Since my site reaches all over the World, I get many questions on the topic of differing video standards that prevent viewing of video tape recorded in the U.S., for instance, on a VCR in Eastern Europe. Or, in another case, a person from the U.K. is traveling in the U.S., shooting video on their camcorder, but cannot view their recordings on a U.S. TV or copy them onto a U.S. VCR. This also affects DVDs purchased in other countries as well, although DVD standards also include a factor called Region Coding, which is a whole other "can-of-worms". This is in addition to the video standards issue addressed here, and is further expalained in another article (refer to the link to "Region Codes: DVDs Dirty Secret" listed under Related Resources on the sidebar of this article).
Why is this? Is there a solution to this and other problems associated with differing video standards?
While radio transmission, for instance, enjoys standards that are in use everywhere in the World, television is not so fortunate.
In the current state of analog television, the World is divided into three Standards that are basically incompatible: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM.
Why three standards or systems? Basically, television was "invented" at different times in various parts of the world (U.S., U.K., and France). Politics pretty much dictated at the time which system would be employed as the national standard in these countries. Also, you have to remember that there was no consideration given at the time these TV Broadcast Systems were put in place, to the rise of the "Global" age we live in today, where information can be exchanged electronically as easily as having a conversation with one's neighbor.
Continue on to Page 2: Overview: NTSC, PAL, SEACAM
