Appendix
215
Video Formats & Qualities
When you burn video to disc, you must take into consideration not
only the quality you want to use, but also the TV format of the
country or region in which you want to watch the movie disc you
burn. The section below offers information on both of these topics,
allowing you to burn video discs that suit your playback capabilities.
TV Formats
The two TV formats (NTSC and PAL) have been adopted as
standards by television broadcasters around the world. The main
difference between the two formats is the number of frames per
second they offer: 30 in NTSC, and 25 in PAL. This difference means
that a movie recorded in NTSC format is unplayable by a PAL player
and vice versa.
Fortunately, the question of whether to use PAL or NTSC television
format for your disc can be reduced to the following simple question:
• In which country or region do you plan to play this disc?
Since all countries use either the NTSC or PAL format, knowing the
location in which the disc will be played pretty much resolves this
issue for you. By selecting the desired country or region, the
television format is automatically set.
Note: Generally speaking, the United States, Japan, Canada, and
Mexico use NTSC, while Germany, Great Britain, South America,
Australia, and most of Western European and Asian countries use PAL.
