NTSC Composite Video Signals, and the RS

NTSC Composite Video Signals, and the RS - 170A Standards
Many years ago, I made the exodus into the Television Broadcast Industry. Along the way, I had to lose some pre-conceptions about how video worked. Specifically, I had to re-learn the video signal down to the minute particle, what each level was supposed to be, and how to time multiple video signals together. Sure, I knew electronics, transmitters, and had even done Television repair for a couple of years. But there's video signals ( Consumer ), then there's video signals! ( Broadcast ). And there's a world of difference, as you will learn.

Over the years, I've encountered several folks in the industry, who never quite "went to school" on this particular subject, and later wondered why they had glitches when they tried to switch from one video source to another. There would be color changes, horizontal shifts, and "blinks". Sometimes a switcher would just give up and not take the switch at all, leaving the program in black ( oops! ).

So I've had to teach folks to go back to the basics, and shown them what the signals look like, and how to time them to each other. I had to write a short course on video phase, timing and signals. For years I had this hand written. Now I am placing it in a nicer, web friendly format. Hope you like it.

Sometimes it's hard to see and understand the parts of a video signal at first. After all, it's such a complex signal. There are vertical and horizontal components, color and brightness, and everything has to have a reference. The purpose of the reference is to make all the video out there look pretty much the same. ( So blue is always blue, and black is always black). Otherwise, we'd have green people on the TV, and that would never do.

In short, if ever we choose to use 2 or more video sources together, by mixing, wiping, switching, or any other means, it is important that we be able to smoothly go between the sources. For that to happen, they must be perfectly timed with each other vertically and horizontally, and be the right color. And to do this, we must adhere to RS-170A NTSC standards.

Now let's go over what test equipment we are going to need in order to accomplish this task.

(On The Following Indicator... PURPLE will indicate your current location)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

[COURSE INDEX] [ELECTRONICS GLOSSARY] [HOME]

This Course was written by Ray Dall © All Rights Reserved.
This page and all it's content Copyright, Trademarks, Intellectual Properties
and other legal issues 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Ray Dall.
All Rights Reserved.
And for what it's worth... this page was last updated HexDate 01-11--7D1
VISITORS: