Motion pictures for theatrical release are most commonly shot at 24 fps (frames per second). In comparison, the NTSC video broadcast standard for televisions is 60 interlaced fields per second or 30 fps (59.94 and 29.97 to be exact).

Films shot at 24 fps cannot be simply sped up to 30fps for broadcast as it will result in comic like unnatural movement something like early silent films. So, 24fps film must be converted (termed telecine) by adding extra frames so that there is the right number of frames per second to be shown. The conversion process, commonly referred to as 3:2 pulldown, creates 5 video frames for each 4 frames of film. It sounds simple enough but, it’s not a perfect process with some frames repeated twice while others are repeated three times.

The imperfection of the 3:2 pulldown process can produce some jerky unnatural motion which is commonly referred to as judder. Overall, any judder produced is little noticed by viewers and to a majority it is not something they are concerned about.

For the educated film fan any judder once they notice it can be an annoyance. For quality matching that of the theatrical release one must first purchase a native 24p (frames per second, fps) playback capable HDTV which will synchronize with a 24Hz frame rate input and convert it to an even multiple frequency (eg. 96Hz) for display. The native 24p playback HDTV must then be matched with a video source capable of outputting a 24p video feed.

The majority of high definition disc formats are natively encoded as 1080p24 (progressive with 24 fps) video frames. Commonly the disc player will perform the 3:2 pulldown however, some players offer the option to skip the conversion process and transmit the video at its 24 fps encoding rate.

In summary, for quality matching that of the theatrical release one must purchase a HDTV which is capable of native 24p playback and match it to a video source capable of outputting a 24p video signal. Educated viewers will notice a difference in the quality produced by native 24p playback while the average viewer may not notice the difference. Finally, it should be emphasized that 24p does not guarantee perfection – only quality matching the theatrical release with any judder resulting from filming at 24 fps remaining.