PAL DV vs. NTSC DV

Hank Parker · October 6, 2004

I live in the U.S. and am looking for a new camera to buy. I've occasionally seen PAL cameras, however they've been uncommon. Is there a disadvantage to a pal camera, picture quality wise? What would I have to do to accomodate a pal camera. As in, could I edit it on Final Cut? Could I use normal minidv tapes bought in the U.S.? Would I have troubles importing?

Thanks for any input at all.

Phil Rhodes · October 7, 2004

Hi,

> I live in the U.S. and am looking for a new camera to buy. I've occasionally

> seen PAL cameras, however they've been uncommon. Is there a disadvantage

> to a pal camera, picture quality wise?

The pictures are somewhat better. There's around 20% more lines per frame, meaning 20% more vertical resolution, and PAL DV uses 4:2:0 colour sampling which subjectively looks a little sharper, and works much better for chroma key.

> What would I have to do to accomodate a pal camera

The first question is why would you want to. You could deinterlace it and nearly have 24P, with a bit of a sound sync issue if you then wanted to output it as 3:2 pulldown'd NTSC. However, it's all a bit of a pain and you'd need a specific reason for doing it. Shooting 25p video on a PAL DVX-100 for filmout might be such a reason.

As a technical solution I don't think you'd have too many problems. None of the firewire hardware cares what format it is; the tapes are exactly the same (even the same length, unlike other video formats) and I assume that FCP is as easily switchable as Premiere is. You'd need to get a PAL-capable monitor, but any decent studio monitor is dual format these days anyway.

But you would have to have a really good reason.

Phil

Alvin Pingol · October 7, 2004

Wouldn't he also need a 115V 60Hz --> 220V 50Hz power converter?

Oh, and that also brings up another issue - along with needing to purchase a PAL monitor to view the footage (if not viewing on a computer), you will have to be careful when shooting anything that flickers at 60Hz.

This includes fluorescent lights and television sets. If your shutter is at 1/50th, the lights will "pulse," and the TV set will have ugly rolling bars. Of course, you can always dial the shutter to find an appropriate angle, but keep in mind it will alter motion rendering, especially when frames are non interlaced.

Phil Rhodes · October 7, 2004

Hi,

> Wouldn't he also need a 115V 60Hz --> 220V 50Hz power converter?

None of the power supplies I own care! I took all my gear to New York earlier this year and I didn't have to convert any of it.

> If your shutter is at 1/50th, the lights will "pulse,"

This is true, but I have found it to be extremely minor.

> and the TV set will have ugly rolling bars.

This is certainly true and is a considerable issue if you want to shoot TVs.

Phil

October 7, 2004

If you live in the US then get a NTSC camera, so it will be compatible with your TV. If you buy a PAL camera you will get the benefits of PAL but you?ll have to start messing around with converters and crap you just don?t want to.

NTSC is the American and Japanese standard.