Method used to map the 24 fps of motion picture film onto the 30 fps (60 fields) of 525-line TV, so that one film frame occupies three TV fields, the next two, etc. It means the two fields of every other TV frame come from different film frames making operations such as rotoscoping impossible, and requiring care in editing. Quantel equipment can unravel the 3:2 sequence to allow frame-by-frame treatment and subsequently re-compose 3:2.

The 3:2 sequence repeats every 1/6 of a second, i.e. every five TV frames or four film frames, the latter identified as A-D. Only film frame A is fully on a TV frame and so exists at one timecode only, making it the only editable point of the video sequence.