The
MAC family of standards was adopted in Europe in 1983, primarily for
Direct Broadcasting by Satellite (DBS) services. This was an evolution from older color TV systems (such as PAL or
SECAM) fixing the problems of interference between
luminance and
chrominance, and providing a stepping stone for a future HDTV system. A transitional standard, D2-MAC was established. It had the same number of lines as PAL, but like HD-MAC it was designed for 16:9 widescreen content. In 1989, the PALplus strategy group was founded. The goal was to develop an enhanced system for terrestrial transmission compatible with PAL. European terrestrial broadcasters felt the need to better position themselves in order to compete with satellite and cable operators, in view of the introduction of MAC widescreen broadcasts. While not attempting to produce HDTV standards of quality, the new format was meant to improve PAL in the following areas: • Wider aspect ratio, but with acceptable effects on the traditional
4:3 (or 1.33:1) screen • Reduced level of artefacts, such as
cross-color • Better sound system • Improved
resolution • Compatibility with existing receivers. In the beginning, the task group consisted of the public broadcasting corporations of Germany (
ARD and
ZDF), Austria (
ORF), Switzerland (
SRG) and the United Kingdom (
BBC and
UKIB, United Kingdom Independent Broadcasters) together with the consumer electronics manufacturers
Grundig,
Nokia,
Philips and
Thomson.
Sony as well as the Spanish (
RTVE) and Portuguese (
RTP) broadcasters joined the group later on. At the Berlin
IFA 1991, a first PALplus test transmission was demonstrated At the Berlin IFA 1993, the first experimental PALplus broadcasts began. In the same year, the
European Union approved a plan to support the production and broadcast of 16:9 programs. In 1994, broadcasters began adopting the format. In the United Kingdom,
Channel 4 starts to broadcast using the system in October. Nokia launched the first PALplus TV set in Germany. In 1995, the International Telecommunication Union publishes recommendation BT.1197-1, defining the PALplus system.
VCR manufacturers associated with the PALplus consortium were expected to launch updated
VHS and
S-VHS home recorders soon. The cost increment compared to conventional PAL VCRs was expected to be small. In January 1996, the PALplus board published the specifications of the standard in order to support the further dissemination of this standard for wide-screen transmissions. After German broadcasters started to broadcast some of their programmes using the format, the board ended its work by the end of that same year. At the beginning of 1998, PALplus programmes were broadcast on a regular basis in nine European countries, which made PALplus the mostly used standard for widescreen transmissions in Europe at that time. Evaluations, performed by
ITU and
EBU engineers in 1995-1998 concluded that the use of down-converted HDTV source material, as well as high-quality widescreen standard definition content, could be a significant benefit to the PALplus picture quality. Moreover, the experts felt that PALplus would not be out of place in an HDTV environment at viewing distances equal or farther to four heights of a television set. It was presumed that the standard method of display of a PALplus signal would be in 625-line interlaced (50 Hz) form, although other display formats (for example, 50 Hz
progressive, 100 Hz interlace, or 100 Hz progressive) could be receiver options. == Countries and territories that used PALplus == The following countries and territories used the PALplus system: • • • • • • • • • • • •
Belgium In
Belgium, the Flemish public broadcasting service
VRT had a policy that all of its self-created TV programmes are broadcast in PALplus. The commercial TV station
VTM used to broadcast a lot in PALplus. Even the third broadcasting organisation
SBS Belgium with its stations
VT4 and
VijfTV used to broadcast in PALplus for all of their new productions. The Walloon public broadcasting service
RTBF used to broadcast 16:9 programmes that it purchased in PALplus, but preferred creating their own programmes in 4:3. Walloon commercial TV station
RTL-TVI used to broadcast almost all its shows in PALplus. In 2010, Belgium switched off analog television broadcast.
Finland In
Finland, the commercial broadcaster
MTV3 started broadcasting the youth music program
Jyrki in PALplus format on August 18, 1997. The experiment ended when the program ended some four years later. In 2007, Finland switched off analog television broadcast. ZDF,
etc.) complied with this standard. However, private broadcasters (
RTL,
ProSieben,
etc) have shown no interest in either this standard or in the 16:9 format. Pay-per-view channels such as those on
Sky often broadcast in 16:9, but use a different standard that requires another kind of decoder. In 2008, Germany began switching off analog television broadcast.
Greece In
Greece, there were sporadic PALplus broadcasts by the national television (
ERT - Hellenic Radio Television) on the ERT3 channel. Throughout the '90s several attempts from commercial broadcasters in adopting the system failed due to lack of popularity. As some of the repeaters of ERT's channels were fed via
OTE (Greek public telecom provider) in uncompressed form over terrestrial links, and others via
NOVA (Greece's only satellite platform) using
MPEG encoding, Palplus wasn't available on all areas. The heavy MPEG
encoding on NOVA
degraded WSS signaling and the additional information embedded in PALplus, making it undecodable.
Italy It was used by broadcasters such as
RAI (Italy).
Ireland RTÉ Ireland’s public service broadcaster, began to broadcast widescreen programming in 1995, initially on
Network 2 Television in a special slot, mostly focused on documentaries, music and feature films, but over time more widescreen programming was introduced.
Netherlands In the
Netherlands, the public broadcasters used PALplus up to 2005. With the switch to
digital television and anamorphic widescreen, the system was discontinued with the end of terrestrial analogue broadcasts in November 2006. Analog broadcasts continued on cable operations, but PALplus wasn't used for down conversion on those services.
Poland In
Poland, the only documented use of PALplus is by
TV Polonia on 31 December 1996.
Portugal In
Portugal, the private broadcaster
TVI began broadcasting movies in PALplus in 1994, but some years after it left the standard behind. The public broadcaster RTP started using the format on 5 December 1997. The system was used to broadcast selected programs (about five programs each day) and some widescreen movies on analog terrestrial broadcasts. Cable distributors occasionally strip the signal of the
WSS bits, rendering the system inoperative. Also, when
Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasts started, there was no dedicated
anamorphic simulcast for the digital channels. Therefore, PALplus over terrestrial analog PAL broadcasts remained the only source of 576 lines widescreen TV in Portugal for many years. Since the middle of 2010 PALplus was dropped in favor of regular
16:9 letterbox, because the system caused considerable image degradation when used on digital transmissions without any decoding. With the end of analog broadcasts by 2012, the system became officially obsolete.
Spain In
Spain, the system was used by the public broadcaster RTVE. The Catalan public television,
TV3, trialed the PALplus format in 1994, with a weekly broadcast of a film in this format. Other public regional stations (like Galicia's
CRTVG) tested the format too, but after these trials the technology was dropped and 16:9 digital broadcasts were not introduced until 2007.
United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, Channel 4 adopted the system to broadcast selected films after October 1994. == Operation ==