24p vs. 24fps??

Daniel Rheaume · February 23, 2006

Hello,

Please go easy on me with this one because I know this has probably been addressed before...how about one more time for a newb's sake?

Here's my question: I hear people make reference to 24 "frames per second", and I see all over the place 24"p". What is the difference (if any) between 24fps and 24p? Same with 30fps and 30p?

I've searched the internet but all I find are debates on the different modes.

Thanks for any help!

Trevor Greenfield · February 23, 2006

24 frames per second is the playback or acquisition rate. It applies to both film and video, but it merely refers to how many frames are played back, and not necessarily the content or any other information in those frames.

24 p "progressive" can refer to a couple of different video terms. It does not really apply to film because film does not record in interlacing or "fields" like video dows, that can only happen when it is transferred to video... so in essence every major contemporary film is recorded and played back at 24 frames per second. Where the term progressive comes into play is the odd and even video fields of a frame are not scanned all odd lines then all even lines to produce a frame (which can cause irregular looking frames on progressive displays like HDTV's)... they are scanned odd even odd even producing no irregular looking movement, just solid "film like" movement at 24fps, replicating film movement and cadence. On the playback side, 24p often refers to a method on DVD called flagging where a DVD player can automatically adjust your 24p movie for regular television at 30fps, and still display it normally. 24p is the ideal method for acquisition with video when you are going to do a filmout because technically the frames should directly equate to a very similar to film acquired cadence and structure, not needed more than some color correction and prep and certainly nowhere close to trying to get an interlaced source structure to prep for a filmmout.