NationMaster - Encyclopedia: PALplus

PALplus is an extension of the PAL analogue broadcasting system for transmitting 16:9 programs without sacrificing vertical resolution. A standard PAL receiver will display the image in letterbox format with 432 active lines, while a PALplus receiver can use extra information hidden in the black bars above and below the image to recreate 576 lines of vertical resolution. PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or phase alternation line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. ... The 16:9 aspect ratio (also known as widescreen) is an aspect ratio that is 16/9 or 1. ...

A special signal tells the receiver when PALplus is in use, and also whether the original content was interlaced ("Camera mode" 576i50) or progressive scanned ("Film mode" 576p25). An additional signal can enable a "Ghost Cancellation" feature. In television technology, widescreen signaling (WSS) is a digital stream embedded in the TV signal describing qualities of the broadcast, in particular the intended aspect ratio of the image. ... For the method of incrementally displaying raster graphics, see Interlace (bitmaps). ... 576i is the shorthand name for a video mode. ... Progressive scan Progressive or non-interlaced scanning is any method for displaying, storing or transmitting moving images in which the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence. ... 576p is the shorthand name for a video mode. ... Ghosting can have different meanings: A form of identity theft (see Ghosting (identity theft)) whereby a person takes on the role of a deceased person. ...

A separate feature related to PALplus is ColorPlus, which improves color decoding performance.

Operation

Without PALplus, a 16:9 presentation has only 432 lines of vertical resolution. This reproduces noticeably less detail than the 576 lines used for 4:3 broadcasts. A fully decoded PALplus broadcast restores the 576 line vertical resolution. For compatibility reasons, the horizontal bandwidth remains at 5.0 MHz. This means a PALplus signal provides no extra horizontal resolution to compensate for the image being stretched across a wider screen. The result is a horizontal resolution that is 73% of the vertical resolution, or 51% when the Kell factor is ignored. MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... Kell factor is a number used to determine the effective resolution of a discrete display device. ...

Versions

1. Vertical helper

A broadcaster creates a PALplus signal by scaling an anamorphic 16:9 picture with 576 lines down to 432 lines, so that the picture appears letterboxed on a regular PAL TV set. For luminance, the scaling is done using a pair of matching low-pass and high-pass filters, with the low-pass result appearing in the broadcast. One out of every 4 lines of the high-pass result is then hidden in the remaining 144 black lines at the top and bottom of the picture, using the U color subcarrier. The filtering is such that this is enough to restore the complete 576 line resolution. The use of the color subcarrier means the signals sometimes appear as blue and yellow patterns on a regular PAL TV set. The 16:9 PAL-plus receiver combines 432 visible lines plus 144 helper lines into 576 new visible lines. Anamorphic widescreen in cinematography was first popularized with CinemaScope, which was one of many widescreen formats developed in the 1950s. ... A 2. ... Example of U-V color plane, Y value = 0. ...

In Film mode (progressive), the operation is performed on a per-frame basis, while in Camera mode (interlaced) the operation is performed per-field. Progressive can refer to: Progressive music, including Progressive rock, Progressive metal and Progressive electronica Political Progressivism Several Progressive Parties Progressive Era in the United States (1890-1913) Progressive, a company providing auto insurance The Progressive, a left-wing monthly magazine The progressive tense in grammar Progressive lenses, used to correct... Interlacing is a method of displaying images on a raster-scanned display device, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT). ...

2. Colour-plus (or Clean PAL)

The PAL colour carrier is modulated making use of correlation between 2 fields, in order to give a cleaner Y/C separation in the PAL-plus receiver. Colour pictures on both standard and PAL Plus receivers are enhanced.

