Field dominance

In video engineering, field dominance refers to the choice of which field of an interlaced video signal is chosen as the point at which video edits occur. There are only two choices for field dominance in normal interlaced video: odd or even. Interlacing divides the frame into two fields, scanning alternately the odd-numbered lines and even-numbered lines. Each field is scanned in 1/60 second under the 525-line NTSC system (or 480i – often referred to as NTSC) or 1/50 of a second under the 625-line system (or 576i – often incorrectly referred to as the PAL system). Proper field dominance selection in linear editing systems will maintain color framing synchronization.