Enhance Frame Rate prepares videos for broadcasting

Enhance Frame Rate converts videos up to 4K to 25, 30, 48, 59.94, 60, or 120 frames per second, for one credit every two seconds.

A video can be visually finished without being ready to enter a production pipeline. Its frame rate may not match the editing timeline, broadcaster, or destination platform. Runway now wants to handle that conversion directly within its service with Enhance Frame Rate.

The new tool accepts content created in Runway as well as files from a camera, editing software, or another service. It can produce videos at 25, 30, 48, 59.94, 60, or 120 frames per second.

The goal is not simply to change a value stored in the file. Interpreting a sequence recorded at 24 frames per second as if it contained 30 can alter its playback speed. Duplicating certain frames preserves its duration but often produces uneven motion. Interpolation instead creates the intermediate frames required to reach the requested rate without speeding up the video.

The model examines two existing frames and estimates what might have appeared between them. When a character moves an arm, a vehicle crosses the shot, or the camera pans, it must reconstruct several plausible intermediate positions. The higher the output frame rate, the more frames it needs to add.

This process does not turn ordinary footage into true high-speed capture. A camera recording natively at 120 frames per second captures that many real moments, complete with the detail and motion blur specific to each exposure. Enhance Frame Rate reconstructs missing moments from the available information. The result may look smoother, but it cannot recover data the source never recorded.

The available settings address different delivery pipelines. A rate of 25 frames per second remains common in European television production and appears in the technical specifications of many UK broadcasters. The 30, 60, and 120 fps options suit various digital, sports, event, and interactive uses. The 48 fps setting can support high-frame-rate productions or certain projection systems.

The inclusion of a separate 59.94 fps option is particularly important for professionals. This NTSC-derived rate is not exactly the same as 60 fps. The difference may appear negligible over one second, but it can become significant over longer durations, particularly for timecode, synchronization, and broadcast integration. A tool limited to 60 fps therefore cannot always meet specifications that explicitly require 59.94.

Runway presents Enhance Frame Rate as a way to avoid a manual conforming step before editing or delivery. A team could, for example, convert several generated shots with different frame rates before placing them on the same timeline. The tool could also harmonize filmed footage, synthetic sequences, and content produced by several models.

This centralized workflow may also appeal to studios using Runway for the final stages of production. The company already offers Ruby, a tool that converts SDR video to HDR and produces formats such as ProRes files or EXR sequences for certain post-production pipelines. Enhance Frame Rate handles the temporal dimension, while Ruby addresses brightness, color range, and HDR formats.

Using both does not automatically make a file compliant with every broadcaster requirement. A delivery specification may also mandate a codec, color space, bit depth, audio level, track layout, subtitles, timecode, or specific metadata. Frame rate is only one part of that package.

Enhance Frame Rate accepts videos up to five minutes long and at resolutions up to 4K. Runway says the source resolution is maintained during conversion. A lower-resolution video will not automatically become a 4K output: the tool retains its original dimensions instead of performing an upscale at the same time.

The announcement does not yet specify the supported input and output containers, codecs, bit depths, or color spaces. It also provides no details about the handling of audio, HDR metadata, grain, timecode, or alpha channels. Production teams will need to verify these points before incorporating the service into a contractual delivery pipeline.

Scene cuts raise another important question. An interpolation system should normally recognize a hard cut to avoid creating an artificial transition between two visually unrelated shots. Runway does not say whether Enhance Frame Rate automatically detects scene changes or whether users can disable or correct interpolation around individual cuts.

Complex footage may also produce defects. An object suddenly obscuring another, fast motion, camera rotation, flashes, particles, reflections, or small elements crossing the frame can force the model to infer ambiguous transformations. Double contours, distortions, or briefly inconsistent frames may then appear.

Text, credits, interfaces, and geometric patterns deserve the same scrutiny. A slight error lasting a fraction of a second may go unnoticed in a natural setting. The same mistake becomes immediately visible on a letter, logo, or straight line. Sensitive passages will therefore still require frame-by-frame review.

A higher frame rate also changes the creative character of the footage. A 60 or 120 fps output reduces motion judder but may create a more immediate look associated with live video. That smoothness is not necessarily desirable for a work designed around the appearance of 24 or 25 fps.

The destination platform may also reduce the frame rate again or recompress the file after upload. Producing a 120 fps version does not guarantee that a social network, browser, or television will display it that way. The playback hardware and distribution chain must support the selected rate.

Runway charges one credit for every two seconds of source footage, regardless of resolution or target frame rate. One minute therefore costs 30 credits, while a video reaching the five-minute limit costs 150. A 4K conversion to 120 fps uses the same number of credits as a lower-resolution output at 25 fps.

This represents relatively modest credit consumption compared with the company’s video-generation models. Runway’s current pricing