full-motion video

(FMV) Any kind of video that is theoretically capable of changing the entire content on the screen fast enough that the transitions are not obvious to the human eye, i.e. about 24 times a second or more. In practise most video encoding relies on the fact that in most video there is relatively little change from one frame to the next. This allows for compression of the video data.

The term is used, chiefly in computer games, in contrast to techniques such as the use of sprites that move against a more-or-less fixed background.