Systems

Time Warner to shutter ITV effort

ITV Tests Around Europe: So Far, It's a Turn-Off

DAVIC call-for-proposals for Internet-based video-on-demand

TV Standards

NTSC:
channel width                  6.0 MHz
video bandwidth                4.2 MHz
chrominance sub-carrier        3.579545   MHz
horiz. scanning:         15,750     Hz monochrome	
                         15,734.264 Hz color (2/455 x chrominance)
vertical scanning:           59.94  Hz (2 x 525 of h-scanning)
Not sure what your source is for the 30000/1001 number, but I did some digging about TV frequencies. Basically, the frame rate is exactly the horizontal scanning frequency divided by 525, since you can't have partial lines on a screen. The horizontal scanning frequency for color is given as 15,734.264 plus/minus 0.044 Hz, which gives you between 29.9699 and 29.9701 Hz, with the middle at 29.97002667, which is close to, but not the same as 30000/1001=29.97002997. Another relation is that the horiz. scanning frequency is 2/455 the chrominance subcarrier, which is fixed at 3.579545 MHz. This yields a frame rate of 29.97002617 Hz. All this is from Freeman, "Reference Manual for Telecommunications Engineering", p. 1877f.

While I have not yet checked the MPEG standard, it is clear that the a picture generated by the 90000/1001 method will display just fine on any TV set.

Video-on-Demand