3. Signaling bits

A special signal tells the receiver whether 4:3/16:9/PALplus is in use, and also whether the original content was interlaced ("Camera mode") or progressive scanned ("Film mode"). An additional signal can enable a "Ghost Cancellation" feature. The bandwidth of these bits is low enough to be recorded on VHS and allow the receiver to switch to the proper format. In television technology, widescreen signaling (WSS) is a digital stream embedded in the TV signal describing qualities of the broadcast, in particular the intended aspect ratio of the image. ... For the method of incrementally displaying raster graphics, see Interlace (bitmaps). ... Progressive scan Progressive or non-interlaced scanning is any method for displaying, storing or transmitting moving images in which the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence. ... Ghosting can have different meanings: A form of identity theft (see Ghosting (identity theft)) whereby a person takes on the role of a deceased person. ...

PAL-plus compatible sets

The standard permits using the mark "PAL-plus" if just the vertical helper reconstruction implemented, with Colour-plus being optional.

Most widescreen sets without any PAL-plus processing will switch the display format automatically between 4:3 and 16:9, based on the signaling bits. These sets will display only the centre 432 lines of the 4:3 image, to fill all of the 16:9 frame.

Availability

In Belgium, the Flemish public broadcasting service VRT has a policy that all of its self-created TV programmes are broadcast in PALplus. For example the news is broadcast daily in PALPlus, as are almost all of the weekly scheduled shows. Only old re-runs and American television movies are not. Newer films and series are mostly broadcast in PALplus. The commercial TV station VTM also broadcasts a lot in PALplus. The VTM news for example is also broadcast in PALplus. So are even the commercials. Special shows and films are always broadcast in PALplus too. Even the third broadcasting organisation SBS Belgium with its stations VT4 and VijfTV broadcast in PALplus for all of their new productions and they also broadcast the news and the commercials in P+. The Walloon public broadcasting service RTBF broadcasts bought 16:9 programmes in PALplus, like films, but chooses to create their own programmes in 4:3. Walloon commercial TV station RTL-TVi now broadcasts almost all its shows in PALPlus and tends to convert its old shows to 16/9 too. The Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep, or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders (northern part of Belgium). ... VTM or Vlaamse Televisie Maatschappij is the main commercial television station in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium. ... VTM or Vlaamse Televisie Maatschappij is the main commercial television station in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium. ... VT4 a Flemish commercial television channel. ... RTBF official logo RTBF or Radio tÃ©lÃ©vision belge de la communautÃ© franÃ§aise is the publicly-funded broadcaster for the French-speaking southern part of Belgium, the counterpart to the Dutch-speaking VRT in the northern part of the country. ...

In Germany all public broadcasters (ARD, ZDF, etc) comply with this standard. However, private broadcasters (RTL, Pro Sieben, etc) have shown no interest in either this standard or in the 16:9 format. Pay-per-view channels such as Premiere often broadcast in 16:9, but use a different standard that requires another kind of decoder. Current logo The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Ã¶ffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Cooperative association of public-law broadcasting institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany), or simply ARD, is a joint organization of Germanys regional public broadcasting agencies. ... Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television), ZDF, is a public service German-language television channel based in Mainz. ... RTL Television (formerly RTL plus) is Germanys biggest commercial television company. ... ProSieben is a commercial television channel in Germany. ... Premiere, from French language première meaning first, generally means a first performance. Premieres for theatrical, musical, and other productions are often extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media attention. ...

In the Netherlands broadcasting in PALplus is sporadic. Most programmes are still in plain old 4:3, but sometimes special shows and series are broadcast in PALplus. 16:9 programmes acquired from another station are rarely converted to 4:3 and are often broadcast in their original aspect ratio in PALplus.

In Portugal, the private broadcaster TVI began broadcasting movies in PALplus in 1994, but some years after it left the standard behind. Today only public broadcaster RTP uses the system to broadcast selected programs and most widescreen movies. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Portuguese Radio and Television or Radio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) is the national broadcasting TV network of Portugal. ...

In Finland, the commercial broadcaster MTV3 started broadcasting the youth music program Jyrki in PALplus format on 1997-08-18, but the experiment ended when the program ended some four years later. There are currently no PALplus broadcasts in Finland, and the public broadcaster YLE has announced that they prefer digital TV technology over the analog PALplus. It is unlikely that PALplus will ever return to Finland. MTV3 is a Finnish commercial television station owned by Bonnier and Proventus. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Yleisradio (YLE), or the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is a national publicly-funded radio and television broadcaster based in Finland, it was founded in 1926. ...

