Here's some info i thought would be help to some people


What is PAL and NTSC?
Technically PAL and NTSC do not get used any more because they were old analog TV broadcast formats. The amount of scan lines and field rates were as follows.  PAL: 625i (576 active lines) at 50Hz and NTSC: 525i (483 active lines) at 59.9Hz and nothing else.

All old video formats like DVD, VHS, U-matic, Betamax and even standard definition digital TV use the above rules so they would be compatible with TV’s designed for PAL and NTSC analog broadcast.

Nowadays PAL and NTSC only refer to frame rates and field rate or multiples of them.  For example PAL would be 50i, 50p or 25p or NTSC would be 60i, 60p, 59,9i,59.9p or 30p.

Chosing the correct settings for recording. PAL or NTSC..
Shooting for the internet?
If you only intend to put your footage on the internet then frame rate does not really matter so much because sites like YouTube will change them to be either 25p (PAL) or 30p (NTSC) automatically. Even if you upload a higher frame rate it will be converted down by YouTube. But keep in mind many digital cameras work better at lower frame rates so there is no point setting your camera to record in 60 or 120fps just for the internet unless you intend to do slow mos.

Shooting for TV broadcast?
If you intend your footage to be showing on TV then it is more important that you choose the correct setting for smooth results because TV systems will only display video in field rates correct for each country. So if you intend your video to be showing in the UK that is a PAL country and your video will be showing at 50i so set your camera to PAL (and if possible 50i or 50p).   If your video will be showing in the USA then that is a NTSC country so set your camera to NTSC.

Frame rate vs field rate??
I’m sure all you guys know what frame rate is but almost no one knows what field rate is.  Basically for progressive video such as 1080p refreshes the screen with complete frames scanning from the top to the buttom but with interlaced video this does not happing.  With interlaced video the frames are cut down in to fields. One field scans all the even lines of the original frame then the next field scans all the odd lines of the next frame and continues to do this. Doing this half’s the bandwidth wile keeping a high ‘field rate’ such as 1080i 50Hz/60Hz to keep a smooth flicker free video. Almost all broadcast TV and DVD’s are Interlaced. A lot of people think TV is 25 or 30 Frames per second but this is untrue. It is 50/60 field per second interlaced.

Thanks for sharing this useful info! If you add some photos I will get it to the main page of the forum

DJI-Tim Posted at 2016-2-3 08:04
Thanks for sharing this useful info! If you add some photos I will get it to the main page of the fo ...

thanks DJI-TIM, I will try to add some for you

Thanks for those explanations. I'm using the inspire 1 raw, and I wish to have as much slow motion as possible, without destroying the footage quality... may I use the 60Hz then instead of the 50hz and import the DNG footage in my 25p sequence in FCPX? It should be a little slow motioned right?!
Thanks for your support

DJI-Tim Posted at 2016-2-3 00:04
Thanks for sharing this useful info! If you add some photos I will get it to the main page of the forum

Is DJI GO already supporting PAL frame rates on iOS with Osmo mobile?  Cannot find the settings! We would be doing a lot of stuff for tv, but cannot at because of NO PAL FRAME RATES