What Is Frame Rate?

Direct definition

Frame rate is how many video frames are displayed per second — 24, 23.976, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, and others. Caption timing that assumes the wrong rate will drift.

The sections below explain how frame rate is used in transcription and subtitle work, what people often mix up, and which VideoText workflow applies when the next step is a file or review pass.

Key takeaways

• Confirm fps before converting between frame-based and millisecond cues.
• 23.976 is not 24. 29.97 is not 30.
• Players that ignore the source fps will still play the video; your sidecar file may not stay aligned.

Example

A one-hour program at 23.976 vs 24 “loses” a few seconds of alignment if someone treats the counts as identical. That error is visible at the end of a long SRT.

Related terms

• drop-frame timecode
• SMPTE timecode
• subtitle synchronization
• All glossary terms

Sources

1. SMPTE: SMPTE Standards