COLOR SYNCHRONTIZATION IN TB NTSC COLOR RECEIVER*

William E. Good
General Electric Company
Syracuse, New York

The problem of color synchronization in an NTSC color receiver means

obtaining a continuous wave signal which- is in phase with the transmitted
reference burst. This continuous wave signal is used as a reference or
keying signal for the color demodulators or synchronous detectors. The
accuracy to which the phase of this 3.89 mcl color subcarrier frequency is
maintained determines how well the transmitted colors may be reproduced.
This paper will cover a brief discussion of the phase accuracy which
must be maintained, several different types of color synchronizing circuits,
a comparison of their performances, precautions which must be observed in
relation to the rest of the color receiver and the results of observations
of color synchronization at various field tests.
Fig. la shows the NTSC color synchronizing waveform in which an eight
cycle burst of 3.89 mc is transmitted on the back porch of the horizontal
synchronizing waveform. This burst is transmitted in zero phase reference
as shown in the lower part (Fig. lb) of the figure. Also shown in the vec-
tor diagram at the bottom of the drawing are the vectors representing the
transmitted color coordinates of the NTSC systeml based on a color subcarrier
of 3.89 mc. It is necessary for the receiver to generate a continuous wave
signal which is synchronized in frequency and in phase with the transmitted
burst so that this signal may be used to correctly switch the color demodu-
lators or synchronous detectors. In other words, the R-Y synchronous detector
must be supplied with a reference signal of phase zero in order that the R-Y
chrominance signal will be correctly sampled. If the phase of the reference
signal should be in error by as much as 90 degrees, it can be seen that the
R-Y detector could be receiving the R-Y signal, and, consequently, the color
reproduced by the receiver would be such that all red portions of the picture
would appear blue, all blue portions of the picture would appear to be a blue-
green, and all green portions of the picture would appear to be orange. Thus,
it is necessary to establish a maximum allowable error in the reference phase
for acceptable performance of the system.
Experimentally, it has been found that perceptible color degradation
occurs if the reference phase deviates by greater than five to ten degrees.
If color phase alternation is used, perceptible large area flicker will appear

*,This is a reprint of the material presented at the 1952 Radio Fall Meeting
Symposium on NTSC Color Television Receiver Development sponsored by the
Professional Group on Broadcast and 'elevision Receivers.
1 As of January 16, 1953, the NTSC Standards use a color subcarrier frequency
of 3.58 mc and a slightly modified set of transmission coordinates.

23

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
with this amount of phase error, whereas the degradation of the colors is
not not±ceable. This implies that the whole system has an allowable phase
error of the order of plus or minus seven degrees. This error must be real-
istically divided between the parts of the system where phase errors can
occur. Phase errors may occur in the original setup of the burst phase at
the studio, in the relays from studio to transmitter, in the transmitter it-
self, or in the receiver. We have arbitrarily picked a tolerable phase error
for the receiver of about plus or minus three degrees.
There are three main types of color synchronizing circuits which have
been used in color receivers. These include the locked oscillator, the auto-
matic frequency and phase control oscillator and the crystal filter. The
AFC and the crystal filter type seem to be preferred in- practice. Therefore,
these two will be discussed in some detail.
The AFC type operates as a conventional AFC system, such as that used
in the horizontal oscillator'of a TV set, in which the phase of the output
from the frequency-controlled oscillator is compared to the incoming burst
signal and an error signal developed which gives the appropriate frequency
and phase control to the oscillator.
The quartz crystal filter or ringing type circuit provides a sharply
tuned, resonant circuit which is excited by the gated burst signal. This
basic circuit is shown in Fig. 2a. There are two ways of looking at the
operation of this circuit. One is that the gated burst excites this high Q
resonant circuit, which then rings with the proper frequency and is essen-
tially in phase with the exciting burst. There is a definite decay during
the unexcited time which, of course, is dependent upon the Q of the circuit.
For a nominal Q of 2000 which can be obtained easily with a quartz crystal
filter, the amplitude decays to a value of about 70% of its initial ampli-
tude over the 250 cycles that it takes to cover one horizontal picture in-
terval. The other way of looking at this operation is to consider the circuit
strictly as a filter which passes only the desired component of the burst
spectrum. This envelope of the burst frequency spectrum., of course, has the
same x distribution as a pulsed radar signal. In this case, the Fourier
series components have a frequency separation equal to the horizontal repe-
tition frequency of 15.75 kc. So the filter is required to pass the desired
carrier component but to discriminate against all of the sidebands.

In most cases the synchronous detectors require a relatively constant

value of reference signal amplitude, so that it is necessary to use a limiter
after the crystal filter to insure this fact. This general type of circuit
has been described by the RCA Industry Service Laboratories using a crystal
filter and using a high QLC filter. This technique was also suggested by
T.S.George of Philco2. Details for accomplishing this type of operation have
been worked out by S.M.Garber and O.J.Jacomini of the General Electric Co.
If I should appear to favor this type of circuit in the subsequent discussion
it is because this is the circuit with which we have had the most experience
at GenerAl Electric in connection with color receivers that have been built
for the NTSC field tests.

