PAL Speedup

PAL Speedup is a horrible horrible thing, that is not sufficiently addressed in the Internet video community. In a nutshell, PAL Speedup is when a movie file plays slightly too fast, so it is shorter than it is supposed to be, and all the actor voices are slightly higher pitch than they should be. To some, it is not noticeable, while to others it is maddening. It is such a slight difference that it is right on the edge of human perception. Yet, if you notice it, then you don't like it.

In Europe due to the oscillation of their electrical system frequency, they film movies at a different frame rate. Europe uses the PAL or SECAM video standards. For Europeans film destined for television are photographed at 25 frames per second. The PAL video standard broadcasts at 25 frames per second, so the transfer from film to video is clumsy. In this clumsy 2:2 pulldown, for every film frame, one video frame is captured. Theatrical features originally photographed at 24 frame/s are shown at 25 frame/s resulting in a 4% increase in playback speed. The increase causes a slightly noticeable increase in audio pitch by just over 0.679 semitones.

The process is also used when NTSC (North American) film and television is cover converted to be viewed by the European standard. If a work was originally created for European television, it will not be time shifted. Only works created for North American television converted to PAL, or film motion pictures converted to PAL.

PAL Speedup is causing the most problems in the world of digital video downloads. People download films from the Internet and are not aware of PAL Speedup. One film may be properly encoded from a proper NTSC source, while another may be shortened and higher pitch due to PAL Speedup. The overall impact is the propagation of this horrible high pitch, fast running PAL movies and video files spreading through the Internet by the uneducated and unaware public.