PAL (Phase Alteration Line) is the color television broadcast standard adopted by most Western European countries (except France, where SECAM standard is used), Australia, China, Singapore and Malaysia. The PAL standard broadcasts 625 scan lines and a refresh rate of 25 frames per second with a field frequency of 50Hz. The standard uses 576 lines for each picture; the remaining scan lines are reserved for other picture information.

A special feature on a VCD (video CD) or SVCD (super VCD) which enables interactive use.

A service commonly used in Europe to send signal of the most updated time information of a TV program. If a DVD recorder supports the feature, preset timer programs can then be recorded at the most correct time. Depending on the countries, the service is named differently as PDC or VPS.

See 'Interlaced / Progressive Scan'.