The Evolution of NTSC Color Bars: 1954-2009

For higher quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYc7c-HuGRM&fmt=18 (NOTE: The colors may look different on some systems, based on such variables as different web browsers, i.e. Netscape / Firefox / Flock vs. Internet Explorer, or which Flash player, e.g. Version 9 vs. Version 10.)

In view of the upcoming demise of the analogue-based NTSC color TV system which had been in effect since 1954, here are recreations of key major electronic color bar designs, going back to the earliest days of the NTSC color system in 1954 (note how the -I and +Q matrices are initially bunched together before the 100% white bar is placed in-between them), all through the development of EIA RS-189A color bars (with and without PLUGE) and the iconic SMPTE bars (originally classified ECR 1-1978, later renamed EG 1-1990). Also seen towards the end is the new generation of color bars for the digital-based HDTV system which will be the only means of transmission after June 12, 2009.

The tones heard go from the lowest to the highest with each different color bar design: 400 Hz, 440 Hz, 480 Hz, 600 Hz, 750 Hz, 900 Hz and 1 kHz. Volume set at -12 dB.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• NTSC
• EIA
• RS-189A
• SMPTE
• ECR1-1978
• EG1-1990
• color
• bars
• test
• pattern
• 1950s
• 1960s
• 1970s
• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s

[TheCaleyman]

The UK only had colour TV from 1968. One channel.BBC2. BBC1 and ITV had to wait until the end of 1969 before they had colour. Our colour bars were full screen, mostly on BBC2, sometimes with music, and sometimes with tone. I was an apprentice TV engineer then.

[wmbrown6]

@TheCaleyman - From what I can recall, BBC2's leap to colour was actually in summer 1967.

[TheCaleyman]

@wmbrown6 You are correct. It was 1967. My typo! I was still working elsewhere until November of 1967, and used to look in the TV shop window of the company I was to later work for, and marvel as did the other passers by at even the colour test card F, the colour bars, or a trade test film without the advantage of sound, on perhaps the only colour TV in the window I passed on my way to the bus home. Were you in the TV business then?

[wmbrown6]

@TheCaleyman - Let's just say I know my history.

[loneshewolf74]

I remember getting up early as a kid and the bar colors and tones would change at certain times, like at around 6:55 they would suddenly get much skinnier and the tone would be much higher pitched, which kind of matched my impatience and anticipation for the cartoons to come on. :)

[wmbrown6]

@loneshewolf74 - They might've switched between the studio setup and what was coming out of their transmitting facilities. Sometimes one was different from the other.

[UnseenAGT]

When I was a kid I used to think that colorbars was a fruit roll up.

[Cewyah]

0:49 is 90's

[kworld01]

,,,numbing mind control tone for brainwashing...I've been in the business long enough to know.

[CAIDIN2000]

boot bet beat boat but bat bot

[ryanasaurus0077]

@ryanasaurus0077 BTW Number 5 on my Rod Stewart tape uses the standard 1000 Hz tone, and the one on my Cream tape uses something like 1175 Hz; this should be in no way representative of the tones you'll hear if and when you find that missing one I described.

[ryanasaurus0077]

Number 5 is at the start of my 1978 MEDA Video print of Rod Stewart and Faces in Concert. And I think you missed one set, which features the usual colors taking up much of the screen, with the lower part containing, in this order, dark blue, dark purple, black, and white. That set appears at the start of my 1978 MEDA Video print of Farewell Concert of Cream.

[KubaPSP]

NTSC - Never the same color :D

[4131025]

classical... When I was small and the channel doesn't have any programme, this thing showed up. I dont know what was it and the sound was annoying

[DigitalImagesToront]

They are used to setup and align the equipment in the control room and studios. Each color bar contains at least one of the primary colors used in television. There is also pure black and pure white. The monitors used in the control rooms have switches that allow you to turn off each color. The bars are used to adjust each color.