Raspberry Pi NTSC/PAL Signal Generator
Any Raspberry Pi with a composite output makes a clean, standards-correct NTSC (525 lines, 60 Hz) or PAL (625 lines, 50 Hz) signal. A small install adds the Project405 test card full screen, the commands ntsc, pal and hdmi to switch outputs without rebooting, and memory of the last choice, so the Pi powers up straight into the test card with no screen or keyboard.
A play command shows video files full screen on NTSC or PAL using the Pi's hardware decoder, so the Pi can stand in for a DVD player in front of a 625 to 405-line converter.
It was set up to test the VCR139A monitor at 60 Hz, and suits anyone testing a monitor, timebase or sync separator on either standard. For 405 lines, use the Pico pattern generator.
At a glance
| Standards | NTSC 525/59.94 and PAL 625/50 interlaced; progressive 240p/288p by config |
|---|---|
| Output | Composite 1 V p-p into 75 Ω, from the Pi's phono socket or A/V jack |
| Switching | ntsc, pal or hdmi at a terminal or over SSH, or a toggle switch on the GPIO header; about 10 s, no reboot |
| Tested on | Raspberry Pi Model B Rev 2 (Raspbian Wheezy) and Raspberry Pi 3 (Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm) |
Download
The how-to (PDF) and all the Pi files: the original Pi version (pi_files) and the Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm version for the Pi 3 and later (pi_files_bookworm) (967 KB), free for subscribers and viewers. The download code is three words shown somewhere in the Project405 videos on YouTube. Type them here:
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