What Does PAL Mean in Television And Video?
What Is PAL TV ? DVD Video Symbol With PAL Format VHS PAL DVD PAL Most of us are used to seeing VHS PAL and DVD PAL labels on VHS cassettes or DVDs, but what does PAL mean? It stands for Phase Alternating Line and is a technical term indicating the colour system that is used which applies to analogue Television signals. Back in the 1950s when black and white TV was king, RCA of America developed a colour Cathode Ray Tube which meant colour TV was on it's way! Colour TVs would be very expensive to begin with and so millions would still be watching black and white for a while until mass production brought prices down. So how do you send the colour signal to the privileged few who could afford colour without effecting those who had black and white? Luminance and Chroma The black and white TV signal is also called the Luminance signal and is used to drive the CRT in varying intensity depending on the picture. You would need to keep this signal so that those with black and whit...