An NTSC Atari looks good on a PAL TV. How come?

[Terry Stewart]

Hi,

The PAL vrs NTSC TV standard complicated things when collecting home
computers from other countries.

In New Zealand we are on PAL.  PAL Atari 800s are rarer in the world that
NTSC ones.  That being the case I recently settled on an NTSC one for my
collection.  Hooking it up to a couple of my PAL TVs (via composite video)
I was surprised to see a reasonable colour image.  I then dropped in a UAV
video enhancement board and was surprised to see a very good colour image!

I'm assuming it's because composite input into "relatively" modern can
handle NTSC and PAL?  Is this a reasonable thought?  The UAV is not an NTSC
converter, and even the inventor was surprised this worked.

Those interested can read about the adventure here:
https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2018-03-06-Converting%20-NTSC-Atari-800-for-PAL-using-UAV.htm

Terry (Tez)