In Greece, there are still sporadic PALplus broadcasts, on the national television (E.R.T. - Hellenic Radio Television). Through the '90s, there where few attempts from commercial broadcasters to adapt the system, but all failed to gain popularity.

History

In the late 1980s a new broadcasting standard was created, HD-MAC, that was HDTV and 16:9 capable (up to 2048×1152 picture resolution), twice the number of available lines in PAL. As a transitional standard, D2-MAC was established. Like HD-MAC, it is 16:9 ready, but with the same number of lines that PAL uses. When D2-MAC failed, the PALplus norm was created as another compromise, and failed as well. HD-MAC was a proposed TV norm. ... Projection screen in a home theater, displaying a high-definition television image. ... The simultaneous PAL transmission of all TV-picture elements and the multiplexed transmission of the TV picture elements with D2-MAC. Simulated MAC signal. ... The 16:9 aspect ratio (also known as widescreen) is an aspect ratio that is 16/9 or 1. ...

Criticism

The decoding of a 16:9 picture in PALplus is very costly and requires the use of the two fields of the full picture. Because of this, only expensive TVs such as 100 Hz TV sets can decode the 16:9 mode of PALplus.

For all this, the takeup of PALplus has been marginal, and the future of this standard does not look very bright, since broadcasters are switching to digital television broadcasting (DVB). Digital television (DTV) is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals, in contrast to analog signals in analog (traditional) TV. It uses digital modulation data, which is digitally compressed and requires decoding by a specially designed television set or a standard... Official DVB logo, found on compliant devices DVB, short for Digital Video Broadcasting, is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with more than 270 members, and published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute...

See also

Projection screen in a home theater, displaying a high-definition television image. ... Official DVB logo, found on compliant devices DVB, short for Digital Video Broadcasting, is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with more than 270 members, and published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute... PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or phase alternation line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. ... There are several broadcast television systems in use in the world today. ... A 32inch CRT widescreen television A widescreen image is a film or television image with a wider aspect ratio than the standard Academy frame developed during the classical Hollywood cinema era. ... In television technology, widescreen signaling (WSS) is a digital stream embedded in the TV signal describing qualities of the broadcast, in particular the intended aspect ratio of the image. ...

External links

Categories: Video formats | Television technology A video format describes how one device sends a video pictures to another device, such as the way that a DVD player sends pictures to a television, or a computer to a monitor. ... 405 line is the name of a monochrome analogue television broadcasting system in operation in the UK between 1936 and 1985, and also used for some time in Ireland and Hong Kong. ... Historically, the term high-definition television was first used to refer to television standards developed in the 1930s to replace early experimental systems with as few as 12 lines. ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in Korea, Japan, United States, Canada and certain other places, mostly in the Americas (see map). ... PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or phase alternation line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. ... For other meanings of PAL see PAL (disambiguation). ... SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for sequential colour with memory) is an analog color television system first used in France. ... Japan had the earliest working HDTV system, with design efforts going back to 1979. ... Multiplexed Analogue Components (MAC) is a high-definition television transmission standard, originally proposed in 1995 for European HDTV. MAC transmits luminance and chrominance data separately in time rather than separately in frequency (as other analog television formats do, such as composite video). ... ... 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode. ... ... 576i is the shorthand name for a video mode. ... High-definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL) allow. ... 1080i is the shorthand name for a category of video modes. ... Low Definition Television. ... ... Low Definition Television. ... ... Enhanced definition television, extended definition television, or EDTV is a shorthand term for certain television formats. ... 480p is the shorthand name for a video mode. ... Enhanced definition television, extended definition television, or EDTV is a shorthand term for certain television formats. ... 576p is the shorthand name for a video mode. ... High-definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL) allow. ... 720p is the shorthand name for a category of HDTV video modes. ... High-definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL) allow. ... 1080p is the shorthand name for a category of video modes. ...

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