Industry standard…frame or field per second ?

[Shane Ross]

There is no standard…and that’s what sucks. That’s what leads to loads of confusion. For progressive rates, like 720p…there is no fields per second so it’s 720p60 (59.94fps), 720p30 (29.97fps) and 720p24 (23.98fps).

But for 1080i…I’ve seen it most commonly as 1080i59.94…and that is FIELDS per second. Still runs at 29.97fps. That is the most common labelling information I have been given by networks. There are still a few that call it 1080i 29.97…WHICH IT SHOULD BE CALLED! Why they insist on referring to fields per second over frames per second is beyond me. Editors always talk frames per second….camera guys too. Must be some stupid engineers that want a way to…just be different I guess.

Do what most people request…1080i 59.94

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Walter Biscardi]

Frame rate has traditionally been the descriptor.

But with HD, someone in the manufacturing world decided to start playing games and use Field Rate as the descriptor. As in 1080i / 59.94. that’s 60 FIELDS per second.

Completely idiotic but not my place to tell a manufacturer what to do.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Paul Neumann]

I like that when I shoot 1080i/59.94 PPro says “yep. 29.97. you got it.”

[Michael Krupnick]

It became particularly confusing when Panasonic debuted the HVX200. That 3-CCD sensor samples at 60 FRAMES per second and down-converts from there for all the different format outputs. It doesn’t help that most manuals are scant and poorly translated.

As to your last remark, I think we, as customers, DO have the right to tell manufacturers what they must do to get our support. Without sales, they have nothing. The new arrogance we see from them regarding their disdain for the customer is a direct result of complacency. Apple and Adobe get away with it because the current target customers are not as insistent as we were in demanding what they want. It has led to a proliferation of product that is not as good (in my opinion) as the old-school paradigm which placed the customers’ desires above the immediate profit or convenience of the corporation. Apple’s record-breaking revenue vis-a-vis the iPhone demonstrates that their new aggressive attitude seems to work. It is in fact the inverse of innovation. A gold phone that isn’t as reliable a core product as its predecessors is actually a step BACKWARD.

[Walter Soyka]

[Shane Ross] “I’ve seen it most commonly as 1080i59.94…and that is FIELDS per second. Still runs at 29.97fps. That is the most common labelling information I have been given by networks. There are still a few that call it 1080i 29.97…WHICH IT SHOULD BE CALLED! Why they insist on referring to fields per second over frames per second is beyond me.”

I see this both ways. The way I justify the numbering scheme to myself is this:

The number indicates the temporal sampling rate, not frame rate. The letter that precedes it tells you what kind of samples you’re counting: p indicates progressive frames, and i indicates interlaced fields.

While we as editors may always think in frames, I imagine the distinction is important to engineering as it describes how often a compliant device must sample/process/refresh.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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