Why convert video to 120fps?

Most video is shot and delivered at 24, 25, or 30 frames per second. 60fps already looks noticeably smoother, especially during motion. 120fps goes further still, and it matters for two specific use cases: slow motion and high-refresh-rate displays.

The slow-motion case is the most common reason people ask about 120fps. If you slow a 30fps clip to 20 percent speed in a 30fps timeline, the player just holds each frame longer and the result stutters. Conform a 120fps clip into a 24fps or 30fps timeline, though, and each second of source becomes four to five seconds of buttery slow motion with real, distinct frames all the way through. That is how action cameras, phones, and sports bodies capture cinematic slow-mo.

The display case is the other driver. Many gaming monitors and recent TVs run at 120Hz natively, and gameplay captured at 120fps plays back without judder on those panels. For that audience, true 120fps source material is genuinely better, not marketing fluff.

What 120fps is not, is a magic quality upgrade for ordinary footage. If you recorded 24fps and you want it to look smoother on a standard screen, you are not really upscaling it, you are interpolating new frames. That is where DaVinci Resolve comes in.

What you need: free DaVinci Resolve vs Studio

DaVinci Resolve has two tiers. The free version is remarkably capable, but frame-rate conversion to 120fps is one of the places where the limits bite.

The free version ships with three Retime Process options: Nearest, Frame Sampling, and Optical Flow. Optical Flow gives you motion-estimated interpolation, which is the real technique behind smooth frame-rate conversion. It works, with caveats, on the free tier.

Speed Warp, Resolve's AI motion-estimation engine and the highest-quality interpolation option, is gated behind the paid Studio version. If you want the cleanest possible 120fps result from a lower-frame-rate source, you need DaVinci Resolve Studio. There is no workaround that makes Speed Warp work in the free version.

So before you start, decide which tier you are on. The workflow below covers both, and flags where Studio changes the outcome.

Step 1: Set the project frame rate

Frame-rate conversion in Resolve is driven by the project frame rate, not the clip frame rate. The project frame rate is the target that the timeline and export run at, so this is where you tell Resolve you want 120fps output.

Open your project, then go to the top-right gear icon to open Project Settings. Under Master Settings, set Timeline frame rate to 120. Leave the Playback frame rate set to match. Click Save.

One important note: the timeline frame rate is locked once a clip is on the timeline in some project configurations. Set it before you start editing, or create a fresh 120fps project and bring your clips in.

After this, your timeline is technically a 120fps timeline. Clips recorded at 30fps dropped onto it will play in real time, but each source frame is held for four timeline frames by default. To smooth that out, you adjust the clip itself in the next step.

Step 2: Retime the clip via Clip Attributes

Drop your source clip on the 120fps timeline. Right-click the clip in the media pool or timeline and choose Clip Attributes. Switch to the Video tab.

In the Retime and Processing section you will find two controls that matter: Retime Process and the underlying interpolation method. To change the clip's effective frame rate to match the timeline, set the Retime Process to match how you want Resolve to manufacture the extra frames.

There is also a way to retime interactively on the timeline using the R (Retiming Controls) shortcut. That is useful when you want a slow-motion effect at a specific speed. For pure frame-rate conversion to a target like 120fps, the Clip Attributes approach is cleaner because it sets a defined conversion rather than a percentage speed change you have to eyeball.

Once the clip is retimed, Resolve knows it needs to invent frames between the original ones. How well it invents them is entirely a function of the Retime Process option you chose.

Retime Process compared: Nearest, Frame Sampling, Optical Flow, Speed Warp

This is the decision that determines your output quality. The four options describe how Resolve generates the extra frames needed to fill a 120fps timeline from a lower-frame-rate source.

  • Nearest. Simply duplicates the nearest source frame. Zero interpolation, zero artifacts, but zero smoothness. On a 120fps timeline it looks identical to the original lower-frame-rate clip, just held four times per frame. Useful only as a baseline.
  • Frame Sampling. Blends by picking one of the surrounding source frames per output frame, similar in spirit to Nearest but slightly smarter about which one. Still produces strobing during motion. Not recommended for 120fps conversion.
  • Optical Flow (free). The first option that actually interpolates. Optical Flow tracks how pixels move between two real frames and synthesizes a plausible in-between frame. Available on the free version. Good for moderate motion, weaker on fast pans, occlusions, and fine detail like hair and water.
  • Speed Warp (Studio). Resolve's AI motion-estimation engine, built on a neural network. Produces the cleanest interpolation of the four, handles complex motion far better than Optical Flow, and is the only option that holds up well on demanding source material. Studio only.

Step 3: Render settings for 120fps export

With the timeline at 120fps and the clips retimed, the Deliver page settings finish the job.