2 T.S.George, "Analysis of synchronizing systems for dot-interlaced color

television," Proc. I .R.E., vol. 39, p. 12L, February, 1951.

24

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 From the design standpoint the Minimum bandpass or maximum Q of this
filter is set by the phase error that can be tolerated when the frequency of
the color subearrier varies over the allowed ± 40 cycles. If ± 20 is con-
sidered a reasonable tolerance for the phase shift through the circuit for
this frequency variation, then the Q of 2000 shown on the diagram is about
as high as one should go. This value of Q is difficult to obtain 'with an
LC circuit without Q multiplication but is relatively easy with a quartz type
crystal filter. In fact the quartz type of filter is not being used at its
maximum capability as far as selectivity goes, but the actual bandpass has
to be restricted to a value which will limit the phase shift with this fre-
quency variation. From the standpoint of noise, it would appear desirable to
make the bandwidth much narrower. This could be done by adding a controlled
phase shift circuit in which the control voltage would be derived from a phase
sensitive detector in which the output signal is compared with the burst phase.
So far, this refinement has not been found necessary. This discussion of
phase shift through the crystal filter implies that the only frequency shift
is due to the transmitter, whereas the same phase error could result if the
resonant frequency of the filter should change by a comparable amount. -This
would,be one of the difficulties in using an LC type of filter due to its
lack of inherent stability and this is one Qf the virtues of the crystal type
filter in that it has the desired inherent stability. The crystal is used
in its series resonant mode and the balanced filter circuit, as found in the
communication recei'ver filter, has h'een found to be satisfactory. The band-
pass is adjusted by varying the terminating impedance, R. This type of circuit
is entirely passive in its operation.
Fig. 3a is the block diagram of a typical automatic frequency control
circuit in which a frequency controlled oscillator receives its control vol-
tage from a phase sensitive discriminator which compares the output phase
of the oscillator with the incoming burst. Strictly speaking, this is an
automatic frequency and phase controlled system but it is commonly called
simply AFC. If the filter network between the discriminator and reactance
tube is a properly designed double time constant network and if the loop gain
is high, this circuit has the following properties3:
The effective bandpass will have the shape shown in the lower part of
the diagram (Fig. 3b). As the incoming frequency varies, this bandpass essen-
tially follows it along, with the resulting phase shift or phase error staying
very small. For a cut-off frequency of 500 cycles the phase error for a ±40
cycle frequency shift is of the order of 1/40th of a degree. If this network
is properly designed, the phase error can be kept extremely small and at the
same time the effective bandwidth of the circuit can also be small. This is
one of the advantages this circuit has over the simple crystal filter. How-
ever, the pull-in range and the initial frequency stability must be such that
the circuit synchronizes with the fundamen-tal frequency of the burst spectrum
and not with one of the adjacent sidebandhs which are only 15 kc away. This
synchronizing with one of the sidebands is called sidelock and results in
vertical color bars in the picture.

W.J.Gruen, "Theory of AFC synchronization,'f Proc. I.R.E., vol. 41, no. 8,

p. 1043, August, 1953.

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 For the typical constants that have been given, the strong signal per-
formance of the AFC and the crystal filter type are about equivalent. The
two circuits do appear to fail in a different manner, i.e., as the signal
level is decreased and the noise level increases, the AFC circuit appears
first to change phase, and then to drop out of synchronism entirely, which
gives the appearance of horizontal color bars or a rolling color picture.
The crystal filter type appears to fail in a gradual fashion. As the signal
gets noisier, the phase deviates in a random fashion and the colored portions
disappear into the colored noise. In either case the color signal is quite
noisy when this occurs.
At the various NTSC field tests the performance of the AFC type and the
crystal filter type circuits was about the same. At some locations, it was
possible to switch between two different color transmitters and on some occa-
sions it was necessary to rephase the crystal type circuit, apparently due to
a color subcarrier frequency difference. The AFC should not need phase ad-
justment, providing it does not side-lock when switching stations. We did
have the experience of adjusting the phasing control at Syracuse in a field
test receiver, transporting it to Philadelphia and finding it in perfect phase
adjustment when tuned into the Philco transmission. This was using the crystal
filter type circuit. This was not always the case.
In weak signal areas such as receiving the Rochester (about 70 miles
awxay) RHAwI morning color transmission in Syracuse it was possible to obtain
effective color synchronization when the burst was barely visible in the noise.
Color bars under these conditions were easily discernable but were covered
with a colored confetti-like noise. The picture looked cleaner in monochrome
with the color circuits turned off. Under similar conditions at the field
tests, some AFC circuits had a tendency to lose control and give a rolling
color pattern. In many cases, it was difficult under these extremely weak
signal conditions to determine the exact failure conditions of the color syn-
chronizing due to simultaneous or earlier failure of the CPA circuits.
Certain precautions must be taken in any type of color synchronizing
circuit. First, the burst mu.st be gated through to the color synchronizing
circuit in such a way that only the burst reaches the circuit. For example,
Fig. 4 shows a cormposite color signal for a number of saturated color bars.
The relative magnitude of the burst and ol the subcarrier chrominance signals
may be seen. It can be appreciated that if eve'n a small percentage of the
color signal during the picture interval is allowed to reach the color synch-
ronizing system, a phase error will result. 'The magnitude of this phase error
will be a function of the picture content. Thus, the switching operation must
be perfonied by a circuit that has very small leakage during the off time.
The timing of the burst gate must also be accurately controlled so that pic-
ture information will not be allowed to enter during the gating time. It is
desirable to have a burst gate that turns on only during the burst and at no
other time, but as the usual technrique of dela,ying the horizont4 flyback
pulse is used, this cannot be perfectly achieved. The phase error of the
flyback pulse requires that the gate must have additional width to that of
the actual width of the burst. The inclusion of the rear edge of the sync
pulse in the gate does not appear to appreciably degrade the color synchro-
nization due to the fact that it cancels itself out every other line due to
the frequency interlace characteristic of the color subcarrier. As far as

