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Re: The history of 29.994
- To: <telecine at alegria.com>
- Subject: Re: The history of 29.994
- From: John McDaniel <johnmcd at iac.net>
- Date: Sat, 14 Feb 98 10:43:02 -0000
- Resent-Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 07:42:59 -0800
- Resent-From: telecine at alegria.com
- Resent-Message-ID: <"xMzsLD.A.jPH.Stb50" at sun>
- Resent-Sender: telecine-request at alegria.com
- Resent-To: multiple recipients of <telecine at alegria.com>
Phil Budden on 2/13/98 1:54 PM wrote:
>Not wanting to appear too ignorant but could one of you on the other side
>of the Pond please tell me the history behind running NTSC at 29.994?
>Also, when do you use simply 30 f.p.s. instead of 29.994 and when do you
>drop frames and so on ... and on ...
The lurking audio geek takes off his headphones for a moment to respond:
Having successfully implemented a plan to saddle the entire professional
audio community with tiny lo-fi speakers in every television sold in the
United States, a group of engineers noticed the audio gurus with their
shirt pockets intact (no protecters for those guys!), donut in hand, and
soft chairs in front of a bunch of knobs and decided that more misery
should be cast upon the folks with the big ears. Being engineers, a
mathematical formula was quickly derived:
ratio of actual hours worked by audio engineers to time paid (8 hour day)
= 4.74/8
multiplied by
coffee breaks (3) times the average number of donuts in a coffee break
(3.67)
multiplied by the ratio of video engineers to audio engineers (4/1)
plus the current frame rate (30) divided by the audio geek arrogance
factor (10)
thus: ( (4.74/8) * (3*3.67) * (4/1)) + (30/10) = 29.0937
Then they said, "hell, just jumble up the decimal places and _drop_ a
couple of numbers and those audio bastards will never figure out how we
came up with this."
Therefore: 29.97 and the insider term "29.97 drop"
Since then, maintaining audio sync has been a headache for the entire
audio profession. THAT'S what I heard and it seems as logically thought
out as any other explanation.
BTW: the use of the term "3:2 pulldown" in proximity to the term "29.97
pulldown" more often than not leads to a torturous attempt to explain
both concepts and how they do and do not relate.
returning to lurk mode, jrm
John McDaniel <johnmcd at iac.net> Sonic Arts Digital Audio Srvcs, Inc.
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