The Effect of Movie Frame Rate on Viewer Preference: An Eye Tracking Study

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.