Catalyst is Frame based - not quicktime playrate based-


playback frame rates in catalyst are not related to the frame rate in the quicktime video files - unless you use audio playback-

what catalyst does is playback every frame at the frame rate set by the framerate menu-

in a movie 30 seconds long with a frame rate set by the movie makers of 23.98- there will be 719 frames- ( 23.98 * 30 )

catalyst will play each and every one of these frames at the speed set in the frame rate menu-

this is because vga and dvi screens work at 60Hz and/or 75Hz or similar frequencies- and this has nothing to do with anything in video world- 29.97 23.98 24 fps are all meaningless- they have to be fitted into the dvi/vga refresh rates/

in computer video world things have to be played back at the frequency of the output device-




Quote Originally Posted by ryanww View Post
I have a project coming up where I will have a advertisement video (with audio) that will be playing and switching back and forth with a logo file. Reason I want to use catalyst is so I can control it with the light board and everything is kept very simple. This will be in HD as well.

I haven't gotten their content yet, so I have just been downloading HD movies I can find online. I am struggling to figure out the correlation on how Catalyst does the frame playback compared to just quicktime.

For example. This one particular file is encoded at 23.98 FPS. If I play it back with the cat set to 30FPS, it is a little bit glitchy. If I select 23.98, it is very jumpy. Although I would think it would be perfect. If I set it to 50FPS or higher, it is perfectly smooth. I have even tried taking the movie file, converted the timing to be 30fps non drop using final cut pro and with cat set to 30FPS it was slow.

I am just having a hard time understanding how the frame rate comes into play with playing back these media files that aren't just generic patterns and videos.

Thanks,
Ryan