PAL region

Television system by country, prior to digital switchover. Countries using the PAL system are shown in blue.

The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Oceania. It is so named because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used in some of those regions (with SECAM used in others), as opposed to the NTSC standard traditionally used in Japan and most of North America.

Recently, as most countries have stopped using PAL, in regards to video games, the term "PAL region" means the list of regions it covered in the past.

List[]

Below countries and territories currently use or once used the PAL system. Many of these have converted or are currently converting PAL to DVB-T (most countries), DVB-T2 (most countries), DTMB (China, Hong Kong and Macau) or ISDB (Sri Lanka, Maldives, Botswana and part of South America).

PAL B, D, G, H, K or I[]

Afghanistan (used SECAM)^[1]
Angola ^[1]
Armenia
Bahrain (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment) ^[1]
Bangladesh ^[1]
Bhutan ^[1]
Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[1]
Botswana ^[1]
British Indian Ocean Territory ^[1]
Cameroon ^[1]
Cape Verde ^[1]
China (Digital broadcast using DTMB)^[1]
Christmas Island
Cook Islands (see New Zealand)
Djibouti ^[1]
Egypt (migrated from SECAM 1990–1992)^[1]
Equatorial Guinea ^[1]
Eritrea ^[1]
Eswatini ^[1]
Ethiopia ^[1]
Falkland Islands (UHF only)^[1]
Fiji
Gambia ^[1]
Guinea-Bissau ^[1]
Indonesia ^[1] (Analogue shutoff scheduled to 2 November 2022; simulcasted in DVB-T since 2008 until 2012, been changed to DVB-T2 2012 forward, and the government scheduled to give-away free 7 million STB DVB-T2 in April 2014)
Iraq ^[1](DVB-T introduction currently in assessment)
Jordan ^[2] (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment)
Kiribati ^[1]
Kuwait ^[1]
Laos (Once experimented in PAL-M)^[1]
Lebanon (Using PAL for Lebanese channels. Channels from Europe or even from USA are not broadcast analogue)
Lesotho ^[1]
Libya
Macau (PAL-I, DTMB introduced since 15 July 2008)
Malawi ^[1]

Malaysia ^[2] (DVB-T2 digital launched. Analogue switch-off was completed by end-October 2019)
Maldives ^[1]
Mauritius
Moldova
Mongolia
Mozambique ^[1]
Nauru ^[1]
Nepal ^[1]
Nigeria
Niue ^[1]
Norfolk Island (see Australia)
North Korea (used SECAM until 1990s)^[1]
Oman (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment)^[1]
Pakistan ^[1]
Palestine (DVB-T introduction currently in assessment)
Papua New Guinea ^[1]
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Two PAL-I analogue TV services operated by BFBS)
Samoa ^[1]
Seychelles ^[1]
Sierra Leone ^[1]
Solomon Islands
Somalia ^[1]
South Sudan
Sri Lanka ^[1]
Sudan ^[1]
Syria (along with SECAM)^[1]
Timor-Leste
Tonga ^[1] (PAL broadcast to be abandoned. Analog shutoff scheduled for 15 June 2015. Simulcast in DVB-T)
Tunisia
Turkey
Tuvalu ^[1]
Uganda ^[1]
Vanuatu ^[1]
Vietnam ^[1]
Yemen ^[1] (DVB-T introduction)
Zimbabwe ^[1]

PAL-M[]

Brazil^[1] (H264 video over ISDB-T, at 480i@60 Hz (SD) or 1080i@60 Hz (HD), simulcast with digital format in ISDB-Tb, also called SBTVD), an update to ISDB-T, started in December 2007. PAL broadcasting continues until 2023.

PAL-N[]

Argentina^[1] (H264 video over ISDB-T, at 576i@50 Hz (SD) or 1080i@50 Hz (HD))
Paraguay^[1] (Simulcast in ISDB-T)
Uruguay^[1] (Simulcast in ISDB-T)

Countries and territories that have ceased using PAL[]

The following countries no longer use PAL for terrestrial broadcasts, and are in process of converting from PAL (cable) to DVB-T.

