NTSC

NTSC (an acronym of National Television System Committee) was the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. It was one of three major color formats for analog television; the others were PAL and SECAM. NTSC color was usually associated with System M, and this combination was sometimes called NTSC II. A second NTSC standard was adopted in 1953, which allowed color television compatible with the existing stock of black-and-white sets. The EIA defined NTSC performance standards in EIS-170 (also known as RS-170) in 1957.

The term "NTSC" has referred to digital formats with 480 active lines and a 30 or 29.97 FPS frame rate since the introduction of digital sources such as DVDs, and is a digital shorthand for System M. The NTSC-film standard has a digital resolution of 720 × 480 pixels for DVD-Videos, 480 × 480 pixels for Super Video CDs (SVCD, aspect ratio 4:3) and 352 × 240 pixels for Video CDs (VCD). The digital video (DV)-camcorder format equivalent of NTSC is 720 × 480 pixels. The digital television (DTV) equivalent is 704 × 480 pixels.

History

The NTSC was established in 1940 by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to resolve conflicts between companies about the introduction of a nationwide analog television system. In March 1941, the committee issued a technical standard for black-and-white television based on a 1936 recommendation by the Radio Manufacturers Association (RMA). Technical advancements of the vestigial sideband technique provided an opportunity to increase image resolution. The NTSC selected 525 scan lines as a compromise between RCA's 441-scan line standard (used by RCA's NBC TV network) and Philco and DuMont's desire to increase the number of scan lines to between 605 and 800.