mikepurvisOct 2020Strongly recommends
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
in “My Eight-Year Quest to Digitize 45 Videotapes” · View on HN
Why is TV 29.97 frames per second?
Why is TV 29.97 frames per second? on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2016–2025.
Stand-up Maths
Open on YouTubeexplainer · evergreen
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.
Why Hacker News recommends it
Go-to explanation whenever the strange 29.97 frame rate comes up, praised for its clarity and presenter.
- people recommended it
- 4
- separate months
- 4
- strong recommendations
- 1
- discussed on HN
- 2016–2025
“definitely go and watch Matt Parker's legendary explanation of why NTSC runs at 29.97fps”
What HN commenters said
5 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
walkerbrownDec 2025Recommends
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
in “The biggest CRT ever made: Sony's PVM-4300” · View on HN
santixJan 2018Recommends
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
in “Color Television: NTSC Tutorials” · View on HN
mxfhOct 2016Recommends
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
in “The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory” · View on HN
djsumdogJan 2018Cites it
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.
in “Learn FFmpeg the hard way” · View on HN
Topics & tags
Audio & video engineeringRecreational & visual math29.97 fpsntsctelevision historycolor tvstandupmaths