Country	Switched to	Switchover completed
Albania	DVB-T2	2019-10-011 October 2019
Andorra	DVB-T	2007-09-2525 September 2007
Australia	DVB-T	2013-12-1010 December 2013
Austria	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2010-06-077 June 2011
Azerbaijan	DVB-T	2015-06-1717 June 2015
Belgium	DVB-T	2010-03-011 March 2010
Brunei	DVB-T	2015-01-011 January 2015
Bulgaria	DVB-T	2013-09-3030 September 2013
Cambodia	DVB-T2	2015-01-011 January 2015
Croatia	DVB-T	2010-10-2020 October 2010
Cyprus	DVB-T	2011-07-011 July 2011
Czech Republic	DVB-T	2012-06-3030 June 2012
Denmark	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2009-11-011 November 2009
Estonia	DVB-T	2010-07-011 July 2010
Faroe Islands	DVB-T	2002–12 December 2002
Finland	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2007-09-011 September 2007
Georgia	DVB-T	2015-07-011 July 2015
Germany	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2009-06-044 June 2009
Ghana	DVB-T2	2015-06June 2015
Greece	DVB-T	2015-02-056 February 2015
Gibraltar	DVB-T	2012-12-3131 December 2012
Guernsey	DVB-T	2010-11-1717 November 2010
Hong Kong	DTMB	2020-12-011 December 2020
Hungary	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2013-10-3131 October 2013
Iceland	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2015-02-022 February 2015
India	DVB-T	2015-02-3131 March 2015
Iran	DVB-T	2014-12-1919 December 2014
Ireland	DVB-T	2012-10-2424 October 2012
Isle of Man	DVB-T	2012-10-2424 October 2012
Israel	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2011-06-1313 June 2011
Italy	DVB-T	2012-07-044 July 2012
Jersey	DVB-T	2010-11-1717 November 2010
Kenya	DVB-T	2015-03March 2015
Latvia	DVB-T	2010-06-011 June 2010
Lithuania	DVB-T	2012-10-2929 October 2012
Luxembourg	DVB-T	2006-09-011 September 2006
North Macedonia	DVB-T	2013-05-3131 May 2013
Malta	DVB-T	2011-10-3131 October 2011
Monaco	DVB-T	2011-05-2424 May 2011
Montenegro	DVB-T	2015-06-1717 June 2015
Namibia	DVB-T	2014-09-1313 September 2014
Netherlands	DVB-T	2006-12-1414 December 2006
New Zealand	DVB-T	2013-12-011 December 2013
Norway	DVB-T	2009-12December 2009 ^[3]
Poland	DVB-T	2013-07-2323 July 2013
Portugal	DVB-T	2012-04-2626 April 2012
Qatar	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2012-02-1313 February 2012
Romania	DVB-T2	2016-12-3131 December 2016
Rwanda	DVB-T	2014-03March 2014
San Marino	DVB-T	2010-12-022 December 2010
Saudi Arabia	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2012-02-1313 February 2012
Serbia	DVB-T2	2015-06-077 June 2015
Singapore	DVB-T2	2019-01-022 January 2019
Slovakia	DVB-T	2012-12-3131 December 2012
Slovenia	DVB-T	2010-12-011 December 2010
South Africa	DVB-T	20152015^[4] (as of 2018, PAL terrestrial still operational)
Spain	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2010-04-033 April 2010
Sweden	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2007-10-2929 October 2007
Switzerland	DVB-T	2007-11-2626 November 2007
Tanzania	DVB-T	2014-07July 2014
Thailand	DVB-T2	2020-0926 March 2020
Ukraine	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2016-12-3131 December 2016
United Arab Emirates	DVB-T and DVB-T2	2012-02-1313 February 2012
United Kingdom	DVB-T (SD) and DVB-T2 (HD)	2012-10-2424 October 2012
Zambia	DVB-T2	2014-12-3131 December 2014

