WORLD TV STANDARDS

These apply for DVD and VHS viewed on a TV. Please see the notes below.

• 
• 

Abu Dhabi	PAL	Macau	PAL
Afghanistan	PAL	Macedonia	PAL
Alaska	NTSC	Madagascar	SECAM (V)
Albania	PAL	Madeira	PAL
Algeria	PAL	Malawi	PAL
American Samoa	NTSC	Malaysia	PAL
Andorra	SECAM(V)/PAL	Malta	PAL
Angola	PAL	Marshall Islands	NTSC
Antigua & Barbuda	NTSC	Martinique	SECAM (V)
Antilles (Dutch)	NTSC	Mauritania	SECAM (V)
Argentina***	PAL (N)	Mauritius	SECAM (V)
Aruba	NTSC	Mexico	NTSC
Ascension Island	PAL	Micronesia	NTSC
Australia	PAL	Midway Islands	NTSC
Austria	PAL	Monaco	PAL/SECAM (V)
Azores	PAL	Montenegro	PAL
Azerbaijan	SECAM (H)	Mongolia	SECAM(V)
		Montserrat	NTSC
Bahamas	NTSC	Morocco	SECAM (V)
Bahrain	PAL	Mozambique	PAL
Bangladesh	PAL	Myanmar	NTSC
Barbados	NTSC
Barbuda	NTSC	Nauru	SECAM
Belarus	SECAM	Namibia	PAL
Belgium	PAL	Nepal	PAL
Belize	NTSC	Netherlands	PAL
Benin	SECAM (V)	New Caledonia	SECAM (V)
Bermuda	NTSC	New Zealand	PAL
Bolivia	NTSC (M&N)	Nicaragua	NTSC
Bosnia Herzegovina	PAL	Niger	SECAM (V)
Botswana	SECAM	Nigeria	PAL
Bhutan	?	Norfolk Island	PAL
Brazil***	PAL (M)	Norway	PAL
British Virgin Islands	NTSC
Brunei	PAL	Okinawa	NTSC
Bulgaria	SECAM (H)	Oman	PAL
Burkina Faso	SECAM (V)
Burma	NTSC	Palau	NTSC
Burundi	SECAM (V)	Pakistan	PAL
		Panama	NTSC
Cambodia	see Kampuchea	Papua New Guinea	PAL
Cameroon	PAL	Paraguay	PAL (N)
Canada	NTSC	Peru	NTSC
Canary Islands	PAL	Philippines	NTSC
Cape Verde	PAL	Poland	PAL
Cayman Islands	PAL/NTSC	Polynesia	SECAM (V)
Central African Rep	SECAM	Portugal	PAL
Chad	SECAM (V)	Puerto Rico	NTSC
Channel Islands	PAL
Chile	NTSC	Qatar	PAL
China	PAL
Christmas Island	PAL	Reunion	SECAM (V)
Colombia	NTSC	Romania	PAL
Congo	SECAM	Rwanda	SECAM
Cook Island	PAL	Russia	SECAM (H)* *
Corsica	SECAM (V)
Costa Rica	NTSC	Samoa US & Eastern	NTSC
Croatia	PAL	Samoa Western	PAL
Cuba	NTSC	Sardinia	PAL
Curacao	NTSC	Saudi Arabia	SECAM (H)/PAL
Cyprus (Greek)	SECAM (H)	Senegal	SECAM (V)
Cyprus (Turkish)	PAL	Serbia	SECAM (H)
Czech Republic	SECAM (H)/PAL	Seychelles	PAL
		Sierra Leone	PAL
Denmark	PAL	Singapore	PAL
Diego Garcia	NTSC	Slovakia Rep	PAL/SECAM (H)
Djibouti	SECAM (V)	Slovenia	PAL
Dominica	NTSC	Solomon Isles	PAL
Dominican Rep	NTSC	Somalia	PAL
Dubai	PAL	South Africa	PAL
Easter Island	PAL	Spain	PAL
Ecuador	NTSC	Sri Lanka	PAL
Eire	PAL	St Helena St Kitts & Nevis	NTSC
Egypt	PAL	St Lucia	NTSC
El Salvador	NTSC	St Pierre	SECAM (V)
Equatorial Guinea	SECAM (V)	St Vincent	NTSC
Eritrea	PAL	Sudan	PAL
Estonia	PAL/SECAM (H)	Surinam	NTSC
Ethiopia	PAL	Swaziland	PAL
		Sweden	PAL
Falkland Islands	PAL	Switzerland	PAL
Faroe Islands	PAL	Syria	PAL
Fiji	NTSC
Finland	PAL	Tahiti	SECAM (V)
France	SECAM (V)	Tajikstan	SECAM
		Taiwan	NTSC
Gabon	SECAM (V)	Tanzania	PAL
Galapagos Is	NTSC	Thailand	PAL
Gambia	PAL	Togo	SECAM(V)
Gaza /West Bank	PAL	Tonga	NTSC
Georgia	SECAM (H)	Trinidad & Tobago	NTSC
Germany	PAL	Tristan da Cunah	PAL
Ghana	PAL	Tunisia	SECAM (V)
Gibraltar	PAL	Turkey	PAL
Greece	PAL	Turkmenistan	SECAM
Greenland	PAL
Grenada	NTSC	Ukraine	SECAM
Guadeloupe	SECAM (V)	Uganda	PAL
Guam	NTSC	United Arab Emirates	PAL
Guatemala	NTSC	United Kingdom	PAL
Guiana (French)	SECAM (V)	Uruguay	PAL (N)
Guinea	PAL	USA	NTSC
Guinea-Bissou	PAL	Uzbekistan	SECAM
Guyana (Rep)	NTSC
		Vanuatu	?
Haiti	NTSC	Vatican	PAL
Hawaii	NTSC	Venezuela	NTSC
Holland	PAL	Vietnam	NTSC/SECAM (V)
Honduras	NTSC	Virgin Islands	NTSC
Hong Kong	PAL
Hungary	PAL	Wallis Island	SECAM (V)
Iceland	PAL	Yemen	PAL/NTSC
India	PAL	Yugoslavia	PAL
Indonesia	PAL
Iran	SECAM (H)	Zaire	SECAM (V)
Iraq	SECAM (H)	Zambia	PAL
Ireland	PAL	Zanzibar	(Tanzania) PAL
Israel	PAL	Zimbabwe	PAL
Italy	PAL
Ivory Coast	SECAM (V)	<<TOP
Jamaica	NTSC
Japan	NTSC
Johnston Islands	NTSC
Jordan	PAL
Kampuchea	PAL
Kazakhstan	SECAM (H)
Kenya	PAL
Kiribati	PAL
Korea (North)	PAL/NTSC
Korea (South)	NTSC
Kuwait	PAL
Kyrgyzstan	SECAM(H)
Laos	PAL
Latvia	SECAM(H)
Lebanon	PAL/SECAM (H)
Leeward Islands	NTSC
Lesotho	PAL
Liberia	PAL
Libya	PAL
Liechtenstein	PAL
Lithuania	SECAM (H)
Luxembourg	PAL/SECAM

