Production Glossary
NTSC
NTSC is the acronym for National Television System Committee. This organization is tasked with establishing video and television criterion.NTSC also refers to the analog television format that is utilized in the United States. Initially unable to support color, by 1953 the standard was updated to broadcast both color and black and white. After decades of use, the NTSC standard was abolished with the advent of digital television. By 2009, nearly all TV broadcasters were ordered by the FCC to unplug their analog transmitters.
Technically, NTSC is comprised of 29.97 interlaced frames per second. The individual frames are made up of 525 scanlines- 486 dedicated to the visible raster, and vertical blanking interval (the remaining lines) are utilized in vertical retrace and synchronization.
