by different people at different times to different standards.
The United States, Japan, and other countries in the Americas use NTSC=20=
- National Television Systems Committee - format, which uses about 525=20=
lines of itty bitty dots to make a color picture.
Britain and many Commonwealth countries use PAL format, which produces=20=
pictures with 625 lines of dots.
France, Russia and lots of other folks use SECAM, which also uses 625=20
lines of dots, but does it differently from PAL.
Some of this has to do with AC current cycles - we use 60 cycles per=20
second, most other people use 50, so unless somebody wants to rewire=20
the entire world, there probably will never be a 'universal' VHS format.
There are LOTS of oddities and exceptions to this - for instance, a=20
good NTSC format vhs tape really has around 350 lines of dots; the=20
other parts of the signal are used for other information like captions.=20=
And tapes recorded in South American won't necessarily run here, though=20=
US tapes usually do run there.
One place to get a listing of which country uses which standard is at
http://www.bloomington.in.us/~ttop/standard.html
Hope this helps.
Brigid Duffy
Audio Visual/ITV Center
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132-4200
E-mail: bduffy@sfsu.edu
On Friday, October 8, 2004, at 06:42 AM, Stockwell, Patricia wrote:
> I asked our cataloging librarian if she has ever heard of PAL=20
> formatted media.=A0 Could you explain to us newbie's what that is.=A0 =
I=20
> have never heard of it =A0and we were also wondering what type of=20
> equipment you need to view this type of media.
>
> =A0
>
> Patricia J. Stockwell
>
> Library Technician III / College Archivist
>
> Pikes Peak Community College
>
> 5675 S. Academy Blvd.=A0 Box 7
>
> Colorado Springs,=A0 CO=A0 80906
>
> patricia.stockwell@ppcc.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephanie Davis-Kahl [mailto:sdaviska@iwu.edu]
> Sent:Thursday, October 07, 20043:29 PM
> To: videolib@library.berkeley.edu
> Subject: [Videolib] labeling of PAL format media
>
> =A0
>
> Hello all,
>
> =A0
>
> My library recently purchased equipment to view PAL formatted media,=20=
> and the orders for movies in PAL format are coming in pretty quickly=20=
> (which is great, faculty are very excited). =A0Our videos and DVDs are=20=
> integrated into our stacks, shelved by LC call number with related=20
> books and journals.=A0 What kind of labeling have people used to alert=20=
> users that the item they're holding is in PAL format and won't work in=20=
> their personal VCR/DVD player (for example)?
>
> =A0
>
> Thanks!
>
> Stephanie
>
> (first time poster!)
>
> =A0
>
> =A0
>
> =A0
>
> =A0
>
> --
>
> Stephanie Davis-Kahl
>
> Public=A0Services Librarian
>
> Thorpe Music & Media Center
>
> The Ames Library
>
> Illinois Wesleyan University
>
> Bloomington, IL 61702
>
> 309-556-3010 (v)
>
> 309-556-3261 (f)
>
> rosie sdk (IM)
>
> sdaviska@iwu.edu
>
> http://www.iwu.edu/~sdaviska
>
> =A0
>
> _______________________________________________
> Videolib mailing list
> Videolib@library.berkeley.edu
> http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/videolib
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