On the Deliver page, the Format and Codec panel sets the container and encoder. Pick MP4 or MOV with the H.264, H.265, or Apple ProRes codec depending on target. For most delivery uses, H.265 keeps the file size manageable at high frame rates.

Confirm the Resolution matches your target, typically 1080p or 4K. Frame rate on the render is read from the timeline, which you already set to 120, so the export is true 120fps.

Quality and Encoding Mode deserve attention. At 120fps the encoder writes four times as many frames per second as at 30fps, so set Restrict to a sensible bitrate, or use Multi-pass encode for distribution-quality output. Render to a fast local drive; 120fps files get large quickly, especially at 4K.

Artifacts and when 120fps conversion fails

Frame interpolation is not free of side effects, and 120fps conversion from low-frame-rate source pushes it hard. Knowing where it breaks helps you set expectations.

Fast motion and strobing light sources are the biggest failure modes. Moving subjects that leave the frame, sparkly reflections, flashing lights, and fast pans all confuse the motion estimation and produce warping, ghosting, or shimmery edges. Optical Flow shows these artifacts more than Speed Warp, but neither is immune.

Occlusions are the second weakness. When something passes in front of something else, the interpolator has to guess what was behind it. With hair, fences, water spray, and foliage, those guesses often smear. The denser the occlusion, the worse it gets.

Finally, footage that was already shot at 120fps needs none of this. A 120fps source clip on a 120fps timeline plays 1:1 with perfect slow-mo headroom when conformed to a 24fps or 30fps delivery. The whole interpolation workflow in this guide is for converting low-frame-rate footage up to 120fps, not for footage that already arrived there.

Online AI alternative: skip the render time

DaVinci Resolve 120fps conversion works, but it is not fast. Optical Flow on a 4K timeline can take many minutes per second of footage, and Speed Warp is slower still, often minutes of render per second on consumer hardware. For a short clip that is tolerable; for batches or deadlines it becomes a bottleneck.

A browser-based AI alternative sidesteps the install, the Studio license, and the render queue. Upload a clip to UPSCALEVIDEO, choose a target frame rate, and the model runs interpolation on GPU-accelerated infrastructure that is purpose-built for the task. The output is the same kind of motion-estimated result as Speed Warp, without you owning the compute or managing render settings.

This fits anyone who needs 120fps output occasionally, does not want to buy DaVinci Resolve Studio just for Speed Warp, or wants results in minutes rather than hours. It pairs naturally with the rest of UPSCALEVIDEO's pipeline, so you can denoise, sharpen, and upscale in the same pass.

FAQ

These are the questions that come up most often when converting video to 120fps in DaVinci Resolve.

  • Does the free version of DaVinci Resolve support 120fps? Yes. The free version can set a 120fps timeline frame rate, retime clips with Optical Flow, and export 120fps video. Only Speed Warp, the highest-quality AI interpolation, requires Studio.
  • Is Speed Warp worth it for 120fps? For demanding source material with fast motion, hair, water, or complex transparency, yes, Speed Warp is meaningfully better than Optical Flow. For talking-head or low-motion footage, Optical Flow on the free version is often good enough.
  • Can I make 30fps footage look like real 120fps? You can synthesize a 120fps timeline from a 30fps source, but the extra frames are invented. The result is smoother on motion than the original, but it is not the same as footage captured at 120fps. Real 120fps is still best captured in-camera.
  • What frame rate should I export at for slow motion? Conform 120fps source onto a 24fps or 30fps timeline for 4x or 5x slow motion. If you are interpolating up to 120fps from 30fps and then playing at normal speed, you are after smoothness, not slow-mo.
  • Is 120fps better than 60fps? On a 120Hz display, yes, especially for gaming footage. On a standard 60Hz screen, anything above 60fps gets dropped on playback and you gain nothing. Match the export to the target display.
  • How long does DaVinci Resolve take to render 120fps?Much longer than 30fps. Expect Optical Flow on a 4K clip to render several times slower than real time, and Speed Warp slower still. Browser-based AI interpolation is typically faster for short clips.

Try AI frame interpolation without the render time

DaVinci Resolve gives you full control over 120fps conversion, from the free Optical Flow path to the Speed Warp motion estimation in Studio. It is the right tool when you want pixel-level control and are willing to wait on the render.

If you want the same motion-estimated smoothness without buying Studio or waiting on a long render, run your clip through UPSCALEVIDEO. Upload, pick your target, and the AI handles interpolation, denoising, and upscaling in a single browser-based pass. It is the fastest route from low-frame-rate source to a smooth 120fps result.

  • Upscale and interpolate your video now → /video-upscale
  • More on AI frame interpolation → /article/ai-video-upscaling-explained