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    Why is TV 29.97 frames per second?

    Stand-up Maths

    4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2016–2025

    YouTube

    14:27 · 2.2M views · Oct 3, 2016

    Matt Parker explains the history behind NTSC television running at 29.97 frames per second rather than 30, tracing it to the backward-compatible addition of color. He walks through the arithmetic behind the odd ratio.

    Go-to explanation whenever the strange 29.97 frame rate comes up, praised for its clarity and presenter.

    Hardware & ElectronicsAudio & video engineeringRecreational & visual math
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    5 comments from Hacker News

    1. @mikepurvisOct 2020· in “My Eight-Year Quest to Digitize 45 Videotapes”

      Vaguely related, anyone who hasn't seen it, definitely go and watch Matt Parker's legendary explanation of why NTSC runs at 29.97fps: this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    2. @mxfhOct 2016· in “The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory”

      If anyone wonders where the odd NTSC frame-rate ratio originated from, Matt Parker (standupmaths) did a comprehensive video, with some original write-up on this recently: this video

      RecommendsView on HN
    3. @walkerbrownDec 2025· in “The biggest CRT ever made: Sony's PVM-4300”

      For anyone this deep on the thread, check out this video (great presenter!) explaining TV spectrum allocation, NTSC, PAL, and the origin of 29.97 fps. this video

      RecommendsView on HN
    4. @santixJan 2018· in “Color Television: NTSC Tutorials”

      Cool video. I found another interesting one: Why is TV 29.97 frames per second? [0], which refers to NTSC's frame rate. [0]: this video

      RecommendsView on HN
    5. @djsumdogJan 2018· in “Learn FFmpeg the hard way”

      That comes from the old NTSC standard and the history of adding colour in a backwards compatible way: this video 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.

      CitesView on HN