NTSC-J

Television encoding systems by nation, Countries that are using the NTSC system are shown in green.

NTSC-J is an analog television system and video display standard for the region of Japan.

Technical definition

It is based on 'regular' NTSC, but is slightly different. The black level and blanking level of the NTSC-J signal are identical (at 0 IRE), as they are in PAL, another video standard, while in American NTSC, black level is slightly higher (7.5 IRE) than blanking level. Because of the way this appears in the waveform, the higher black level is also called pedestal. Since the difference is quite small, a slight change of the brightness setting is all that is required to enjoy the "other" variant of NTSC on any set as it is supposed to be.

Marketing definition

The term NTSC-J is also used to distinguish regions in console video games, which use televisions. NTSC-J is used as the name of the video gaming region of Japan -hence the "J", South East Asia and South Korea (formerly part of SE Asia with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau etc.), the two latter being Korean or Chinese translated versions.

Games designated as part of this region will not run on hardware designated as part of the NTSC-US, PAL (or PAL-E, "E" stands for Europe) or NTSC-C (for continental China) mostly due to the regional differences of the PAL (SECAM was also used in the early 90s) and NTSC standards, but there is also a concern of copyright protection through regional lockout built into the video game systems and games themselves, as a same product can be edited by different publishers from a continent to another.

This table illustrates total horizontal and vertical pixel resolution via box size. It does not accurately reflect the screen or pixel shape (aspect ratio) of these formats, which is either 4:3, or 16:9. v • d • e Broadcast video formats Television Analog525 lines NTSC · NTSC-J · PAL-M625 lines PAL · PAL-N/NC · PALplus · SECAM Audio BTSC (MTS) · NICAM-728 · Zweiton (A2 / IGR) · EIAJHidden signals Captioning · Teletext · CGMS-A · GCR · PDC · VBI · VEIL · VITC · WSS · XDSDefunct systems Pre-1940 · 405 lines · 819 lines · Baird-Nipkow · MAC · MUSE