Terminology: S-Video, Y/C signals

[ChiDragon]

I've been reading one of Charles Poyton's books and he's a big proponent of unambiguous terminology, but I haven't come across his take on this issue yet.

My understanding is that NTSC, PAL, and SECAM properly refer only to modulated composite signals.

But Y/C signals still differ by color encoding scheme, right? So what are the proper terms for separate Y/C 525-line and 625-line analog video signals?

[ChiDragon]

Those terms also apply to digital and analog composite and component video. That's the opposite of unambiguous.

[drmpeg]

It's still PAL and NTSC. If you short the Y and C wires of an S-Video cable together, you end up with composite.

[Ghitulescu]

Maybe "480i" and "576i" :p;)?
This doesn't say much about the colour system, think of Brazil :) hint PAL-M

[TheSkiller]

Those terms also apply to digital and analog composite and component video.They are used as such (and as synonyms for 50/60 Hz, 576/480 lines etc.) but strictly talking they apply only to the analog color modulation used in composite video and S-Video (Y/C) (not used in component video and RGB since those are not color modulated).


So what are the proper terms for separate Y/C 525-line and 625-line analog video signals?
PAL and NTSC.
I personally like to use a terminology such as 625/50, 525/60 if I want to emphasize the refresh rate and lines rather than the color modulation.
PAL-M, used in Brazil, could be written as such: PAL 525/60.

Here's an example of confusion, the term "PAL60" often leads to great confusion among video gamers because they often think it refers to a 625 lines signal but at 60 Hz – such thing does not exist. If everyone used "PAL 525/60" things would be clearer.

[Ghitulescu]

Many years ago, EBU used the frame "numerology", because everything was a frame (even if composed from two fields coming each from a different source eg during editing).
The Amis started afterwards the 60i thing, to differentiate the NTSC from the progressive formats, and many times the i was lost.
So the almost universal convention now is to count the discrete elements of a picture, be they frames of fields, and to add a p for frames and an i for fields. Examples 625i50 (again the Amis seem to use the 525/59.94i). While in Europe the things are quite clear, the notation 525/60i does not clearly define the image as pure analogue (525 scanlines at 60/1.001 fields per second), computer analogue (60fps) and the status of the DF flag. A complication arises for digital formats with analogue interface, because of the overscan. So 1080i50 could also be 1125i50, if we consider that 720x576i50 would be better described as 625i50.