30 fps or 29.97 fps for future-proof home videos?

mangofan wrote on 9/27/2012, 7:08 PM

I shoot my home videos using a consumer HD camcorder (NTSC, 60i) and then encode them with Vegas Movie Studio for my personal archive as MP4 (H.264 video + AAC audio).

I'm now trying to decide on the exact details of the configuration so I'll be able to play the videos for many years to come ...

One thing I noticed is that iTunes/AppleTV doesn't like interlaced videos, so it has to be progressive.

Now how about the frame rate? The NTSC frame rate (29.97) would match the source exactly, so there will be minimal frame manipulation during encoding.

On the other side, iTunes/AppleTV recommends 30P, but I've tested and it works fine with 29.97P.

So, what would be the pros and cons regarding 29.97P vs 30P? Is any of them more likely to be compatible with future software and hardware?

I'm personally inclined to go with 29.97 since it matches the source video.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 9/27/2012, 8:23 PM

What the future holds is format agnosticity. Media players can handle pretty much any frame rate you throw at them without batting an eyelash. So, 30, 29.97, 25, 24, 23.976, 108.721, and 19.04283fps will all be equally playable with zero issues.

Match your output to the source so that you don't suffer any losses from mismatched frame rates or resampling.

musicvid10 wrote on 9/27/2012, 9:24 PM

Variable frame rate is the latest compression trick, and all players/devices will soon be able to handle it, so the target frame rate is just that.