Phase bursts

Following these eight cycles which are added as a colour burst, a phase shift in the chrominance signal indicates the colour to display. The amplitude of the signal determines the saturation. The following table shows you the relationship between colour and phase:

A black-and-white TV filters out and ignores the chrominance signal. A colour TV picks it out of the signal and decodes it, along with the normal intensity signal, to determine how to modulate the three colour beams.