iPhone 4s Video - Serious Sync Issues Eliminate Premiere as a tool

[Guest]

I was excited to see how great the video is from the iPhone 4s.  I have taken one hour 1080P videos of lectures that look great.  However, when pulled into Premiere (CS5), the sound goes out of sync to the point that it is unusable after about seven minutes.  I have checked the original file (.MOV) using QT - it plays perfectly.  Indeed, I can trim and split the file using QT and I know that creating a bunch of small videos to link in Premiere would be a solution of sorts. 

What is the deal?  No ability by Adobe to handle MOV files and the screwy indexing they use?  Disappointing. 

Or have I missed something?  The sync problem is apparent in the source window - before I add to sequence. Any ideas?  Has anyone tried this with an iPhone 4S video beyond 10 minutes?

Brad

[John T Smith]

Does your video match your project setting... so there is NO red line over the timeline?

See 2nd post for picture of NEW ITEM process http://forums.adobe.com/thread/872666

http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2011/02/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars.html

[Guest]

Yes, indeed the bar is green, I think. (kind of a yellow, green)  And I created the sequence exactly as your post suggested by dragging the file over the "new".  Here is the resulting settings:

[the_wine_snob]

Looks like those settings did not make it into your post. Could you type them out again?

Thanks and good luck,

Hunt

[Guest]

One more thing.  The video is not sync'd even in the source window - without putting it into a sequence.  I thought the source file must then be out of sync, but when I play it using Quicktime, it is perfect.

[Guest]

Here are the stats for the quicktime file from Media Inspector.  It is interesting that the video length is different than the audio length.

Report for file: IMG_0115.MOV

General / Container Stream #1

          Total Video Streams for this File.................1

          Total Audio Streams for this File.................1

          Video Codecs Used.................................AVC

          Audio Codecs Used.................................AAC LC

          File Format.......................................MPEG-4

          Play Time.........................................49mn 11s

          Total File Size...................................8.21 GiB

          Total Stream BitRate..............................23.9 Mbps

          Encoded with......................................5.0.1

          Encoding Library..................................Apple QuickTime

Video Stream #1

          Codec (Human Name)................................AVC

          Codec (FourCC)....................................avc1

          Codec Profile.....................................Baseline@L4.1

          Frame Width.......................................1 920 pixels

          Frame Height......................................1 080 pixels

          Frame Rate........................................29.970 fps

          Total Frames......................................88453

          Display Aspect Ratio..............................16:9

          Scan Type.........................................Progressive

          Color Space.......................................YUV

          Codec Settings (Summary)..........................1 Ref Frames

          QF (like Gordian Knot)............................0.383

          Codec Settings (CABAC)............................No

          Codec Settings (Reference Frames).................1

          Video Stream Length...............................49mn 11s 385ms

          Video Stream BitRate..............................23.8 Mbps

          Video Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR

          Bit Depth.........................................8 bits

          Video Stream Size.................................8.18 GiB (100%)

          Video Stream Title................................Core Media Video

          Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-12-04 13:44:35

          Color Primaries...................................BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177

          Transfer Characteristics..........................BT.709-5, BT.1361

          Matrix Coefficients...............................BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio Stream #1

          Codec.............................................AAC

          Codec (FourCC)....................................40

          Audio Stream Length...............................49mn 11s 442ms

          Audio Stream BitRate..............................64.0 Kbps

          Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................CBR

          Number of Audio Channels..........................1

          Audio Channel's Positions.........................Front: C

          Sampling Rate.....................................44.1 KHz

          Audio Stream Size.................................22.1 MiB (0%)

          Audio Stream Title................................Core Media Audio

          Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-12-04 13:44:35

[Guest]

Sorry, I don't think the picture uploaded:  here is another try.

One strange thing.  This shows 30F/S.  When I evaluate iPhone file with Media Inspector it shows 29.97.  This mismatch has caused me to see sync drift in the past.  But no matter what I do I can't get it synced - even when i manually correct the frame rate.

There must be others that have tried iPhone 4S videos beyond 10 minutes!

[the_wine_snob]

Quick question: do you, by chance, have a Matrox card installed on your computer?

Good luck,

Hunt

[Guest]

No Matrox Card.  Running on a 2010 MacBook Pro with the Lion (10.7.2).

One other piece of info.  I shrunk the file from the original 8G using QT.  The smaller file was sync'd.  I put that into Premiere - no joy.  I uploaded the smaller file to Vimeo and they were able to process it with no loss of sync - they obviously don't use premiere!

Thanks for your help!

Brad

[Cocovanna]

I've had sync issues with the iPhone 4, that looks at lot like yours. When I looked at my footage with Interpret Footage, it showed "Use Frame Rate from File: 31.5789", and Mediainfo showed a varying frame rate. Setting the frame rate (in Interpret Footage) to 29.97 fixed the problem completely. It's worth a try

[Guest]

Tried interpret footage at 29.97 and no effect on the sync.  Again, QT plays this perfectly.  Premiere is out of sync by over one second at the end of 45 minutes.  Output from QT is also out of sync.  When I say OOS - it is in the imported file in the source window - and then of course in the sequence too.  I am beginning to think that this particular file is just whacked - but interesting that QT can handle it correctly.  Curious.  Will take another video on Sunday.

Brad

[John T Smith]

>Output from QT is also out of sync -snip- interesting that QT can handle it correctly

Ah... which is it... QT does it correctly, or not?

