The US uses NTSC, - where UK(Europe) uses PAL.
They are different encoding systems, and are not compatible.
NTSC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
PAL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL
However some (high end) VCR's can play both.
From wiki:
PAL vs. NTSC
NTSC receivers have a
tint control to perform colour correction manually. If this is not adjusted correctly, the colours may be faulty. The PAL standard automatically removes
hue errors by utilising phase alternation of the colour signal (see technical details), so a tint control is unnecessary. Chrominance phase errors in the PAL system are cancelled out using a 1H delay line resulting in lower saturation, which is much less noticeable to the eye than NTSC hue errors.
However, the alternation of colour information —
Hanover bars — can lead to picture grain on pictures with extreme phase errors even in PAL systems, if decoder circuits are misaligned or use the simplified decoders of early designs (to overcome royalty restrictions. Usually such extreme phase shifts do not occur. This effect will usually be observed when the transmission path is poor, typically in built up areas or where the terrain is unfavourable. The effect is more noticeable on UHF than VHF signals as VHF signals tend to be more robust.
A PAL decoder can be seen as a pair of NTSC decoders:
- PAL can be decoded with two NTSC decoders.
- By switching between the two NTSC decoders every other line it is possible to decode PAL without a phase delay line or two phase-locked loop circuits.
- This works because one decoder receives a colour sub carrier with negated phase in relation to the other decoder. It then negates the phase of that sub carrier when decoding. This leads to smaller phase errors being cancelled out. However, a delay line PAL decoder gives superior performance. Some Japanese TVs originally used the dual NTSC method to avoid paying royalty to Telefunken.
- PAL and NTSC have slightly divergent colour spaces, but the colour decoder differences here are ignored.
- PAL supports SMPTE 498.3 while NTSC is compliant with EBU Recommendation 14.
- The issue of frame rates and colour sub carriers is ignored in this technical explanation. These technical details play no direct role (except as subsystems and physical parameters) to the decoding of the signal.
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