The 60fps Revolution
I know 2014 was not so fun for K-pop and I tried to avoid writing about all the bad topics. But being a K-pop blogger and needing material made that pretty impossible. With all the scandals and break-ups and everything in between there was no time for innovation, for growth. Infact, it felt more like we had gone backwards. Even I got caught up in the mess that was the Kpopalypse 2014. While there were some great releases music and video wise it all seemed to be overshadowed by the bad things. For me one thing stuck out and made me feel like we, as fans, could push through and make it into 2015 with a goal. Something to aspire to for the future of K-pop!
I want to tell you a short story pertaining to this article. I went to a Korean Karaoke place for the first time with some friends and they had a big TV in the wall so all you saw was the screen. I sat there in amazement as some music videos played and the K-idols on the screen seemed to pop out at me. I asked about it and the guys working there just told me it was a really nice , expensive TV. I, however, was not ready to give up! I had to have that same thing in my living room at home! I searched around and all I found for about a year or so was just information on LED TVs and how they were the new trend and they made everything look more real and sort of 3D compared to other current and past TVs. I didn’t have the money for a new TV so I gave up.
That’s not the end though. Come mid 2014 and I am finding out that Youtube will now be supporting 60fps. I do some research and find out it means 60 frames per second. Since I didn’t know what that meant I did more research. I found a youtube video about the new innovation. Most, if not all, videos for decades have been shot in about 60 frames per second, but when they were encoded and edited they were reduced down to 30fps to give them that “movie” feel. That feeling like it is something separate from you and you cannot possibly be in it. Like it is a past event. It looks and feels pre-recorded. And as cameras have evolved over time movies and videos were even shot in up to 120fps. THAT’S A LOT. But those frame rates are what give a video a ‘real’ feel. I believe a lot of 3D live action movies that came out in the last 5 years were also shot, edited and encoded in something between 59.95fps and 100fps. That is why it looked and felt so real.
At this point you are saying, “Ok, What does this have to do with Kpop?” Well… I found out a few months back that some really awesome Kpop fans had started re-interpolating Kpop videos into 60fps! Here is a link so you can check them out for yourself! So, if you had already heard about this you probably aren’t very fazed by it. But those of you lucky enough to have a computer with enough processor power who just came back from watching some of those who had never seen them before… I bet your eyes are wide open and you probably just had a fangirl/boy attack when you saw that video you decided to watch in 60fps. IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR K-IDOLS ARE STARING RIGHT AT YOU! Like they are singing to you, right? If you read through that reddit post you saw there are currently two youtube channels that are pumping out some videos every now and again all interpolated into 60fps in both 720p and 1080p. They are doing all the hard work so we don’t have to. It was also stated in that thread that they are taking requests! So go request away! We need to make it known that we want our Kpop Videos from the source in 60fps and we want it now! No more dull 30fps! We want to feel like we are right there! Like we are part of what’s going on! Right? Well, I do. This revolution has started and I promise you it will not end til the Editors in the rooms at all the Kpop companies stop compressing the mv footage and the directors work harder to make the videos look more real!
I believe if we push hard enough for this it will become a reality by 2016 at the latest!!!
I want to tell you a short story pertaining to this article. I went to a Korean Karaoke place for the first time with some friends and they had a big TV in the wall so all you saw was the screen. I sat there in amazement as some music videos played and the K-idols on the screen seemed to pop out at me. I asked about it and the guys working there just told me it was a really nice , expensive TV. I, however, was not ready to give up! I had to have that same thing in my living room at home! I searched around and all I found for about a year or so was just information on LED TVs and how they were the new trend and they made everything look more real and sort of 3D compared to other current and past TVs. I didn’t have the money for a new TV so I gave up.
That’s not the end though. Come mid 2014 and I am finding out that Youtube will now be supporting 60fps. I do some research and find out it means 60 frames per second. Since I didn’t know what that meant I did more research. I found a youtube video about the new innovation. Most, if not all, videos for decades have been shot in about 60 frames per second, but when they were encoded and edited they were reduced down to 30fps to give them that “movie” feel. That feeling like it is something separate from you and you cannot possibly be in it. Like it is a past event. It looks and feels pre-recorded. And as cameras have evolved over time movies and videos were even shot in up to 120fps. THAT’S A LOT. But those frame rates are what give a video a ‘real’ feel. I believe a lot of 3D live action movies that came out in the last 5 years were also shot, edited and encoded in something between 59.95fps and 100fps. That is why it looked and felt so real.
At this point you are saying, “Ok, What does this have to do with Kpop?” Well… I found out a few months back that some really awesome Kpop fans had started re-interpolating Kpop videos into 60fps! Here is a link so you can check them out for yourself! So, if you had already heard about this you probably aren’t very fazed by it. But those of you lucky enough to have a computer with enough processor power who just came back from watching some of those who had never seen them before… I bet your eyes are wide open and you probably just had a fangirl/boy attack when you saw that video you decided to watch in 60fps. IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR K-IDOLS ARE STARING RIGHT AT YOU! Like they are singing to you, right? If you read through that reddit post you saw there are currently two youtube channels that are pumping out some videos every now and again all interpolated into 60fps in both 720p and 1080p. They are doing all the hard work so we don’t have to. It was also stated in that thread that they are taking requests! So go request away! We need to make it known that we want our Kpop Videos from the source in 60fps and we want it now! No more dull 30fps! We want to feel like we are right there! Like we are part of what’s going on! Right? Well, I do. This revolution has started and I promise you it will not end til the Editors in the rooms at all the Kpop companies stop compressing the mv footage and the directors work harder to make the videos look more real!
I believe if we push hard enough for this it will become a reality by 2016 at the latest!!!