France 2 ( French: [fʁɑ̃s dø] ) is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3 , France 4 , France 5 and France Info . France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews .
126-458: SECAM , also written SÉCAM ( French pronunciation: [sekam] , Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire , French for color sequential with memory ), is an analog color television system that was used in France, Russia and some other countries or territories of Europe and Africa. It was one of three major analog color television standards, the others being PAL and NTSC . Like PAL, a SECAM picture
252-445: A " colorburst ". A phase error during QAM demodulation produces crosstalk between the color difference signals. On NTSC this creates Hue and Saturation errors, manually corrected for with a "tint" control on the receiving TV set; while PAL only suffers from Saturation errors. SECAM is free of this problem. SECAM uses frequency modulation (FM) to encode chrominance information on the color carrier, which does not require knowledge of
378-607: A camera. Aleksandar M. apparently contacted his cousin Nenad Mirković and told him that the French were willing to pay €800 for weapons smugglers. At this point Mirković decided that he himself will appear on camera and also contacted his friend Žarko Blagojević to do the same. In order to make their act more credible, they then obtained two handguns – Zastava 9mm and 7.56mm – from Blagojević's father-in-law and father respectively. They also decided to get an automatic weapon by buying it from
504-600: A certain Milorad Novaković, a resident of Umka . Apparently, the two first offered him €200, but Novaković wanted €350, at which point they went back to two French journalists asking for more money and getting it. Coached by Genauzeau and Mathé, the footage featuring masked Blagojević and Mirković was shot at a house owned by Blagojević's friend in Umka. Afterwards, they went into the nearby woods in Duboko near Umka where they fired off
630-701: A circuit with a specific IC for the French SECAM-L standard, making the tuner multi-standard and allowing the VCR to record SECAM broadcasts in MESECAM. A stamp mentioning "PAL+SECAM" was added to these machines. Video recorders like Panasonic NV-W1E (AG-W1-P for professional), AG-W3, NV-J700AM, Aiwa HV-MX100, HV-MX1U, Samsung SV-4000W and SV-7000W feature a digital standard conversion circuitry. Unlike PAL or NTSC, analog SECAM programming cannot easily be edited in its native analog form. Because it uses frequency modulation, SECAM
756-455: A conversion. Digital camcorders or DVD players (with the exception of some early models) do not accept or output a SECAM analog signal. However, this is of dwindling importance: since 1980 most European domestic video equipment uses French-originated SCART connectors, allowing the transmission of RGB signals between devices. This eliminates the legacy of PAL, SECAM, and NTSC color sub carrier standards. In general, modern professional equipment
882-519: A few rounds for the cameras. They then returned the two handguns to Blagojević's father and father in law before selling the Kalashnikov for €100. According to the Serbian police report, Aleksandar M. was paid €300 by the French journalists while Mirković and Blagojević split the €800 between themselves. Serbian foreign minister Ivan Mrkić reacted to the police report by "seeking explanations from France as
1008-619: A given bandwidth. This is because sophisticated comb filters in receivers are more effective with NTSC's 4 color frame sequence compared to PAL's 8-field sequence. However, in the end, the larger channel width of most PAL systems in Europe still gives PAL systems the edge in transmitting more picture detail. In the SECAM television system, U and V are transmitted on alternate lines, using simple frequency modulation of two different color subcarriers. In some analog color CRT displays, starting in 1956,
1134-517: A given signal completely, it is necessary to quote the color system plus the broadcast standard as a capital letter. For example, the United States, Canada, Mexico and South Korea used (or use) NTSC-M , Japan used NTSC-J , the UK used PAL-I , France used SECAM-L , much of Western Europe and Australia used (or use) PAL-B / G , most of Eastern Europe uses SECAM-D / K or PAL-D/K and so on. Not all of
1260-488: A means of television channel selection. Analog broadcast television systems come in a variety of frame rates and resolutions. Further differences exist in the frequency and modulation of the audio carrier. The monochrome combinations still existing in the 1950s were standardized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as capital letters A through N. When color television was introduced,
1386-484: A moderately weak signal becomes snowy and subject to interference. In contrast, picture quality from a digital television (DTV) signal remains good until the signal level drops below a threshold where reception is no longer possible or becomes intermittent. Analog television may be wireless ( terrestrial television and satellite television ) or can be distributed over a cable network as cable television . All broadcast television systems used analog signals before
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#17328520730361512-505: A month-long investigation, revealing its findings in May 2013 that parts of the French news story were staged with full knowledge of the two France 2 journalists. According to the police report, Genauzeau and Mathé arrived in Belgrade where they hired a local media fixer named Aleksandar M. who was employed at a Serbian news agency, giving him the task of finding weapons smugglers willing to go before
1638-399: A number of different broadcast television systems are in use worldwide, the same principles of operation apply. A cathode-ray tube (CRT) television displays an image by scanning a beam of electrons across the screen in a pattern of horizontal lines known as a raster . At the end of each line, the beam returns to the start of the next line; at the end of the last line, the beam returns to
1764-399: A second demodulator, the Z demodulator, also extracts an additive combination of U plus V, but in a different ratio. The X and Z color difference signals are further matrixed into three color difference signals, (R-Y), (B-Y), and (G-Y). The combinations of usually two, but sometimes three demodulators were: In the end, further matrixing of the above color-difference signals c through f yielded
1890-439: A second signal to the basic monochrome signal, which carries the color information. The color information is called chrominance or C {\displaystyle C} for short, while the black-and-white information is called the luminance or Y {\displaystyle Y} for short. Monochrome television receivers only display luminance, while color receivers process both signals. The YDbDr color space
2016-459: A signal would not be compatible with monochrome receivers, an important consideration when color broadcasting was first introduced. It would also occupy three times the bandwidth of existing television, requiring a decrease in the number of television channels available. Instead, the RGB signals are converted into YUV form, where the Y signal represents the luminance of the colors in the image. Because
2142-570: A single line (in one of the two interlaced fields), and hence be refreshed at half the frequency. (This is a consequence of interlaced scanning that is obviated by progressive scan .) Computer-generated text and inserts have to be carefully low-pass filtered to prevent this. The color difference signals in SECAM are calculated in the YDbDr color space, which is a scaled version of the YUV color space. This encoding
2268-574: A standard in Europe at the time was the 8 MHz 625-line system (System D), which had originated Germany and the Soviet Union and quickly became one of the most used systems. An effort to harmonize European broadcasts on the 625-line system started in the 1950s and was first implemented in Ireland in 1962 (System I). SECAM thus had the added issue of having to be compatible both with their existing 819-line system as well as their future broadcasts on
2394-502: A story claiming that Serbia is a hub for international weapons smuggling. Among its footage, the report showed two masked men – identified as Serbian weapons smugglers – who talked about their supposed illegal activity while showing off some of the weaponry: in particular two hand guns and one AK-47 Kalashnikov . They're also shown firing off rounds in the woods. After the report aired, the Serbian police 's criminal department (UKP) conducted
2520-410: A television image is composed of scan lines drawn on the screen. The lines are of varying brightness; the whole set of lines is drawn quickly enough that the human eye perceives it as one image. The process repeats and the next sequential frame is displayed, allowing the depiction of motion. The analog television signal contains timing and synchronization information so that the receiver can reconstruct
2646-506: A time, it is free of the color artifacts (" dot crawl ") present in NTSC and PAL that result from the combined transmission of color difference signals. This means that the vertical color resolution of a field is halved compared to NTSC. However, the color signals of all color TV systems of the time were encoded in a narrower band than their luma signals, so color information had lower horizontal resolution compared to luma in all systems. This matches
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#17328520730362772-438: A two-dimensional moving image from a one-dimensional time-varying signal. The first commercial television systems were black-and-white ; the beginning of color television was in the 1950s. A practical television system needs to take luminance , chrominance (in a color system), synchronization (horizontal and vertical), and audio signals , and broadcast them over a radio transmission. The transmission system must include
2898-477: A volt. At this point the IF signal consists of a video carrier signal at one frequency and the sound carrier at a fixed offset in frequency. A demodulator recovers the video signal. Also at the output of the same demodulator is a new frequency modulated sound carrier at the offset frequency. In some sets made before 1948, this was filtered out, and the sound IF of about 22 MHz was sent to an FM demodulator to recover
3024-454: Is Sound-in-Syncs . The luminance component of a composite video signal varies between 0 V and approximately 0.7 V above the black level. In the NTSC system, there is a blanking signal level used during the front porch and back porch, and a black signal level 75 mV above it; in PAL and SECAM these are identical. In a monochrome receiver, the luminance signal is amplified to drive
3150-411: Is a brief (about 1.5 microsecond ) period inserted between the end of each transmitted line of picture and the leading edge of the next line's sync pulse . Its purpose was to allow voltage levels to stabilise in older televisions, preventing interference between picture lines. The front porch is the first component of the horizontal blanking interval which also contains the horizontal sync pulse and
3276-438: Is a method of recording SECAM color signals onto VHS or Betamax video tape. It should not be mistaken for a broadcast standard. "Native" SECAM recording (marketing term: "SECAM-West") was devised for machines sold for the French (and adjacent countries) market. At a later stage, countries where both PAL and SECAM signals were available developed a cheap method of converting PAL video machines to record SECAM signals, using only
3402-411: Is also made up of 625 interlaced lines and is displayed at a rate of 25 frames per second (except SECAM-M). However, due to the way SECAM processes color information, it is not compatible with the PAL video format standard. SECAM video is composite video ; the luminance (luma, monochrome image) and chrominance (chroma, color applied to the monochrome image) are transmitted together as one signal. All
3528-430: Is better suited to the transmission of only one signal at a time. FM modulation of the color information allows SECAM to be completely free of the dot crawl problem commonly encountered with the other analog standards. SECAM transmissions are more robust over longer distances than NTSC or PAL. However, owing to their FM nature, the color signal remains present, although at reduced amplitude, even in monochrome portions of
3654-461: Is briefly stored in an analog delay line adjusted so the signal exits the delay at the precise start of the next line. This allows the television to combine the R − Y {\displaystyle R-Y} signal transmitted on one line with the B − Y {\displaystyle B-Y} on the next and thereby produce a full color gamut on every line. Because SECAM transmits only one chrominance component at
3780-648: Is derived from red, green, and blue ( E ′ R , E ′ G , E ′ B {\displaystyle E'{\scriptstyle {\text{R}}},E'{\scriptstyle {\text{G}}},E'{\scriptstyle {\text{B}}}} ) gamma pre-corrected primary signals: D ′ R {\displaystyle D'{\scriptstyle {\text{R}}}} and D ′ B {\displaystyle D'{\scriptstyle {\text{B}}}} are red and blue color difference signals, used to calculate chrominance: SECAM differs significantly from
3906-499: Is easier to tune the picture without losing the sound. So the FM sound carrier is then demodulated, amplified, and used to drive a loudspeaker. Until the advent of the NICAM and MTS systems, television sound transmissions were monophonic. The video carrier is demodulated to give a composite video signal containing luminance, chrominance and synchronization signals. The result is identical to
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4032-727: Is first shifted down to the lower frequency of 630 kHz, and the complex nature of the PAL or NTSC sub-carrier means that the down conversion must be done via heterodyning to ensure that information is not lost. The SECAM sub-carriers, which consist of two simple FM signals at 4.41 MHz and 4.25 MHz, do not need this (actually simple) processing. The VHS specification for "native" SECAM recording specifies that they be divided by 4 on recording to give sub carriers of approximately 1.1 MHz and 1.06 MHz, and multiplied by 4 on playback. A true dual-standard PAL and SECAM video recorder therefore requires two color processing circuits, adding to complexity and expense. Since some countries in
4158-586: Is halved in both horizontal and vertical directions thus yielding a more symmetrical behavior. With the fall of communism and following a period when multi-standard TV sets became a commodity in the early 2000s, many Eastern European countries decided to switch to the West German-developed PAL system. Yet SECAM remained in use in Russia , Belarus and the French-speaking African countries. In
4284-433: Is not linear with respect to the input image (this is also what protects it against signal distortion), so electrically mixing two (synchronized) SECAM signals does not yield a valid SECAM signal, unlike with analog PAL or NTSC. For this reason, to mix two SECAM signals, they must be demodulated, the demodulated signals mixed, and are remodulated again. Hence, post-production is often done in PAL, or in component formats, with
4410-464: Is now all-digital, and uses component-based digital interconnects such as CCIR 601 to eliminate the need for any analog processing prior to the final modulation of the analog signal for broadcast. However, large installed bases of analog professional equipment still exist, particularly in third world countries. A legacy list of SECAM users in 1998 is available on Recommendation ITU-R BT.470-6 - Conventional Television Systems, Appendix 1 to Annex 1 , and
4536-465: Is that the U and V signals are zero when the picture has no color content. Since the human eye is more sensitive to detail in luminance than in color, the U and V signals can be transmitted with reduced bandwidth with acceptable results. In the receiver, a single demodulator can extract an additive combination of U plus V. An example is the X demodulator used in the X/Z demodulation system. In that same system,
4662-405: Is the difference between the B signal and the Y signal, also known as B minus Y (B-Y), and the V signal is the difference between the R signal and the Y signal, also known as R minus Y (R-Y). The U signal then represents how purplish-blue or its complementary color, yellowish-green, the color is, and the V signal how purplish-red or its complementary, greenish-cyan, it is. The advantage of this scheme
4788-542: Is the direct successor of Antenne 2, established under a 1974 law that mandated the breakup of ORTF into seven distinct organisations. Three television "programme corporations" were established on 6 January 1975 – TF1 , Antenne 2 and FR3, now France 3 – alongside Radio France , the Société française de production, the public broadcasting agency Télédiffusion de France and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). Antenne 2 and
4914-566: Is the same as the original U signal at the corresponding time. In effect, these pulses are discrete-time analog samples of the U signal. The pulses are then low-pass filtered so that the original analog continuous-time U signal is recovered. For V, a 90-degree shifted subcarrier briefly gates the chroma signal every 280 nanoseconds, and the rest of the process is identical to that used for the U signal. Gating at any other time than those times mentioned above will yield an additive mixture of any two of U, V, -U, or -V. One of these off-axis (that is, of
5040-612: Is three-dimensional because of the nature of their retinas , which include specific detectors for red, green and blue light. So in addition to luminance, which is already carried by the existing monochrome signal, color requires sending two additional signals. The human retina is more sensitive to green light than to red (3:1) or blue (9:1) light. Because of this, the red ( R {\displaystyle R} ) and blue ( B {\displaystyle B} ) signals are usually chosen to be sent along luma but with comparably less resolution, to be able to save bandwidth while impacting
5166-542: Is transmitted. Therefore, the receiver must reconstitute the subcarrier. For this purpose, a short burst of the subcarrier, known as the colorburst, is transmitted during the back porch (re-trace blanking period) of each scan line. A subcarrier oscillator in the receiver locks onto this signal (see phase-locked loop ) to achieve a phase reference, resulting in the oscillator producing the reconstituted subcarrier. NTSC uses this process unmodified. Unfortunately, this often results in poor color reproduction due to phase errors in
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5292-472: Is used to build the image. This process doubles the apparent number of video frames per second and further reduces flicker and other defects in transmission. The television system for each country will specify a number of television channels within the UHF or VHF frequency ranges. A channel actually consists of two signals: the picture information is transmitted using amplitude modulation on one carrier frequency, and
5418-420: Is used to encode the mentioned Y {\displaystyle Y} (luminance) and D B D R {\displaystyle D_{B}D_{R}} ( red and blue color difference signals that make up chrominance) components. Additionally, for compatibility, it is required to use no more bandwidth than the monochrome signal alone; the color signal has to be somehow inserted into
5544-413: Is used to reduce the channel spacing, which would be nearly twice the video bandwidth if pure AM was used. Signal reception is invariably done via a superheterodyne receiver : the first stage is a tuner which selects a television channel and frequency-shifts it to a fixed intermediate frequency (IF). The signal amplifier performs amplification to the IF stages from the microvolt range to fractions of
5670-559: The Gaza War , France 2 was accused of airing misleading footage that was biased against Israel . It aired portion of a video that purported to show destruction caused by the Israel Air Force, but was shown to be a different incident from 2005 in which the IDF denied having any involvement. After being alerted to the error by bloggers , France 2 acknowledged the error and formally apologized in
5796-489: The ITU in 1961 as: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, K1, L, M and N. These systems determine the number of scan lines, frame rate, channel width, video bandwidth, video-audio separation, and so on. A color encoding scheme ( NTSC , PAL , or SECAM ) could be added to the base monochrome signal. Using RF modulation the signal is then modulated onto a very high frequency (VHF) or ultra high frequency (UHF) carrier wave . Each frame of
5922-621: The Middle East use PAL and others use SECAM, the region has adopted a shortcut, and uses the PAL mixer-down converter approach for both PAL and SECAM, simplifying VCR design. Many PAL VHS recorders have had their analog tuner modified in French-speaking western Switzerland (Switzerland used the PAL-B/G standard while the bordering France used SECAM-L). The original tuner in those PAL recorders allows only PAL-B/G reception. The Swiss importers added
6048-548: The RCA brand – RCA being the creator of NTSC. Thomson also co-authored the ATSC standards which are used for American high-definition television . Just as with the other color standards adopted for broadcast usage over the world, SECAM is a standard that permits existing monochrome television receivers predating its introduction to continue to be operated as monochrome televisions. Because of this compatibility requirement, color standards added
6174-640: The RFT Chromat , even included a dual standard PAL/SECAM decoder as an option. Another explanation for the Eastern European adoption of SECAM, led by the Soviet Union, is that the Russians had extremely long distribution lines between broadcasting stations and transmitters. Long co-axial cables or microwave links can cause amplitude and phase variations, which do not affect SECAM signals. Other countries, notably
6300-563: The United Kingdom and Italy , briefly experimented with SECAM before opting for PAL. SECAM was adopted by former French and Belgian colonies in Africa , as well as Greece , Cyprus , and Eastern Bloc countries (except for Romania ) and some Middle Eastern countries. European efforts during the 1980–90s towards the creation of a unified analog standard, resulting in the MAC standards , still used
6426-430: The back porch . The back porch is the portion of each scan line between the end (rising edge) of the horizontal sync pulse and the start of active video. It is used to restore the black level (300 mV) reference in analog video. In signal processing terms, it compensates for the fall time and settling time following the sync pulse. In color television systems such as PAL and NTSC, this period also includes
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#17328520730366552-413: The colorburst signal. In the SECAM system, it contains the reference subcarrier for each consecutive color difference signal in order to set the zero-color reference. In some professional systems, particularly satellite links between locations, the digital audio is embedded within the line sync pulses of the video signal, to save the cost of renting a second channel. The name for this proprietary system
6678-528: The control grid in the electron gun of the CRT. This changes the intensity of the electron beam and therefore the brightness of the spot being scanned. Brightness and contrast controls determine the DC shift and amplification, respectively. A color signal conveys picture information for each of the red, green, and blue components of an image. However, these are not simply transmitted as three separate signals, because: such
6804-433: The horizontal scan frequency, and thus their power spectra tends to be concentrated on multiples of such frequency. The specific color carrier frequency of SECAM results from carefully choosing it so that the higher-powered harmonics of the modulated chroma and luma signals are apart from each other and from the sound carrier, thereby minimizing crosstalk between the three signals. The color space perceived by humans
6930-405: The 625-line system. As the latter used much less bandwidth, it was this standard that defined the amount of color information that could be carried. In the 8 MHz standard, the signal is split into two parts, the video signal, and the audio signal, each with its own carrier frequency . For any given channel, one carrier is located 1.25 MHz above the channel's listed frequency and indicates
7056-511: The Baltic countries also changed their underlying sound carrier standard on the UHF band from D/K to B/G which is used in most of Western Europe, to facilitate use of imported broadcast equipment, while leaving the D/K standard on VHF. This required viewers to purchase multistandard receivers though. The other countries mentioned kept their existing standards (B/G in the cases of East Germany and Greece, D/K for
7182-828: The French SECAM technology. The first color television sets cost 5000 francs . Color TV was not very popular initially; only about 1500 people watched the inaugural program in color. A year later in 1968, only 200,000 sets had been sold of an expected million. This pattern was similar to the earlier slow build-up of color television popularity in the US. In March 1969, East Germany decided to adopt SECAM III B. The adoption of SECAM in Eastern Europe has been attributed to Cold War political machinations. According to this explanation, East German political authorities were well aware of West German television's popularity and adopted SECAM rather than
7308-498: The French television market. The remaining state-owned channels came under severe pressure from their private competitors and lost 30% of their market share between 1987 and 1989. In an effort to save them, a single director-general was appointed to manage both Antenne 2 and FR3 and the two channels merged to form the France Télévisions group. They were renamed on 7 September 1992 as France 2 and France 3 respectively. In 1995,
7434-536: The IDF position. France 2 later launched libel actions against commentators who alleged that the incident was staged. France 2 won a case against one of those critics, Philippe Karsenty who was eventually and definitely fined €7,000 by the Court of Appeal of Paris in 2013. Karsenty had been convicted in 2006, acquitted on appeal in 2008, a decision that was overturned in 2012 by the Cour de cassation . In January 2009, during
7560-408: The NTSC and PAL color systems, U and V are transmitted by using quadrature amplitude modulation of a subcarrier. This kind of modulation applies two independent signals to one subcarrier, with the idea that both signals will be recovered independently at the receiving end. For NTSC, the subcarrier is at 3.58 MHz. For the PAL system it is at 4.43 MHz. The subcarrier itself is not included in
7686-411: The NTSC system. PAL's color encoding is similar to the NTSC systems. SECAM, though, uses a different modulation approach than PAL or NTSC. PAL had a late evolution called PALplus , allowing widescreen broadcasts while remaining fully compatible with existing PAL equipment. In principle, all three color encoding systems can be used with any scan line/frame rate combination. Therefore, in order to describe
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#17328520730367812-565: The PAL encoding used in West Germany . This did not hinder mutual reception in black and white, because the underlying TV standards remained essentially the same in both parts of Germany. However, East Germans responded by buying PAL decoders for their SECAM sets. Eventually, the government in East Berlin stopped paying attention to so-called " Republikflucht via Fernsehen", or "defection via television". Later East German–produced TV sets, such as
7938-487: The PAL recording circuitry. Although being a workaround, MESECAM is much more widespread than "native" SECAM. It has been the only method of recording SECAM signals to VHS in almost all countries that used SECAM, including the Middle East and all countries in Eastern Europe. A tape produced by this method is not compatible with "native" SECAM tapes as produced by VCRs in the French market. It will play in black and white only,
8064-405: The U and V axis) gating methods is called I/Q demodulation. Another much more popular off-axis scheme was the X/Z demodulation system. Further matrixing recovered the original U and V signals. This scheme was actually the most popular demodulator scheme throughout the 1960s. The above process uses the subcarrier. But as previously mentioned, it was deleted before transmission, and only the chroma
8190-534: The UK's 405-line was similar; widely adopted 525- and 625-line systems used negative video). The first proposed system was called SECAM I in 1961, followed by other studies to improve compatibility and image quality, but it was too soon for a wide introduction. A version of SECAM for the French 819-line television standard was devised and tested, but never introduced. Following a pan-European agreement to introduce color TV only on 625-line broadcasts, France had to switch to that system, which happened in 1963 with
8316-407: The Y signal) represents the approximate saturation of a color, and the chrominance phase against the subcarrier reference approximately represents the hue of the color. For particular test colors found in the test color bar pattern, exact amplitudes and phases are sometimes defined for test and troubleshooting purposes only. Due to the nature of the quadrature amplitude modulation process that created
8442-609: The arrival of DTV. Motivated by the lower bandwidth requirements of compressed digital signals , beginning just after the year 2000, a digital television transition is proceeding in most countries of the world, with different deadlines for the cessation of analog broadcasts. Several countries have made the switch already, with the remaining countries still in progress mostly in Africa, Asia, and South America. The earliest systems of analog television were mechanical television systems that used spinning disks with patterns of holes punched into
8568-435: The basic sound signal. In newer sets, this new carrier at the offset frequency was allowed to remain as intercarrier sound , and it was sent to an FM demodulator to recover the basic sound signal. One particular advantage of intercarrier sound is that when the front panel fine tuning knob is adjusted, the sound carrier frequency does not change with the tuning, but stays at the above-mentioned offset frequency. Consequently, it
8694-423: The beginning of the first line at the top of the screen. As it passes each point, the intensity of the beam is varied, varying the luminance of that point. A color television system is similar except there are three beams that scan together and an additional signal known as chrominance controls the color of the spot. When analog television was developed, no affordable technology for storing video signals existed;
8820-419: The brightness control signal ( luminance ) is fed to the cathode connections of the electron guns, and the color difference signals ( chrominance signals) are fed to the control grids connections. This simple CRT matrix mixing technique was replaced in later solid state designs of signal processing with the original matrixing method used in the 1954 and 1955 color TV receivers. Synchronizing pulses added to
8946-415: The carrier phase to demodulate. However, the simple FM scheme used allows the transmission of only one signal, not the two required for color. To address this, SECAM broadcasts R − Y {\displaystyle R-Y} and B − Y {\displaystyle B-Y} separately on alternating scan lines . To produce full color, the color information on one scan line
9072-517: The channel began broadcasting in 4K UHD. Test broadcasts began on 10 September 1959. They were transmitted from the Eiffel Tower on channel 12 to broadcast experimental programmes. The channel was scheduled to start on 2 January 1960 on VHF channels 10 and 12. Originally under the ownership of the RTF . However, broadcasts on neighbouring channels led to constant errors, with reception being ruined in one of
9198-518: The chrominance information was added to the monochrome signals in a way that black and white televisions ignore. In this way backward compatibility was achieved. There are three standards for the way the additional color information can be encoded and transmitted. The first was the American NTSC system. The European and Australian PAL and the French and former Soviet Union SECAM standards were developed later and attempt to cure certain defects of
9324-436: The chrominance signal, at certain times, the signal represents only the U signal, and 70 nanoseconds (NTSC) later, it represents only the V signal. About 70 nanoseconds later still, -U, and another 70 nanoseconds, -V. So to extract U, a synchronous demodulator is utilized, which uses the subcarrier to briefly gate the chroma every 280 nanoseconds, so that the output is only a train of discrete pulses, each having an amplitude that
9450-435: The color is lost. Most VHS machines advertised as "SECAM capable" outside France can be expected to be of the MESECAM variety only. On VHS tapes, the luminance signal is recorded FM-encoded (on VHS with reduced bandwidth, on S-VHS with full bandwidth) but the PAL or NTSC chrominance signal is too sensitive to small changes in frequency caused by inevitable small variations in tape speed to be recorded directly. Instead, it
9576-499: The combined audience share of the two state-owned channels was 41%, with France 2 in particular being heavily dependent on advertising and sponsorship revenues, which comprised 43.8% of its budget by 1996. The focus on ratings led to strong rivalry with TF1, for instance prompting the two channels to broadcast popular shows and news programmes in the same timeslots. TF1 and France 2 compete for the same demographics; dramas (including American imports), game shows and light entertainments form
9702-425: The combining process, the low-resolution portion of the Y signals cancel out, leaving R, G, and B signals able to render a low-resolution image in full color. However, the higher resolution portions of the Y signals do not cancel out, and so are equally present in R, G, and B, producing the higher-resolution image detail in monochrome, although it appears to the human eye as a full-color and full-resolution picture. In
9828-486: The composite video format used by analog video devices such as VCRs or CCTV cameras . To ensure good linearity and thus fidelity, consistent with affordable manufacturing costs of transmitters and receivers, the video carrier is never modulated to the extent that it is shut off altogether. When intercarrier sound was introduced later in 1948, not completely shutting off the carrier had the side effect of allowing intercarrier sound to be economically implemented. Each line of
9954-425: The countries using SECAM have either converted to Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), the new pan-European standard for digital television, or are currently in the process of conversion . SECAM remained a major standard into the 2000s. Development of SECAM predates PAL, and began in 1956 by a team led by Henri de France working at Compagnie Française de Télévision (later bought by Thomson, now Technicolor ). NTSC
10080-634: The development of the cathode-ray tube (CRT), which uses a focused electron beam to trace lines across a phosphor coated surface. The electron beam could be swept across the screen much faster than any mechanical disc system, allowing for more closely spaced scan lines and much higher image resolution. Also, far less maintenance was required of an all-electronic system compared to a mechanical spinning disc system. All-electronic systems became popular with households after World War II . Broadcasters of analog television encode their signal using different systems. The official systems of transmission were defined by
10206-503: The disc to scan an image. A similar disk reconstructed the image at the receiver. Synchronization of the receiver disc rotation was handled through sync pulses broadcast with the image information. Camera systems used similar spinning discs and required intensely bright illumination of the subject for the light detector to work. The reproduced images from these mechanical systems were dim, very low resolution and flickered severely. Analog television did not begin in earnest as an industry until
10332-417: The displayed image is transmitted using a signal as shown above. The same basic format (with minor differences mainly related to timing and the encoding of color) is used for PAL, NTSC , and SECAM television systems. A monochrome signal is identical to a color one, with the exception that the elements shown in color in the diagram (the colorburst , and the chrominance signal) are not present. The front porch
10458-522: The dominant mix on both channels. From 1975, Antenne 2 was available in Italy (regions of Tuscany , Lazio, Lower Veneto and parts of Lombardy and Liguria ) using SECAM and since 1983 using PAL until 2003 when the frequencies were sold to various television networks such as Canale Italia and Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso . On 11 December 2006, France 2 was again made available across Italy on Digital terrestrial television until 7 June 2007, when it
10584-544: The famous footage of the shooting of Muhammad al-Durrah in the Gaza Strip . The scene was filmed by a Palestinian journalist, Talal Abu Rahma , who worked for the station. The voiceover, blaming the killing on fire from the Israeli Defence Forces , was provided by the channel's reporter Charles Enderlin . Subsequently, that account was put in doubt, with others suggesting that the fatal shots could not have come from
10710-412: The human retina, which has higher luminance resolution than color resolution. On SECAM, the loss of vertical color resolution makes the color resolution closer to uniform in both axes and has little visual effect. The idea of reducing the vertical color resolution comes from Henri de France, who observed that color information is approximately identical for two successive lines. Because the color information
10836-435: The image, thus being subject to stronger cross color even though color crawl of the PAL type does not exist. Though most of the pattern is removed from PAL and NTSC-encoded signals with a comb filter (designed to segregate the two signals where the luma spectrum may overlap into the spectral space used by the chroma) by modern displays, some can still be left in certain parts of the picture. Such parts are usually sharp edges on
10962-502: The introduction of "la deuxième chaîne ORTF" France 2 , the second national TV network. Further improvements during 1963 and 1964 to the standard were called SECAM II and SECAM III, with the latter being presented at the 1965 CCIR General Assembly in Vienna , and adopted by France and the Soviet Union . Soviet technicians were involved in a separate development of the standard, creating an incompatible variant called NIIR or SECAM IV, which
11088-400: The introduction of colour. The switch to colour occurred at 14:15 CET on 1 October 1967, using the SECAM system. La deuxième chaîne became the first colour television channel in France. TF1 would not commence colour broadcasting on 625-lines until 1 September 1975. Such technology later allowed the network to air programming in NICAM stereo (compatible with SECAM). The present channel
11214-452: The late 2000s, SECAM started a process of being phased out and replaced by DVB . Unlike some other manufacturers, the company where SECAM was invented, Technicolor (known as Thomson until 2010), still sold television sets worldwide under different brands until the company sold its Trademark Licensing operations in 2022; this may be due in part to the legacy of SECAM. Thomson bought the company that developed PAL, Telefunken, and even co-owned
11340-406: The list before many OIRT countries migrated to PAL can be found at CCIR Report 624-3 Characteristics of television systems, Annex I . Below is an updated list of nations that currently authorize the use of the SECAM standard for television broadcasting. It is subject to ongoing changes as nations move to PAL and DVB-T . These migrations are listed separately. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and
11466-520: The location of the luminance portion of the signal. A second carrier is located 6 MHz above the luma carrier, indicating the center of the audio signal. To add color to the signal, SECAM adds another carrier located 4.4336... MHz above the luma carrier. The chroma signal is centered on this carrier, overlapping the upper part of the luma frequency range. Because the information of most scan lines differ little from their immediate neighbors, both luma and chroma signals are close to being periodic on
11592-401: The luminance signal had to be generated and transmitted at the same time at which it is displayed on the CRT. It was therefore essential to keep the raster scanning in the camera (or other device for producing the signal) in exact synchronization with the scanning in the television. The physics of the CRT require that a finite time interval be allowed for the spot to move back to the start of
11718-552: The magazine Le Figaro , saying that it was an "internal malfunction" caused by their staff having "worked too fast." France 2 has been accused of knowingly producing and airing a news item whose key part it fabricated and staged. On 7 March 2013, France 2 aired an eight-minute investigative report purporting to expose a weapons smuggling channel from Serbia to France. The report authors, journalists Franck Genauzeau and Régis Mathé, traveled to Serbia in February 2013 where they filmed
11844-435: The modulated signal ( suppressed carrier ), it is the subcarrier sidebands that carry the U and V information. The usual reason for using suppressed carrier is that it saves on transmitter power. In this application a more important advantage is that the color signal disappears entirely in black and white scenes. The subcarrier is within the bandwidth of the main luminance signal and consequently can cause undesirable artifacts on
11970-409: The monochrome signal, without disturbing it. This insertion is possible because the bandwidth of the monochrome TV signal is generally not fully utilized; the high-frequency portions of the signal, corresponding to fine details in the image, were often not recorded by contemporary video equipment, or not visible on consumer televisions anyway, especially after transmission. This section of the spectrum
12096-410: The negative side-effect of causing image smearing and blurring when there is rapid on-screen motion occurring. The maximum frame rate depends on the bandwidth of the electronics and the transmission system, and the number of horizontal scan lines in the image. A frame rate of 25 or 30 hertz is a satisfactory compromise, while the process of interlacing two video fields of the picture per frame
12222-451: The next line ( horizontal retrace ) or the start of the screen ( vertical retrace ). The timing of the luminance signal must allow for this. The human eye has a characteristic called phi phenomenon . Quickly displaying successive scan images creates the illusion of smooth motion. Flickering of the image can be partially solved using a long persistence phosphor coating on the CRT so that successive images fade slowly. However, slow phosphor has
12348-417: The older analog camcorders ( VHS , VHS-C ) were produced in SECAM versions, none of the 8 mm or Hi-band models ( S-VHS , S-VHS-C , and Hi-8 ) recorded it directly. Camcorders and VCRs of these standards sold in SECAM countries are internally PAL. The result could be converted back to SECAM in some models; most people buying such expensive equipment would have a multistandard TV set and as such would not need
12474-487: The opening sequences of Antenne 2 news bulletins, the headlines would be followed by a reminder of the French hostages held in Lebanon, including others such as Michel Seurat and Jean-Paul Kaufman, with names, photos and the length of their captivity. Within a year, most of the news team had been released and returned to France, but the reminders continued until all the hostages had been freed. On 30 September 2000, France 2 aired
12600-429: The other color systems by the way the color difference signals are carried. In NTSC and PAL , each line carries color difference signals encoded using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). To demodulate such a signal, knowledge of the phase of the carrier signal is needed. This information is sent along the video signal at the start of every scan line in the form of a short burst of the color carrier itself, called
12726-417: The other corporations were constituted as limited companies with the state controlling 100% of their capital. Although the three channels were set up as competitors vying for advertisers, they retained a collective monopoly over television broadcasting in France that was not repealed until 1981. Privately owned channels such as Canal+ and La Cinq (now superseded by France 5 ) soon became major competitors to
12852-785: The perceived image quality the least. (Also, the green signal is on average more closely correlated to luma, making them a poor choice of signal to send separately). To minimize crosstalk with luma and increase compatibility with existing monochrome TV sets, the R {\displaystyle R} and B {\displaystyle B} signals are usually sent as differences from luma ( Y {\displaystyle Y} ): R − Y {\displaystyle R-Y} and B − Y {\displaystyle B-Y} . This way, for an image that contains little color, its color difference signals tend to zero and its color-encoded signal converges to its equivalent monochrome signal. SECAM colorimetry
12978-452: The phase of the signal on each successive line, and averaging the results over pairs of lines. This process is achieved by the use of a 1H (where H = horizontal scan frequency) duration delay line. Phase shift errors between successive lines are therefore canceled out and the wanted signal amplitude is increased when the two in-phase ( coincident ) signals are re-combined. NTSC is more spectrum efficient than PAL, giving more picture detail for
13104-488: The picture, all the more noticeable in black and white receivers. A small sample of the subcarrier, the colorburst , is included in the horizontal blanking portion, which is not visible on the screen. This is necessary to give the receiver a phase reference for the modulated signal. Under quadrature amplitude modulation the modulated chrominance signal changes phase as compared to its subcarrier and also changes amplitude. The chrominance amplitude (when considered together with
13230-400: The picture, sudden color or brightness changes along the picture or certain repeating patterns, such as a checker board on clothing. FM SECAM is a continuous spectrum , so unlike PAL and NTSC even a perfect digital comb filter could not entirely separate SECAM colour and luminance signals. There are six varieties of SECAM, according to each of the broadcast system it was used with: MESECAM
13356-732: The possible combinations exist. NTSC is only used with system M, even though there were experiments with NTSC-A ( 405 line ) in the UK and NTSC-N (625 line) in part of South America. PAL is used with a variety of 625-line standards (B, G, D, K, I, N) but also with the North American 525-line standard, accordingly named PAL-M . Likewise, SECAM is used with a variety of 625-line standards. For this reason, many people refer to any 625/25 type signal as PAL and to any 525/30 signal as NTSC , even when referring to digital signals; for example, on DVD-Video , which does not contain any analog color encoding, and thus no PAL or NTSC signals at all. Although
13482-468: The received signal, caused sometimes by multipath, but mostly by poor implementation at the studio end. With the advent of solid-state receivers, cable TV, and digital studio equipment for conversion to an over-the-air analog signal, these NTSC problems have been largely fixed, leaving operator error at the studio end as the sole color rendition weakness of the NTSC system. In any case, the PAL D (delay) system mostly corrects these kinds of errors by reversing
13608-432: The rendering of colors in this way is the goal of both monochrome film and television systems, the Y signal is ideal for transmission as the luminance signal. This ensures a monochrome receiver will display a correct picture in black and white, where a given color is reproduced by a shade of gray that correctly reflects how light or dark the original color is. The U and V signals are color difference signals. The U signal
13734-457: The rest). Analog television Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude , phase and frequency of an analog signal. Analog signals vary over a continuous range of possible values which means that electronic noise and interference may be introduced. Thus with analog,
13860-413: The result encoded or transcoded into SECAM at the point of transmission. Reducing the costs of running television stations is one reason for some countries' switchovers to PAL. Most TVs currently sold in SECAM countries support both SECAM and PAL , and more recently composite video NTSC as well (though not usually broadcast NTSC, that is, they cannot accept a broadcast signal from an antenna). Although