We believe this list to be correct but cannot assume responsibility for errors:
FOR CERTAINTY PLEASE CHECK WITH END USER, PARTICULARLY IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES:

Belarus	SECAM V or H?
Bhutan	?
Czech Rep	SECAM (H) or PAL? (officially Secam H, many users have PAL)
Korea (North)	PAL or NTSC?
Lebanon	PAL/SECAM (H)
Rwanda	SECAM V or H?
Tajikstan	SECAM V or H?
Turkmenistan	SECAM V or H?
Ukraine	SECAM V or H?
Uzbekistan	SECAM V or H?

If you have updated information, please email us and we'll add what you say to Visitors' Comments, below. (You can also contact us for a quote for duplication of your programme.)

***Argentina and Brazil British Council offices can use PAL

Note 1: As a general rule, SECAM (V) is used in France and French colonies and is more widespread, SECAM (H) is used in the Middle East. Secam (V) and (H) will play in vhs machines of the opposite format, but in b&w, with sound.

Note 2: Prior to break-up of USSR, Russian states were officially SECAM (V). However, as SECAM (H) equipment was less expensive, many users have (H) vhs players. These states are now changing from SECAM to PAL, and were expected to have completed the change by 2000

Visitors' Comments:
The TV standard in Lebanon is PAL. Although most people will have multisystem television sets as well as VHS players and Multizone DVD players. Najib Tawil, Lebanon

- Would it be useful to note a high penetration of NTSC playback capability in recent VCRs sold in Australia - meaning that Australian clients are likely to be able to accept an NTSC tape David Winter/Australia