[opendtv] Re: France bids farewell to SECAM

  • From: Olivier Houot <olho_avatar_i@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:00:47 +0100

Hi Jeroen, nice to hear from you !


> I think that its popularity in France and in Eastern Europe
> was mainly due to its incompatibility with the West-German
> PAL system, and due to the not-invented-here syndrome.
> Now with DVB the united Europe looks a lot better.   :-)

In France, the "invented here" syndrom certainly played a role, even
though it was just a variation on NTSC (but then you could say part of
NTSC also used the french patents of Georges Valensi), and the color CRT
was really an american thing.

But it did not hurt it could give good reliable pictures, and i am
rather satisfied with the service it has provided to me during all these
years.

As for video standards compatibility the most important step was
alignment on 625/50 scanning format, IMHO.

Can't dispute the fact a DVB europe looks better. I regret the trend is
not to also use it for radio, especially now that we have DVB-T2 Lite.

> Europe should have
> adopted the simpler NTSC method of color modulation, and
> solve the hue (color tint) problem in a different way.
> 
Do you have something in mind for this different way ?


> BTW, the hue problem should not have existed in the first
> place. It was due to differential-phase problems of tube-
> based IF processing, meaning that the phase of the color
> burst on black was not valid for a color carrier added to
> a higher luma signal value. Later semiconductor circuits
> with much better linearity did not even have the problem.
> 

Is the problem really only produced by the electronics in
production/emission equipment and receivers? Transmission does not play
a role? There really is a safe margin everywhere when using
semiconductors? I would feel a bit nervous using a standard that relies
on good behavior of all the components in the transmission chain for
such a subtle point, and cannot compensate for the problem if it occurs.

Isn't it true that many modern NTSC sets still include an automatic skin
tone correction ?

There were discussions on a french forum with a canadian guy that has
moved a lot and lived under the three standards at one time or another.
He experimented from the Montreal island (circa 2006, i believe). He
said that by playing with the settings, he could get a nice picture from
Radio-Canada, but when turning to american broadcasts (all by air) from
ABC, NBC, CBS, chromatic accuracy was degraded, and it was not possible
to compensate with the settings in a completely satisfying way. Also, it
was different from channel to channel. So, i have my doubts that the
problem was completely solved by switching to semiconductors.

And even when the first color broadcasts started in Europe (and more so
during the design phase) the era of fully transitorized sets was not yet
there, so it is really only with hindsight that we can revisit those
choices.

 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:

- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at 
FreeLists.org 

- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts: