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In France we had a different color system (SÉCAM), while the other european countries were in PAL, but French TV were required to have a Péritel/SCART entry by

In France we had a different color system (SÉCAM), while the other european countries were in PAL, but French TV were required to have a Péritel/SCART entry by law, offering RGB input. So the french NES was basically the european PAL version with an extra PAL to RGB converter.

dylan604 4y ago
Don't forget MESECAM and PAL-M and the other crazy things we had to deal with in the bad old days. There was one standard (PAL-M I think) that was not NTSC but the difference from NTSC was so slight that you could slap an PAL-M sticker* on an NTSC recording, and the PAL-M tape machine would play it back just fine. * The power of that sticker was amazing! ;P
- woliveirajr 4y ago
  Brazil used PAL-M. NTSC on a PAL+M would give you B&W video and it was possible to convert the equipment (the VCR) by changing the frequency offset of the color carrier.
- SkeuomorphicBee 4y ago
  An NTSC tape would play in black and white on a pure PAL-M system. PAL-M was the Brazilian system, created to conform to the 60Hz mains but having the improved colour encoding of PAL. Before colour TVs, Brazil used the American 60Hz System M (B&W predecessor of NTSC), so when it came time to adopt colour they couldn't choose the European PAL because it would not be compatible with current B&W TV sets, and they didn't want to adopt NTSC* because by then it was clear it was an inferior colour encoding, so they slapped a PAL colour encoding on top of a SystemM B&W signal, resulting in a 525 lines 60Hz without NTSC colour distortions (kinda best of both worlds). * Also they didn't want to adopt NTSC because they wanted to prop the national electronics industry, so a home made standard meant local TV makers didn't have to compete with imported TV sets.
bennysomething 4y ago
Wait what!? There was a French pal RGB nes?
- RetroSpark 4y ago
  AFAIK the French NES is just a PAL console with an added composite-to-RGB converter. Although it outputs RGB signals, the quality is no better than composite.
  - bennysomething 4y ago
    That's interesting thanks
Tijdreiziger 4y ago
Wait a minute: we had SCART in the Netherlands too, but it supported both composite (CVBS) and RGB. In fact, if you had a composite device (with the yellow, red and black plugs), you could just get one of those cheap passive adapters to hook it up to SCART: https://media.s-bol.com/mwVL1yR45z6E/1144x1200.jpg https://media.s-bol.com/mwVL1yR45z6E/1144x1200.jpg IIRC our childhood (Philips) TV had two SCART inputs: one supported both RGB and CVBS, the other only CVBS.
- hyakosm 4y ago
  Traditionally, TV with two SCART had one with RGB + CVBS and the other with S-Video + CVBS.

dylan604 4y ago

Don't forget MESECAM and PAL-M and the other crazy things we had to deal with in the bad old days. There was one standard (PAL-M I think) that was not NTSC but the difference from NTSC was so slight that you could slap an PAL-M sticker* on an NTSC recording, and the PAL-M tape machine would play it back just fine. * The power of that sticker was amazing! ;P

woliveirajr 4y ago
Brazil used PAL-M. NTSC on a PAL+M would give you B&W video and it was possible to convert the equipment (the VCR) by changing the frequency offset of the color carrier.
SkeuomorphicBee 4y ago
An NTSC tape would play in black and white on a pure PAL-M system. PAL-M was the Brazilian system, created to conform to the 60Hz mains but having the improved colour encoding of PAL. Before colour TVs, Brazil used the American 60Hz System M (B&W predecessor of NTSC), so when it came time to adopt colour they couldn't choose the European PAL because it would not be compatible with current B&W TV sets, and they didn't want to adopt NTSC* because by then it was clear it was an inferior colour encoding, so they slapped a PAL colour encoding on top of a SystemM B&W signal, resulting in a 525 lines 60Hz without NTSC colour distortions (kinda best of both worlds). * Also they didn't want to adopt NTSC because they wanted to prop the national electronics industry, so a home made standard meant local TV makers didn't have to compete with imported TV sets.

bennysomething 4y ago

Wait what!? There was a French pal RGB nes?

RetroSpark 4y ago
AFAIK the French NES is just a PAL console with an added composite-to-RGB converter. Although it outputs RGB signals, the quality is no better than composite.
- bennysomething 4y ago
  That's interesting thanks

Tijdreiziger 4y ago

Wait a minute: we had SCART in the Netherlands too, but it supported both composite (CVBS) and RGB. In fact, if you had a composite device (with the yellow, red and black plugs), you could just get one of those cheap passive adapters to hook it up to SCART: https://media.s-bol.com/mwVL1yR45z6E/1144x1200.jpg https://media.s-bol.com/mwVL1yR45z6E/1144x1200.jpg IIRC our childhood (Philips) TV had two SCART inputs: one supported both RGB and CVBS, the other only CVBS.

hyakosm 4y ago
Traditionally, TV with two SCART had one with RGB + CVBS and the other with S-Video + CVBS.