTSC & SECAM and a few derivatives of these formats including MeSecam.

The PAL (Phase Alternate Line) Standard was introduced in the early 60’s and was implemented in most European countries except for France. Australia uses a slightly modified version of the UK PAL system. The wider channel bandwidth of PAL (than NTSC) allows for better picture quality. PAL was designed to run at 625 lines per frame.

Developed in the USA in the 1950’s it was the first colour TV system implemented. NTSC (National Television System Committee standard). NTSC is used by many countries on the American continent as well as Japan and other Asian countries. NTSC was designed to run at 525 lines per frame.

The SECAM - Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire (Sequential Colour with Memory) standard introduced in the early 1960’s and was implemented in France. Secam uses the same bandwidth as PAL but transmits the colour signal sequentially. SECAM runs at 625 lines per frame.

Television video formats by country:

Select a country from our directory (A – C)   (D – H)   (I – L)   (M – P)   (Q – T)    (U – Z)