ELI5: what’s the diff between 60 (59.94Hz) and 60 (60Hz)

triple_vee · Mar 5, 2023

The choice shows up multiple times in ATV Settings->Video->Format->Other Formats

Yes, I understand that 59.94 is an artifact of NTSC. But, why would I choose one over the other? Would it really be a horrible experience to playback 59.94 content at 60 fps? Or vice versa?

And a related question, with regards to “frame rate matching”, what should I be optimizing for in my signal chain? What’s an example of an app running on a media player that plays sub-optimally because of frame rate matching or lack thereof? To date, I’ve simply let my ATV, Roku, Shield, UHD player etc and my Denon AVR and my Panny plasma do it’s thing over HDMI without my active involvement.

Perhaps, since I do zero gaming and am only concerned with cinematic playback, a lot of these frame rate concerns are non-issues?

Thanks in advance!

Otto Pylot · Mar 5, 2023

I would ask this question in the AppleTV Owners Forum for specific Apple TV questions.

triple_vee · Mar 5, 2023

It’s a generic question. Here’s a screen shot from the Nvidia Shield…

Rectangle Font Gadget Display device Electric blue

Otto Pylot · Mar 5, 2023

The question has come up quite a few times in the AppleTV forum so someone there may be able to give you the answer. Apple forum or hear the answer will be the same. Can't hurt to ask there as well.

covsire · Mar 5, 2023

59.940 is exactly 2.5x the standard film framerate of 23.976. AFAIK if you run at exactly 60hz, you'll get a single errant dropped/missed frame every x number of minutes when playing 23.976hz content that you won't get if you run at 59.940. For a device that will mainly play streaming video content from Prime, Netflix, etc I can't think of any reason to use 60hz over 59.940, but the difference is probably not going to be noticeable by a lot of people.

Otto Pylot · Mar 5, 2023

Yes. And I believe that's what Match Dynamic and Frame Rate is for and why the recommendation is to Enable both.

Toker · Mar 5, 2023

0.06.

cricket9998 · Mar 5, 2023

The difference is the first one is the correct frame rate and the second one is not. 60hz is for PC resolutions and 59.94 is for TV content. Except for when it isn't, because who knows why. But its almost always going to be 59.94hz so let your device match frame rate itself

ELI5: what’s the diff between 60 (59.94Hz) and 60 (60Hz)

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