Does the PS3 play SD DVD at 24fps?

My understanding is that it is for BluRay only - though others will be able to confirm. My display only accepts 1080p at 50 or 60Hz not 24.

24Hz playback for SD DVDs is a rather complicated thing to ask for, unlike with the two HD media formats which actually store the information at 24Hz. Until recently, the only way to get it was with a very high dollar video processor, available mostly only as a standalone piece of hardware. But from what I understand, most of the various HD-DVD players out there can now perform this function.

I believe the only player that offers 24p 1080p SD-DVD support is the Toshiba XA2. Maybe the A20/30/35 but I have not heard of this yet.

I believe that the Advanced PureCinema mode on Pioneer plasma displays will give the same effect if fed a 480i signal.

The PS3? No, not with 1.93 firmware.

I know that BDs and HD DVDs are encoded at 24fps, but are standard definition dvds? I don't think they are, and I'm not sure how it would know what would be the correct frames to drop to get it down to 24fps.

Both BD and HD discs are ENCODED at 24fps, but HD DVD is flagged at 1080i60. That means to get 24p output, there is processing involved and that lowers the picture quality. Blu-Ray is encoded and flagged at 1080p24, hence when you watch a movie in 24p, you get the raw output of the movie with no processing, which leads to better picture quality and no artificial/digital artifacts and other problems.

Where are you getting your mis-information? First, you are incorrect about HD DVD all being 'flagged at 1080i60'. Second, not all Blu-Ray (or HD DVD) discs have to be 1080p24.

Blu-Ray supports: 24/25p, 50/60i.
HD DVD supports: 24/25/30p, 50/60i.

This is correct with Pioneers for the last few gens. You can also use the PS3 to upconvert to 1080i, use Adv. Cin. Mode, and the tv will change to a 72 Hz refresh and deinterlace the signal to 24 fps.

However, last night, I did connect a Toshiba HD-A35 to my tv as well and upconverted a standard dvd to 1080p24, and it looked really nice.

It would be a great addition to add that into a PS3 update someday, no question. It's entirely possible now that Sony has made their TVs to accept the 24 Hz signals this last model year.

I still have a question related to the OP's question:
I'm assuming that standard definition dvds are not originally encoded at 24fps, but at 30fps (60i?). Please correct me if that is wrong.
How would a player correctly know which frames to keep or drop to playback standard definition dvds at 24fps?

They can be encoded at 60i with every field encoded, or 24p within a 60i container, with the duplicate field flagged rather than separately encoded. (MPEG2 allows for this 3:2-free 60i compression, with the 3:2 re-introduced after decompression)


The same way that a TV would - by detecting the 3:2 pull-down sequence (whether originally recorded or reconstructed by the player), ditching the redundant field (1 in every 5) to deliver a 48i signal and then de-interlacing this to 24p. Of course it would be defeated if the material was edited in the 60i domain with no consideration to 3:2 cadence consistency.

SOME 24p-sourced DVDs are mastered with only the 24p/48i unique fields recorded and the duplicate fields are flagged in these circumstances - however basing a de-interlacing strategy to 24p based on this would not be a good move - as it would then depend upon how the DVD were mastered (and wouldn't always work - particularly on off-air recordings of film material made on domestic DVD recorders?)

I know the A20, the A30 and the A35 do this as well as the XA2. I can certainly vouch for my A35 doing it

A20 definitely does it and the PS3 does not. (Which is a shame, wish their was an option for it)

For what its worth it looks really nice on the sd-dvds that are encoded for 24p. Anything in 30i takes some getting used to though.

Eek - surely there is an option to automatically (or easily manually) drop back to 60p output for 60i (aka i30) ? I can't imagine watching 60i material in 24p... (Though realise this would be a problem when programmes contained a mix of 24p and 60i material edited together.)

Not that I've found on the A20. To switch back you have to stop the disc go to the setup menu change the display type from up to 1080p24 to up to 1080i(in my case) and then start the disc again.

I know it is not really the board to discuss it but it really seems like Toshiba hacked the 24fps together on it.

Instead of automatically selecting the appropriate output based on the source material ,like the ps3 does, it just outputs everything in 24p. This allows regular dvds to play in 24p as a side benefit.