The other day, I captured the composite video signal coming out from an infotainment device. The device had a setting which allows you to select encoding for the output signal. By setting the device to output a particular image on the composite video RCA connector (hence the waveform shown below are of unmodulated baseband video signals) and switching the device between NTSC and PAL, I was able to capture and analyse various aspects of the two standards. Test Pattern Here is the test pattern I used. I loaded the JPEG onto a USB flash drive and connected it to the infotainment device. The device was put in image playback mode and the selected file was rendered on the LCD display as well as output on the composite video out. The image is composed of exactly 640 x 480 pixels which corresponds to an aspect ratio of 4:3. Test Pattern A short table of differences between the two standards NTSC PAL Stands for National Te...