Abstract
The film industry has begun to increase the frame rate of movies in order to enhance viewer's perception of visual smoothness. This decision is causing controversy, and it is exacerbated by the development of high frame rate technology for television. To address this issue, we investigated if higher (60 frames per second or fps) versus conventional lower frame rates (24 fps) influence viewing behaviour and preference. Observers (N = 30) were eye-tracked while they viewed pairs of identical movie clips that differed only in their frame rate. Results showed that individuals looked more frequently at the videos they preferred; however, many could not discriminate between the high and low rate clips. However, those individuals who could reliably discriminate between the two frames rates preferred the lower 24 fps clips. Our results provide empirical support to those who argue that the viewing quality of films at higher frame rates is compromised on 2D displays.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Watson AB (2013) High frame rates and human vision: a view through the window of visibility. SMPTE Motion Imaging J 122(2):18–32
Ebiri B (2019) Motion smoothing is ruining cinema. Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/motion-smoothing-is-ruining-cinema.html
Kuroki Y, Nishi T, Kobayashi S, Oyaizu H, Yoshimura S (2007) A psychophysical study of improvements in motion-image quality by using high frame rates. J Soc Inf Disp 15(1):61–68
Mackin A, Zhang F, Bull DR (2018) A study of high frame rate video formats. IEEE Trans Multimed 21(6):1499–1512
Gulliver SR, Ghinea G (2004) Stars in their eyes: what eye-tracking reveals about multimedia perceptual quality. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Part A Syst Hum 34(4):472–482
Mackin A, Noland KC, Bull DR (2017) High frame rates and the visibility of motion artifacts. SMPTE Motion Imaging J 126(5):41–51
Wilcox LM, Allison RS, Helliker J, Dunk B, Anthony RC (2015) Evidence that viewers prefer higher frame-rate film. ACM Trans Appl Percept (TAP) 12(4):1–12
Allison RS, Wilcox LM, Anthony RC, Helliker J, Dunk B (2016) Expert viewers’ preferences for higher frame rate 3D film. J Imaging Sci Technol 60(6):60402–1
Duchowski AT (2002) A breadth-first survey of eye-tracking applications. Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput 34(4):455–470
Duchowski AT (2007) Eye tracking methodology: theory and practice. Springer Science & Business Media, New York
Henderson JM, Hollingworth A (1998) Eye movements during scene viewing: an overview. In: Underwood G (ed) Eye guidance in reading and scene perception. Elsevier, Oxford, pp 269–293
Henderson JM, Hollingworth A (1999) High-level scene perception. Annu Rev Psychol 50(1):243–271
Gulliver SR, Ghinea G (2007) The perceptual and attentive impact of delay and jitter in multimedia delivery. IEEE Trans Broadcast 53(2):449–458
Chen K, Lorenz DA (2011) Image sequence interpolation based on optical flow, segmentation, and optimal control. IEEE Trans Image Process 21(3):1020–1030
Hilman K, Park HW, Kim Y (2000) Using motion-compensated frame-rate conversion for the correction of 3: 2 pulldown artifacts in video sequences. IEEE Trans Circuits Syst Video Technol 10(6):869–877
Chisholm JD (2014) Individual differences in oculomotor control: the case of action video game players. University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank Daniil Vasilyev for creating the stimuli.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pazhoohi, F., Kingstone, A. The Effect of Movie Frame Rate on Viewer Preference: An Eye Tracking Study. Augment Hum Res 6, 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41133-020-00040-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41133-020-00040-0