PAL vs NTSC: Which Is Better for DVD Burning

When we burn DVD disc or record video using HD camera recorders, we will find two different formats, NTSC and PAL. What is PAL? What is NTSC? PAL vs NTSC, which is better for DVD burning?  Can we play PAL DVDs in an NTSC region? How to burn PAL DVD to NTSC DVD disc? In this blog post, we'll explain PAL and NTSC in detail.

What is PAL:

PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a colour encoding system mainly used in broadcast television systems. PAL system delivers 25fps with 625 lines.

What is NTSC:

NTSC stands for National Television System Committee. It chooses a frame rate of 30 fps using 525 lines.

PAL vs NTSC, what are the differences

1. Frame rate (NTSC 60i/30p vs PAL 50i/25p),

2. Film with NTSC system is usually encoded at 29.97fps, 720x480p, 4:3 aspect ratio. PAL system uses 720*576, 4:3 aspect ratio and 24fps.

PAL vs NTSC, Advantages and Disadvantages

PAL system advantages:

1. PAL allows the maximum phase distortion of the entire system chrominance signal to be much greater than the NTSC system, reaching ± 40 ° and does not produce hue distortion.

2. PAL vs NTSC, Chrominance phase errors in the PAL system are cancelled out using a 1H delay line resulting in lower saturation, which is much less noticeable to the eye than NTSC hue errors.

3. It is better than NTSC system with multi-path receiving performance.

4. PAL receiver using comb filter, the brightness of the string can reduce the amplitude by 3dB, and can improve the color signal to noise ratio by 3dB.

5. PAL has better image quality than NTSC system.

PAL vs NTSC, PAL disadvantages:

1. The alternation of colour information can lead to picture grain on pictures with extreme phase errors in PAL systems.

2. Vertical color resolution PAL system is lower than NTSC system.

3. PAL receiver than the NTSC system receiver complex, the cost is slightly higher for the video recorder is also true.

4. PAL signal is not conducive to signal processing.

PAL Countries and NTSC Countries

PAL system is used in Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Standard I in the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Macau.

NTSC system is mainly used in most of the Americas (except Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and French Guiana), Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and some Pacific island nations and territories. See the map below.

More tips on PAL/NTSC DVDs Playback and Burning

All PAL DVD players output NTSC, and MOST PAL TVs will display NTSC with no problems. Some players play only NTSC discs, some multi-format DVD players play both PAL and NTSC discs. But if you want to play PAL DVDs on NTSC TV/PC/player etc. in NTSC region, you can change the region code. Note that the region code can be changed only up to 5 times. To solve this problem, many users download DVD ripper software and convert PAL DVD to NTSC format, MP4 etc. for unlimited playback and burning into NTSC DVD disc.