What is the difference between NTSC and PAL formats?

NTSC (National Television System Committee) format for television and compatible video cameras is used in North and Central America, the Caribbean, parts of South America, and Japan. The screen resolution is 720 x 480 and the frame rate (how many separate pictures are put on the screen) is about 30 frames per second (actually 29.97).

PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is used in most of the rest of the world. The screen resolution with PAL is 768 x 576, and the frame rate is 25 frames per second.

Canon's Digital Video Cameras are manufactured to be compatible with either NTSC or PAL standards, but not . The determining factor is the market in which the camcorder will be sold. What a purchaser must be aware of, is that a camcorder sold in Europe (or Australia or Asia) is not going to be able to play its videos on an American market television, and vice versa.