test card

A test card, also known as a test pattern, is a television signal broadcast when no program is being aired. As standard reference images, they are useful for calibrating the colors and alignment of video signals.

Television viewers from North America and Japan are most likely to be familiar with the SMPTE color bars, which was by far the most common test card in regions that once used the NTSC video standard.

Examples

SMPTE color bars

EBU color bars

Philips circle pattern

See also

• film grain
• glitch
• static

External links

• Wikipedia: Test card
• Wikipedia: SMPTE color bars

The following tags are aliased to this tag: smpte_color_bars and test_pattern (learn more).