PALplus (or PAL+) is an analogue television broadcasting system aimed to improve and enhance the PAL format by allowing 16:9 (or 1.77:1) aspect ratio broadcasts, while remaining compatible with existing television receivers, defined by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendation BT.1197-1. Introduced in 1993, it followed experiences with the HD-MAC (high definition) and D2-MAC, hybrid analogue-digital widescreen formats that were incompatible with PAL receivers. It was developed at the University of Dortmund in Germany, in cooperation with German terrestrial broadcasters and European and Japanese manufacturers. The system had some adoption across Europe during the late 1990s and helped introduce widescreen TVs in the market, but never became mainstream. A similar system, developed in Japan at the same time and named EDTV-II/ Wide-aspect Clear-vision, allows for 16:9 NTSC broadcasts.
History The MAC family of standards was adopted in Europe in 1983, primarily for Direct Broadcasting by Satellite (DBS) services. This was an evolution from older color TV systems (such as PAL or SECAM) fixing the problems of interference between luminance and chrominance, and providing a stepping stone for a future HDTV system. In 1986, a new high definition broadcasting standard, HD-MAC, was presented, offering twice the number of scanning lines compared to PAL. A transitional standard, D2-MAC was established. It had the same number of lines as PAL, but like HD-MAC it was designed for 16:9 widescreen content. In 1989, the PALplus strategy group was founded. The goal was to develop an enhanced system for terrestrial transmission compatible with PAL. European terrestrial broadcasters felt the need to better position themselves in order to compete with satellite and cable operators, in view of the introduction of MAC widescreen broadcasts. While not attempting to produce HDTV standards of quality, the new format was meant to improve PAL in the following areas:
Wider aspect ratio, but with acceptable effects on the traditional 4:3 (or 1.33:1) screen Reduced level of artefacts, such as cross-color Better sound system Improved resolution Compatibility with existing receivers. In the beginning, the task group consisted of the public broadcasting corporations of Germany (ARD and ZDF), Austria (ORF), Switzerland (SRG) and the United Kingdom (BBC and UKIB, United Kingdom Independent Broadcasters) together with the consumer electronics manufacturers Grundig, Nokia, Philips and Thomson. Sony as well as the Spanish (RTVE) and Portuguese (RTP) broadcasters joined the group later on. At the Berlin IFA 1991, a first PALplus test transmission was demonstrated At the Berlin IFA 1993, the first experimental PALplus broadcasts began. In the same year, the European Union approved a plan to support the production and broadcast of 16:9 programs. In 1994, broadcasters began adopting the format. In the United Kingdom, Channel 4 starts to broadcast using the system in October. Nokia launched the first PALplus TV set in Germany. In 1995, the International Telecommunication Union publishes recommendation BT.1197-1, defining the PALplus system. Originally, the PALplus consortium included the following manufacturers: Philips, Grundig, Thomson, Nokia and Sony. One of the four big Korean electronics manufacturers, Samsung, joined the PALplus consortium that year. VCR manufacturers associated with the PALplus consortium were expected to launch updated VHS and S-VHS home recorders soon. The cost increment compared to conventional PAL VCRs was expected to be small. PALplus was one of the highlights of the Berlin IFA 1995 edition. In January 1996, the PALplus board published the specifications of the standard in order to support the further dissemination of this standard for wide-screen transmissions. After German broadcasters started to broadcast some of their programmes using the format, the board ended its work by the end of that same year. At the beginning of 1998, PALplus programmes were broadcast on a regular basis in nine European countries, which made PALplus the mostly used standard for widescreen transmissions in Europe at that time. Evaluations, performed by ITU and EBU engineers in 1995-1998 concluded that the use of down-converted HDTV source material, as well as high-quality widescreen standard definition content, could be a significant benefit to the PALplus picture quality. Moreover, the experts felt that PALplus would not be out of place in an HDTV environment at viewing distances equal or farther to four heights of a television set. It was presumed that the standard method of display of a PALplus signal would be in 625-line interlaced (50 Hz) form, although other display formats (for example, 50 Hz progressive, 100 Hz interlace, or 100 Hz progressive) could be receiver options.
Countries and territories that used PALplus The following countries and territories used the PALplus system:
Austria Belgium Finland Germany Greece Ireland Italy Netherlands Poland Portugal Spain UK
Belgium In Belgium, the Flemish public broadcasting service VRT had a policy that all of its self-created TV programmes are broadcast in PALplus. The commercial TV station VTM used to broadcast a lot in PALplus. Even the third broadcasting organisation SBS Belgium with its stations VT4 and VijfTV used to broadcast in PALplus for all of their new productions. The Walloon public broadcasting service RTBF used to broadcast 16:9 programmes that it purchased in PALplus, but preferred creating their own programmes in 4:3. Walloon commercial TV station RTL-TVI used to broadcast almost all its shows in PALplus. In 2010, Belgium switched off analog television broadcast.
Finland In Finland, the commercial broadcaster MTV3 started broadcasting the youth music program Jyrki in PALplus format on August 18, 1997. The experiment ended when the program ended some four years later. In 2007, Finland switched off analog television broadcast.
Germany In Germany, all public broadcasters (ARD, ZDF, etc.) complied with this standard. However, private broadcasters (RTL, ProSieben, etc) have shown no interest in either this standard or in the 16:9 format. Pay-per-view channels such as those on Sky often broadcast in 16:9, but use a different standard that requires another kind of decoder. In 2008, Germany began switching off analog television broadcast.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
