Various framerates and playback stuttering

I am looking at buying the WD TV Live SMP, and after trying out a Micca media player, I learned about an issue where 23.976 material would stutter every 41.6 seconds when outputting 24Hz… This has been mentioned here as well:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming-Discussions/You-have-got-to-be-kidding-me-24-FPS-amp-23-976-FPS/td-p/381249

“A mismatch of 23.976fps vs 24.000 fps is 1 duplicated or dropped frame precisely 41.66 seconds apart, depending on which direction we’re talking about.”

My question is, since I’ll be outputting everything at 1080p/ 60Hz to my Panasonic plasma, will this player output all framerates properly at 60Hz without frame drops or stuttering? In other words, will it apply proper 3:2 pull-down and play stutter free in 60Hz output regardless of framerate? For instance -

  • 23.976fps

  • 24fps

  • 25fps

  • 29.97fps

  • 50fps

Will these all play smoothly at 60Hz or will there be frame drops like what was mentioned in the above link?

If you’re so visually attuned that 1 frame drop in 41 seconds is bothersome, there’s no way you can tolerate 3:2 pulldown!  :smileyvery-happy:   3:2 pulldown means that frame A is show, then Frame B is shown, then frame B+C is shown, then frame C+D is shown, then frame D is shown.

So yes, 3:2 pulldown is shown “properly,” but then again, the insertion of 1 frame in 41 seconds is ALSO correct behavior when showing 24.000 material at 23.976 fps.

So I guess the answer to your question is:

Yes, everything you describe is CORRECT.

But the fact that you’re worried about it means you’re NOT going to like it.

By the way, STUTTERING means something completely different in most people’s vocabulary.   STUTTERING means that the video isn’t playing “correctly;”  seizing, stopping, skipping, etc.   What you’re most likely talking about is JUDDERING.

I’m aware of what 3:2 pulldown looks like, but it doesn’t bother me too much because even true 24fps has a natural “judder” to it. I returned my Micca because the frame duplication issue (it was confirmed later that it was duplicating a frame every 41.6 seconds which appeared to freeze the video briefly) was very noticeable when watching in 24Hz mode - it actually appeared to freeze briefly every 41.6 seconds… When watching in 60Hz mode it wasn’t nearly as noticeable, even though it was still happening, since the 3:2 pulldown masked the issue.

There’s a big diffeence between 3:2 pulldown and a frame actually being dropped every 41 seconds. Otherwise I never would have noticed it.

As I said, it isn’t nearly as noticeable at 60Hz, and all I wanted to know is how this player handles different framerates at 60Hz.

I see what you mean though about my use of the term stutter. Film has natural judder, and 3:2 has it’s own type of judder. But the frame duplication I saw with the Micca was best described as stutter, since it actually appeared to freeze the video every time it duplicated a frame.

Sorry… Didn’t mean to jump to conclusions. Truth is, I don’t notice the artifacts at all, so I cant tell whether or not you’d notice if the WD is doing things right. :slight_smile:

No worries. I’m just concerned because I have had issues in the past with the other media player I mentioned, so I was hoping somebody here could ease my fears.