Variable Frame Rates and Sending Projects to Premiere Pro

[gerikp]

Hello,

I just wanted to put a note out there for those who are using Adobe Clip and sending their projects to Premiere Pro through Creative Cloud.

It's a known problem that Premiere Pro doesn't work with variable frame rates (VFR) that well. I know I've struggled a time or two after sending an Adobe Clip project to Premiere Pro and finding that my audio and footage is out of sync, or drifts,  because of VFR.

I decided to test out the different video camera apps currently on my iPhone and see which ones shoot VFR and which ones shoot Constant Frame Rates. I ran these tests on an iPhone 7, iOS 10.3.2 and all the apps had the latest updates.

After testing all the apps I shoot with, only the native iPhone Camera app shot video with what looks like a constant Frame Rate, which was surprising to me, because from what I can find online there's no documentation for coding constant frame rates in to a camera app.

Here's the apps I tested that recorded clips with Variable Frame Rates:

• FiLMiC Pro
• Moment
• ProMovie

Apps with Constant Frame Rates

• Apple's native iPhone Camera App
• Adobe Clip (Which I believe just uses the native camera app. Can anyone confirm that?)

I really love shooting with the FiLMiC Pro and Moment apps. They have great features! But if I'm going to shoot an interview or a music performance or something like that where audio sync is important, I'm going to just use the Camera App from Apple.

As I side note I also found that on my iPhone if I took a video clip shot with FiLMiC Pro and put it in Adobe Clip and then exported that clip to my camera roll, that clip now has a Constant Frame Rate and works fine in Premiere Pro. So if you run in to trouble that might be a bit of a workaround (a little awkward perhaps).

I received this advice from FiLMiC Pro: "The app shoots as close to a constant frame rate as can be supported right now by the iOS video imaging framework. Shorter clips tend to be more 'rock solid' in frame rate adherence. Longer clips can end up with a variable frame rate. This is due to how the iOS framework prioritizes certain attributes over frame rate (including exposure and audio sync). (30fps is the most reliable frame rate setting as this is the native frame rate for iOS and why clips shot with the native camera are generally spot on at 30fps ...probably 90% of the time or more)."

Is anyone experiencing something different than I am?

Also, what other video apps are you using? I might like to test some others out.

And if you think I got something wrong, let me know.

Message was edited by: Gerik Parmele

[sholderman1]

A friend shot 3 hours of footage of a music band. We had big issues with the iPhone footage's variable frame rate and syncing up with the audio once imported as .mov files into Premiere Pro 2018. We used Handbrake after exporting with constant frame rate selected. It sure would be nice to know how to shoot with iPhone and avoid the time lengthy conversion. Are you saying the only phone video that was constant was the iPhone? Or the only phone video that worked was NOT an iPhone?

[gerikp]

This post was originally written specifically about a workflow of shooting footage with your iPhone, then editing it in Premiere Clip app on your iPhone, and finally exporting that project out to Premiere Pro through your Creative Cloud account.

What I'm saying is that, based my test at the time and in my opinion, your best bet is to use the native iPhone camera app to record video. That was really what I was trying to get at.

It sounds like your friend shot on an iPhone and then you tried to edit that footage in Premiere Pro. Which is basically close to the same thing. In your post above you stated that "We used Handbrake after exporting with constant frame rate selected." I'm not sure if that is what you meant to write, so forgive me if I am misunderstanding. But, what you want to do is use Handbrake to convert your footage to constant frame rate before you take it to Premiere Pro to edit.

Sorry you are frustrated about how long it took to to make the lengthy conversion. Good luck!

[sholderman1]

I'm just saying it's too bad that the iPhone footage is a weird frame rate, that, when brought into Premiere, doesn't sync. Has anyone had luck with this and avoided using a third-party software to get the audio to actually be in time with the video? Maybe Apple, in order to maximize profits, don't want Adobe software users editing iPhone footage to encourage the use of other paid Apple software for the purpose of editing. I dunno.