Frame rates at a glance
| FPS | Where | Use for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.976 (24/1.001) | Streaming, US digital cinema | Most modern cinema, Netflix / Amazon / HBO Max masters, cinematic web video | NTSC-compatible flavor of 24. Common interchange format. |
| 24 exact | Theatrical film, DCPs | True cinema delivery, theatrical projection, DCP packaging | "Pure" 24 — only use when truly delivering to film/DCP, not for streaming. |
| 25 | PAL territories (EU, UK, Aus) | European broadcast TV, BBC, ARD, ITV, CBC | Pairs with 50 fps interlaced for sports/news. |
| 29.97 (30/1.001) | NTSC territories (US, Japan, Canada) | US broadcast TV, NTSC-conformed streaming, vlogs | Originally chosen to fit color TV's audio carrier. Drop-frame timecode used here. |
| 30 exact | Web-only content | YouTube vlogs, computer-screen recordings, web ads not headed to TV | Avoid mixing with 29.97 in one project — they drift. |
| 50 | PAL sports/news | European broadcast live, sports, fast-motion documentary | Doubles 25 for smoother motion. |
| 59.94 (60/1.001) | NTSC sports/news | US broadcast live, sports, fast-motion | Doubles 29.97 for smoother motion. |
| 60 exact | Web/gaming | Gaming captures, web vlogs, screen recordings, high-motion web video | Native rate for modern monitors, gaming hardware. |
| 120 / 240 | Shoot for slow-motion | Capture rate for slo-mo; conform to a slower delivery rate | 240 → 24 = 10× slow motion. Phone cameras commonly shoot 240. |
NTSC vs PAL — why .976 / .94 exists
Once upon a time, in the mid-1950s, US engineers added color to the existing 60-Hz monochrome NTSC TV standard. To fit the new color subcarrier into the existing bandwidth without aliasing the audio carrier, they had to slow the frame rate from 60 to 60×(1000/1001) = 59.94 Hz — exactly. Halved, that's 29.97 fps for video frames. The 0.1% slowdown was inaudible and invisible at the time; we've been paying for it ever since with timecode oddities, pulldown calculations, and audio-drift bugs.
Europe got lucky: when PAL launched in 1967, engineers picked a clean 25 fps (50 Hz interlaced) and never needed fractional rates. PAL territories run cleaner frame-rate math to this day.
Drop-frame vs non-drop timecode
29.97 fps is a non-integer rate, so a frame counter running at 30 numbers per second slowly outpaces a real-time clock. Over one hour, the counter says "01:00:00" while only 59 minutes and 56 seconds have actually elapsed. For broadcast — where commercials cue from timecode — that's unacceptable.
Drop-frame timecode fixes this by skipping the labels for the first 2 frames of each minute (with exceptions every 10th minute) so the timecode stays approximately equal to real time. No actual frames are dropped — just labels. Drop-frame is identified by a semicolon (01:00:00;00) rather than a colon (01:00:00:00).
Use drop-frame when timecode needs to match wall-clock time (broadcast cue lists, sync sound playback). Use non-drop when only frame-accurate counting matters (editing, VFX shot numbering). Avoid mixing the two in one project.
Shooting for slow motion
The general formula is: capture rate ÷ delivery rate = slow-motion factor. Shoot 120 fps and deliver at 24 fps for 5× slow motion; shoot 60 fps and deliver at 30 fps for 2× slow motion; shoot 240 fps and deliver at 24 fps for 10× slow motion. At very high capture rates, modern phones and cameras drop resolution — a 240 fps capture may be 1080p instead of 4K.
Be careful with the rounding choices: 23.976 fps delivery with a 120 fps capture gives 5.005× slow motion — not exactly 5×. Most NLE timeline tools auto-handle the conform; just set the capture clip's interpret-rate to the delivery rate and let the software handle the rest.
Quick decision tree
- Theatrical cinema → 24 fps
- Netflix / Disney+ / Amazon / HBO master delivery → 23.976 fps (most common) or whatever the platform's spec for your title says
- US TV broadcast (drama, scripted, ads) → 29.97 fps
- US TV broadcast (sports, news, live) → 59.94 fps
- European TV broadcast → 25 fps (or 50 fps for live)
- YouTube vlog / tutorial / web ad → 24 or 30 fps
- TikTok / Reels / Shorts → 30 fps (or 60 for fast motion)
- Gaming / screen capture → 60 fps
- Slow motion source → 60, 120, 240 fps (capture); conform to deliverable