To Doug Schneider,
I am looking at receivers and the various features they have. I noticed that Sony has this feature listed:
24p True Cinema Mode: The 24p True Cinema Mode allows you to watch movies at their native frame rate 24p format (24 frames per second) when paired with a 24p playback device like a Blu-ray Disc player.
I haven’t found a similar feature on other brands. Is the lack of this in other brands something that will degrade my video quality, or is this just marketing, and any brand will properly play back Blu-ray content at 24p?
Thanks,
Kevin White
To answer your question properly, it’s important to know that most films are shot at 24 frames per second (fps). 24p is the name given to the video format that supports 24fps playback, which means it matches the frame rate of film. What this means is that 24 still images are shown each second, and that gives the illusion of a moving image on the screen. Typical North American TV programs that most of us grew up on were shot at 30fps (actually, it was 60 interlaced fields back then, all used to create 30 frames), which was the NTSC standard. Nowadays there are three main television standards: 24p, 25p, and 30p. These are “progressive” formats at the varying frame rates that the numbers represent.
While it’s possible to do a frame-rate conversion so that 24p video can play back on, say, a 30p display, or vice versa, the image will always look the best when shown at its “native” frame rate. In other words, the frame rate it was originally shot at. The frame-rate conversion process almost always produces visual artifacts that most people find quite noticeable and very distracting.
DVD was actually able to support 24fps playback, so you could have a true motion-picture look without any frame-rate conversions. When Blu-ray Disc came along, native frame-rate playback became an even bigger deal, not only because Blu-ray supported 24p (as well as other frame rates), but because the higher-resolution picture meant that a true cinematic experience was now possible in the home. As a result, receiver, processor, and display manufacturers responded by ensuring their equipment could support 24p, as well as the other video formats.
So is 24p important? Yes. But is Sony the only manufacturer that supports 24p? No. Support for true 24p was rare several years ago, but all the good receiver, processor, and display manufacturers support 24p and the other popular formats now. Look more closely at the other companies' specifications and you'll likely see something that indicates this is so . . . . Doug Schneider
