Re: This can't be true...

[bieling@terra.es (Jorge Chamorro)]

Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> wrote:

> 
> Why would that be untrue? All it takes to make color from a B&W signal
> is the proper "jiggling" of the signal timing. Nudge it a little in 
> either direction, and you've got color dots rather than B&W dots. No 
> need to "build" the NTSC colorburst part of the signal, and it ends up
> working with any hardware that isn't super-picky. Granted, it might come
> out looking like crap, like when you try to put 80-column text on a TV,
> but it at least worked to some extent in most cases.

Because you need to have a reference to lock to. 
And the reference is the color burst. 
If the color burst is missing, it's like saying to the monitor : 
"this image comes in black and white".
This is so because of the way color information was added on top to the
NTSC black and white standard, so as to remain compatible.
The color burst is "the key" that turns on the color circuitry in a
tv/monitor.
no color burst=black and white.