60 Hz operation[]

During the mid-1990s, the practice of modifying consoles such as the Super NES and Mega Drive to allow 60 Hz operation became somewhat common among PAL gamers, due to the rise in NTSC/60 Hz capable PAL TVs and the relatively simple nature of the modifications. Beginning with the Amiga CD32, which introduced more powerful hardware, developers had the ability to output at full PAL resolution without borders or stretching, although games still typically ran slower and all ran at 50 Hz. Beginning with the Dreamcast and continuing through the sixth generation of consoles, developers began including PAL60 modes in their games. Games that run at PAL60 are produced with the same colour encoding system as 50 Hz PAL signals, but with the NTSC resolution and field rate of 60 Hz, providing an identical gaming experience to their NTSC counterparts, however some games, such as Tekken 4 and Tekken 5, will actually use the NTSC color mode when in 60 Hz mode; these games will appear in black and white on PAL-only televisions. Brazil's PAL-M always operates in 60 Hz.

Criticism of PAL region video games[]

Games ported to PAL have historically been known for having game speed and frame rates inferior to their NTSC counterparts. Since the NTSC standard is 60 fields/30 frames per second but PAL is 50 fields/25 frames per second, games were typically^{[dubious – discuss]} slowed by approximately 16.7% in order to avoid timing problems or unfeasible code changes. Full motion video rendered and encoded at 30 frames per second by the Japanese/US (NTSC) developers was often down-sampled to 25 frames per second or considered to be 50 frames per second video for PAL release—usually by means of 3:2 pull-down, resulting in motion judder. In addition to this, PAL's increased resolution was not utilised during conversion, creating a pseudo letterbox effect with borders top and bottom, which looks similar to a 14:9 letterbox, and leaving the graphics with a slightly squashed look due to an incorrect aspect ratio caused by the borders. This was especially prevalent during the 8-bit and 16-bit generations when 2D graphics were used almost exclusively. The gameplay of many games with an emphasis on speed, such as the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, suffered in their PAL incarnations.

Despite the possibility and popularity of 60 Hz PAL games, many high-profile games, particularly for the PlayStation 2 console, were released in 50 Hz-only versions. Square Enix have long been criticised by PAL gamers for their poor PAL conversions. Final Fantasy X, for example, runs in 50 Hz mode only, meaning it runs 16.7% slower than the NTSC release and features top and bottom borders; while this practice was common in previous generations, it was considered inexcusable by contemporary consumers at the time of release.^[5] In contrast, the Dreamcast was the first system to feature PAL60, and the overwhelming majority of PAL games offered 50 and 60 Hz modes with no slow speeds. The PAL GameCube also offered 60 Hz on almost every title released. The Xbox featured a system-wide PAL60 option in the Dashboard, with almost every game supporting PAL60. Seventh generation PAL consoles Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii also feature system-wide 60 Hz support.^{[citation needed]}

As of the eighth generation, consoles such as the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch have all games solely in 60 Hz, with 50 Hz only being used for video playback and, in the Wii U's case, backwards compatibility with Wii and Virtual Console games.^{[citation needed]}

However, this problem does not occur in Brazil's PAL-M since it is mostly based on the NTSC standard (with its frame rate operating at nearly 30 frames per second) but not on the encoding of the color carrier which is similar to that of PAL.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay ^az ^ba ^bb Michael Hegarty; Anne Phelan; Lisa Kilbride (1 January 1998). Classrooms for Distance Teaching and Learning: A Blueprint. Leuven University Press. pp. 260–. ISBN 978-90-6186-867-5.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 2017-12-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "TV og radio".
^ "Switching Off Analogue TV Will Lock Out Many In Africa".
^ "GamesRadar+". computerandvideogames.com.

[HegartyPhelan1998-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay ^az ^ba ^bb Michael Hegarty; Anne Phelan; Lisa Kilbride (1 January 1998). Classrooms for Distance Teaching and Learning: A Blueprint. Leuven University Press. pp. 260–. ISBN 978-90-6186-867-5.

[shop.sandbag.uk.com-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 2017-12-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] "TV og radio".

[4] "Switching Off Analogue TV Will Lock Out Many In Africa".

[5] "GamesRadar+". computerandvideogames.com.

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