I wouldn't say bad timing means bad hardware though, even expensive scientific cameras suffer from this. You need rather complex electronics to capture at a high and consistent rate. I think normally the encoding is done by software.
Re:Learn FFmpeg the hard way
by mikepurvis on Saturday January 20, 2018 @10:35AM
(#16193676)
Glad to see that video linked; it's a terrific explanation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GJUM6pCpew
In the case that the above posters are mentioning, this probably has less to do with NTSC compatibility and more to do with bad timing hardware or cameras that attempt to do too much in PIO mode instead of using real encoding hardware.