The Choice of Axes and Bandwidths for the Chrominance Signals in NTSC Color Television

This paper discusses the way in which bandwidth restriction is applied in the NTSC color television specification to eliminate color "crosstalk" in the received picture. The signal which modulates the subcarrier along one axis is limited by a low-pass filter so that along this axis of the color subcarrier double-sideband conditions may be maintained in transmission and reception. The particular choice of narrow-band axis is not important if the only objective is to eliminate color crosstalk. This leaves one free to make the axes choice hinge upon some important characteristics of the human eye. These eye properties are reviewed as they apply to the NTSC signal specification.