Known Participant

Question

Alternatives to Handbrake? Handbrake not converting Variable to Constant Like it used to

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
March 6, 2017
8 replies
11789 views

Handbrake is not converting my iPhone 6splus variable frame rate footage to constant frame rate like it used to. I have tried tweaking everything and my video and audio are out of sync. Does anyone know of other programs I can use to convert variable frame rates to constant??? Thanks! Maybe I should try downloading the old version of Handbrake I was using three months ago that worked....maybe the new version is the problem with Premier Pro CC 2017???

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charlottef59125242

Participant

I have used a good Handbrake alternative before- WonderFox HD Video Converter. I remember that this program supports to change bit rate and some other settings.

danielp68512825

Participant

This problem is driving me CRAZY. I have hanged every possible setting in handbrake to no avail. 23.976 variable STAYS 23.976 variable no matter what. UGH. Do any older version of Handbrake do this properly? Are there any other options out there? I’ve been trying to get this to work for literally eight hours straight. Sigh.

EDIT: I’ve confirmed that even files that BEGIN with constant frame rate and are then converted with Handbrake wind up with a variable frame rate in MediaInfo (23.976 frame rate, but METHOD is still variable). Unreal.

Stan Jones

Community Expert

I have not done any tests since my post above. And opposite results. Very odd. I must run the tests again!

Curious re the "23.976 frame rate, but METHOD is still variable" -

Does it show a minimum and maximum frame rate? I often fond a nominal "correct" rate, but the min and max varying, sometimes by a tiny bit.

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Many times people read the bitrate instead of the framerate..........

M

m0rr1s3

Participating Frequently

I had the same issue even after selecting my frame-rate and constant in handbrake. The original footage given to me was variable 23.976 and I tried to output constant 23.976. Handbrake's output file was still variable frame-rate. When I changed the frame-rate to 29.97 it worked and I had a 29.97 constant frame-rate.

Stan Jones

Community Expert

I find the same.

Not exhaustive tests, but 2 samples I tried previously (also in Handbrake 1.0.7) would not get to CFR when my target was 23.976, but would if I changed it to 29.97 or 24.

I did a couple more tests. Per Neil's settings, I changed the constant quality slide to 20 (from 22). This should not matter, and it didn't. It did dramatically increase the encoding time on the first conversion only. My settings were then the same as Neil's except for 23.976 as the target CFR. I am finding that Handbrake achieves CFR on 24 and 29.97, but not on 23.976.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

Interesting. And ... weird. Darn frustrating.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

A

Anonymous

I have tried the newest version, in fact, after 0.93 HandBrake really sucks, no more avi or mov format available and the worse, audio conversion is not supported. Only mp4 can be converted. As for the frame rate issue, didn't you find the settings below the "MP4" icon" Recently i am using wondershare and wonderfox wondershare.net, http://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/handbrake-alternative.html, they support more than mp4 and i do think you can use them to change variable frame rate to the constant one. In the setting menu there are many parameters you can change, including frame rate.

patricia51919162

Participant

I have found old versions of Handbrake here

https://www.videohelp.com/software/HandBrake/old-versions

After downloading many old versions that didn't save the video for Premiere, I downloaded 0.10.0 and was able to save my webcam video with a constant frame rate and it was synced correctly in Premiere.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

I downloaded the latest one from their site a few days back, converted media from my Samsung S7 to CFR, and it worked fine, tested afterwards in MediaInfo and imported into PrPro. I know others say it isn't working ... I wonder what's happening?

I do know that you need to set a specific frame-rate as a number, as if you select "Same as source" for frame-rate, it stays the same ... and if it's VFR, that means it's still VFR.

Just tried another clip ... from my Samsung S7, set at 30fps; converted to 29.97fps in HB, shows as 29.97 and CFR in MediaInfo, imports into and plays perfectly in PrPro.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

Kevin-Monahan

Community Manager

Hello Thomas P,

I see you've created two posts on the same topic. I will keep this open and lock the other one.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

Tom Pfeiler-G-PIE VisualsAuthor

Known Participant

Great. I will see what I can do with this info and report back.

Kevin-Monahan

Community Manager

Hey ThomasP,

That is frustrating indeed. I did not know that there were any changes with HandBrake.

Let us know if MtD's advice regarding using QuickTime or Compressor helped you. I hope we can help you solve your issue. Please file a feature request asking for variable frame rate support here.

Please return to the thread if you need more help.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

John T Smith

Community Expert

I've never done so, but VLC is said to be able to convert video to a new format

Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN

I have NOT used the products below, I only forward due to other mentions... so YMMV and all the usual disclaimers... check the links and read to find out if one of the products listed below will rip or convert the files you have to something you need for editing

http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/

http://www.daniusoft.com/media-converter-ultimate.html

http://www.deskshare.com/media-converter.aspx Digital Media Converter

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html Multi-Converter <-- supposed to be very good

Tom Pfeiler-G-PIE VisualsAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for Trying John but those above converters all appeared to be terrible suggestions.

Kevin-Monahan

Community Manager

I also have had a great deal of trouble converting iPhone videos to files that will appear and stay in sync in Premiere Pro. Like you, I've systematically tried quite a few combination of recording settings (via Filmic) in the phone and conversion setting in Handbrake to solve this problem without success.

I fully admit this may be an error or lack of understanding on my part.

However, the only reliable solution I have come with is to convert the iPhone file via Apple's Compressor app to a Pro Res file and specifying a 29.97 frame rate.

Files converted in that way have worked flawlessly in Premiere. Note that I am Mac based.

In my efforts I've tried Handbrake, Media Encoder, and Edit Ready without success.

MtD

Hey MtD,

Indeed, Mac users can transcode via QuickTime and Compressor instead of HandBrake. They have proprietary decoders/encoders in those products that support variable frame rate video for transcoding to ProRes codecs. Windows users should probably still use HandBrake. I hope the issue is temporary.

Ours do not support variable frame rate support for such devices at this time. Please file a bug report for that support. I will (and have been for quite some time) advocate on your behalf.

I am curious as to why you're having trouble with Filmic Pro, though. I'm getting crazy good footage that looks amaaaazing. I recommend using Filmic Pro, as long as your clips are not overly long and not pushing the data rate too much.

Let me know if you have questions about my workflow.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

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