26

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
the noise consideration is concerned, it would be preferable to have a gate
that just passes the burst and nothing else. If the burst gate is too late,
picture information may contribute to the burst phase information and may
cause color streaking as this information varies down the picture.
Fig. 5 shows a simplified color receiver With the relationship of the
various sections. This diagram is used to point out some of the desirable
ways of connecting these various elements. In the first place the chrominance
information around the subcarrier should reach both the synchronous detectors
and the burst gate without amplitude or phase distortion. The most serious
type of distortion as far as the color synchronizing is concerned is a phase
distortion that is a function of the amplitude of the signal; that is, if
the burst, situated at black level, is subject to one amount of phase shift
and a color signal near white is subject to a different amount of phase shift,
it becomes impossible to properly detect the chrominance signal with conse-
quent color distortion. This may happen in a triode video amplifier due to
the Miller effect. For example, in most triodes the ga varies as much as a
factor of three over the operating range of the tube. The input capacity of
a triode being a function of the gain of thestage implies that this capaci-
tance may vary almost this same amount. If the driving circuit is not care-
fully designed to permit this variation of capacitance without appreciable
phase shift, serious color distortion may occur. Minimum trouble from this
effect may be had by connecting the chrominance bandpass amplifier directly
to the second detector. Of course, amplitude distortion is also serious but
it could be present without causing phase error to the burst, In order to
assure a definite relationship between the color synchronizing circuit and
the synchronous detectors, it is desirable to obtain the information for the
color synchronizing circuit from a point as close to the synchronous detec-
tors as possible. If there are many tuned circuits between these two paths,
there is a greater opportunity for phase error, and long time phase drift.
In conclusion it may be said that the performance of the AFC and the
crystal filter in a practical NTSC color receiver are about the same. The
AFC type can have a very -small phase error even with restricted bandwidth
but is subject to sidelock and possibly rolling colors on failure. The simple
crystal filter is limited in bandpass by the tolerable phase error with fre-
quency change, but it is stable and passive and fails in pleasing mannerl

27

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 0
.utis Phs
J'

Fig-.
F ig. 1
(a) (b)
NTSC color synchronizing waveform Phase diagram of the NTSC chrominance
showing one horizontal synchronizing signal showing relative phase positions
pulse and the 3.89 mc burst on the of the color difference signals and the
back porch. reference burst.

=: 3.'9clr
I ^,, \/ f =+ 40 c,
Comp Q 2()°°
eN

5
rI,- e°fg
Gate
GeItL
Gate
tectot"s
w
Fig. 2
(a)
Block diag-ram of the quartz crystal filter color
synchronizing circuit. The waveforms indicate 4:0
the signal at those points in the circuit; the
two at the right indicate two cycles of H rate, (b)
while those at the left represent just the area Phase and amplitude characteristics
H
around the synchronizing interval. of the crystal filter.
,Sq Mc,
Af- +40
0
tc
S,O0C

T f-.
Fig. 3
(a) (b)
Block diagram of a typical AFC circuit Phase and amplitude characteristic
for color synchronization. of the-AFC circuit.

28

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 /t- B u vi-s-t

IBlack 1 S

Wskwte Fig. h
One horizontal interval of the NTSC color signal showing the relative
amplitudes of the horizontal synchronizing pulse, the burst and various
saturated color bars of maximum brightness. The shaded area represents
the peak-to-peak amplitude of the color subcarrier.

Fig. 5
Block diagram of an -NTSC color receiver shoinng the relative position
of various parts. The color tube is used for the final adder.

29

Authorized licensd use limted to: Imperial Coleg Lond. Downlade on June 07,21 at 19:348 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.