13986-435: The sequential color transmission idea of SECAM, with only one of time-compressed U and V components being transmitted on a given line. The D2-MAC standard enjoyed some short real market deployment, particularly in northern European countries. To some extent, this idea is still present in 4:2:0 digital sampling format, which is used by most digital video media available to the public. In this case, however, color resolution
14112-415: The sound is transmitted with frequency modulation at a frequency at a fixed offset (typically 4.5 to 6 MHz) from the picture signal. The channel frequencies chosen represent a compromise between allowing enough bandwidth for video (and hence satisfactory picture resolution), and allowing enough channels to be packed into the available frequency band. In practice a technique called vestigial sideband
14238-407: The state-owned channels after the state monopoly was lifted. The breakup of ORTF had been intended to stimulate competition between the public channels but failed in this aim; both TF1 and Antenne 2 came to rely on a diet of popular entertainment shows alongside cheap American imports, seeking to maximise ratings and attract advertisers. TF1 was privatised in 1987, radically affecting the balance of
14364-557: The system's development—were shown standing in a studio. Following a count from 10, at 2:15 pm the black-and-white image switched to color; the presenter then declared " Et voici la couleur ! " (fr: And here is color!) In the same year of 1967, CLT of Lebanon became the third television station in the world, after France 2 in France and the Soviet Central Television in the Soviet Union , to broadcast in color utilizing
14490-434: The three color-difference signals, (R-Y), (B-Y), and (G-Y). The R, G, and B signals in the receiver needed for the display device (CRT, Plasma display, or LCD display) are electronically derived by matrixing as follows: R is the additive combination of (R-Y) with Y, G is the additive combination of (G-Y) with Y, and B is the additive combination of (B-Y) with Y. All of this is accomplished electronically. It can be seen that in
14616-426: The two assigned frequencies. This prompted RTF to reserve the UHF band for the service. The channel went on the air for the first time on 18 April 1964 as RTF Télévision 2 . Within a year, ORTF rebranded that channel as La deuxième chaîne (The Second Channel). Originally, the network was broadcast on 625-line transmitters only in preparation for the discontinuation of 819-line black & white transmissions and
14742-494: The vertical color resolution. A similar paradox applies to the vertical resolution in television in general: reducing the bandwidth of the video signal will preserve the vertical resolution, even if the image loses sharpness and is smudged in the horizontal direction. Hence, video could be sharper vertically than horizontally. Additionally, transmitting an image with too much vertical detail will cause annoying flicker on interlaced television screens, as small details will only appear on
14868-605: The video signal at the end of every scan line and video frame ensure that the sweep oscillators in the receiver remain locked in step with the transmitted signal so that the image can be reconstructed on the receiver screen. France 2 Since 3:20 CET on 7 April 2008, all France 2 programming has been broadcast in 16:9 widescreen format over the French analogue and digital terrestrial television . An HD simulcast feed of France 2 has been broadcasting on satellite provider CanalSat since 1 July 2008 and on digital terrestrial television since 30 October 2008. In January 2024,
14994-522: The ways to counter that to their workers. In France, except in case of breaking news they will ask reporters to take the train instead of a plane. In March 1986, an Antenne 2 news team was kidnapped in Beirut while reporting on the Lebanese Civil War . Philippe Rochot, Georges Hansen, Aurel Cornéa and Jean-Louis Normandin were four of many Western hostages held by terrorists during the conflict. During
15120-426: Was considered undesirable in Europe because of its tint problem, requiring an additional control , which SECAM (and PAL) solved. Some have argued that the primary motivation for the development of SECAM in France was to protect French television equipment manufacturers. However, incompatibility had started with the earlier unusual decision to adopt positive video modulation for 819-line French broadcast signals (only
15246-418: Was designed to be a cheap, backwards compatible addition to the monochrome signal, the color signal has a lower bandwidth than the luminance signal, and hence lower horizontal resolution. Fortunately, the human visual system is similar in design: it perceives changes in luminance at a higher resolution than changes in chrominance, so this asymmetry has minimal visual impact. It was therefore also logical to reduce
15372-575: Was not deployed. The team was working in Moscow 's Telecentrum . The NIIR designation comes from the name of the Nautchno-Issledovatelskiy Institut Radio ( NIIR , rus. Научно-Исследовательский Институт Радио), a Soviet research institute involved in the studies. Two standards were developed: Non-linear NIIR , in which a process analogous to gamma correction is used, and Linear NIIR or SECAM IV that omits this process. SECAM IV
15498-540: Was proposed by France and USSR at the 1966 Oslo CCIR conference and demonstrated in London. Further improvements were SECAM III A, followed by SECAM III B, the system adopted for general use in 1967. Tested until 1963 on the second French national network "la deuxième chaîne ORTF", the SECAM standard was adopted in France and launched on 1 October 1967, now called France 2. A group of four suited men—a presenter ( Georges Gorse , Minister of Information) and three contributors to
15624-580: Was replaced by all-news French TV network France 24 . France 2 is now only available in Aosta Valley due to Italian self-government laws, and in the border zones because of natural spillover. In February 2023, 2 state TV channels, France 2 and France 3 have begun to enter information regarding climate change in their weather forecasts. This will make the forecasts 1.5-2 minutes longer. The climate related information will rely on experts. The channels will also provide information about climate change and
15750-466: Was similar to PAL, as defined by the ITU on REC-BT.470. Yet the same document indicates that for existing (at the time of revision, 1998) SECAM sets, the following parameters (similar to the original 1953 color NTSC specification) could be allowed: The assumed display gamma was also defined as 2.8. Luma ( E ′ Y {\displaystyle E'{\scriptstyle {\text{Y}}}} )
15876-405: Was thus used to carry color information, at the cost of reducing the possible resolution . European monochrome standards were not compatible when SECAM was first being considered. France had introduced an 819-line system that used 14 MHz of bandwidth (System E), much more than the 5 MHz standard used in the UK (System A) or the 6 MHz in the US (System M). The closest thing to
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