[Guest]

Sorry for the confusing comment.  QT always handles this correctly.  My thought was to output a file from QT (assuming that the original iPhone file had something weird in it) and then try it in Premiere.  However, the QT output, while it still played correctly in QT, was out of sync when viewed in the source window or sequence of Premiere.

I guess the only question left is:  Can a long video taken with the iPhone 4S play correctly and be edited in Premiere without sync problems?  If so, I have a unique, single file problem.  I will take another long file on Sunday and try it again.

Thanks,

Brad

[the_wine_snob]

Brad,

Am I correct that the iPhone footage has a variable FPS, or am I confusing another poster's issue?

If it does, converting it to a static FPS should take care of things.

If I am confused, please disregard the above comments.

Good luck,

Hunt

[Keith_Clark]

Bill Hunt wrote:

Brad,

Am I correct that the iPhone footage has a variable FPS, or am I confusing another poster's issue?

If it does, converting it to a static FPS should take care of things.

If I am confused, please disregard the above comments.

Good luck,

Hunt

bill... not sure about the 4, but the 4s is not technically a variable framerate.... but it is. say i shoot 10 videos.... some may be 24fps, others 30, and others 15. the specs on the phone say UP TO 30, and with my experience it has been 24fps 7 out of 10 times (not exactly.... but just saying it seems like). 2 of 10 times 30, and every blue moon a 15. i have not recorded a long butt video myself.... all the ones i've done were a few minutes long and by doing the "drag to new project," never had an OOS problem.... i may experiment with this though.....

[Keith_Clark]

demon_hunter83 wrote:

Bill Hunt wrote:

Brad,

Am I correct that the iPhone footage has a variable FPS, or am I confusing another poster's issue?

If it does, converting it to a static FPS should take care of things.

If I am confused, please disregard the above comments.

Good luck,

Hunt

bill... not sure about the 4, but the 4s is not technically a variable framerate.... but it is. say i shoot 10 videos.... some may be 24fps, others 30, and others 15. the specs on the phone say UP TO 30, and with my experience it has been 24fps 7 out of 10 times (not exactly.... but just saying it seems like). 2 of 10 times 30, and every blue moon a 15. i have not recorded a long butt video myself.... all the ones i've done were a few minutes long and by doing the "drag to new project," never had an OOS problem.... i may experiment with this though.....

nevermind.... i'll be darned! it is variable frame rate! lol heres what media info says....

General

Complete name                   : G:\crap\IMG_0216.MOV

Format                           : MPEG-4

Format profile                   : QuickTime

Codec ID                         : qt 

File size                        : 197 MiB

Duration                         : 1mn 8s

Overall bit rate                 : 24.2 Mbps

Recorded date                    : 2011-10-29T21:51:53-0400

Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-10-30 01:51:53

Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-10-30 01:52:05

Writing application              : 5.0

Writing library                  : Apple QuickTime

Model                            : iPhone 4S

Make                             : Apple

com.apple.quicktime.make         : Apple

com.apple.quicktime.creationdate : 2011-10-29T21:51:53-0400

com.apple.quicktime.software     : 5.0

com.apple.quicktime.model        : iPhone 4S

Video

ID                               : 1

Format                           : AVC

Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile                   : Baseline@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC           : No

Format settings, ReFrames        : 1 frame

Format settings, GOP             : M=1, N=30

Codec ID                         : avc1

Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding

Duration                         : 1mn 8s

Bit rate                         : 24.1 Mbps

Width                            : 1 920 pixels

Height                           : 1 080 pixels

Display aspect ratio             : 16:9

Frame rate mode                  : Variable

Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps

Minimum frame rate               : 28.571 fps

Maximum frame rate               : 31.579 fps

Color space                      : YUV

Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0

Bit depth                        : 8 bits

Scan type                        : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.388

Stream size                      : 196 MiB (100%)

Title                            : Core Media Video

Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-10-30 01:51:53

Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-10-30 01:52:05

Color primaries                  : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177

Transfer characteristics         : BT.709-5, BT.1361

Matrix coefficients              : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Material_Duration                : 68235

Material_StreamSize              : 205789884

Material_FrameCount              : 2045

Audio

ID                               : 2

Format                           : AAC

Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec

Format profile                   : LC

Codec ID                         : 40

Duration                         : 1mn 8s

Bit rate mode                    : Constant

Bit rate                         : 64.0 Kbps

Channel(s)                       : 1 channel

Channel positions                : Front: C

Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz

Compression mode                 : Lossy

Stream size                      : 523 KiB (0%)

Title                            : Core Media Audio

Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-10-30 01:51:53

Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-10-30 01:52:05

Material_Duration                : 68243

Material_StreamSize              : 535291

eta: but notice the bit-rate. sheesh!

[the_wine_snob]

I do not know the specs. on the iPhone 4S, so cannot comment directly, but think that the OP had also posted to the PrE Forum, by mistake, and in that thread, had mentioned that the footage had a variable FPS. I'll see if I can find that post, so we can see what the OP (or maybe it was another 4S user?) discovered.

Hunt

[Keith_Clark]

Bill Hunt wrote:

I do not know the specs. on the iPhone 4S, so cannot comment directly, but think that the OP had also posted to the PrE Forum, by mistake, and in that thread, had mentioned that the footage had a variable FPS. I'll see if I can find that post, so we can see what the OP (or maybe it was another 4S user?) discovered.

Hunt

i corrected myself due to ignorance. refer to earlier post. my bad

[Powered_by_Design]

I know Adobe was working on making the D7000 .mov files play smoothly in Premire and the temporary fix was to rename to .mpg thus not using the Quicktime engine.

Try that to see if it makes a difference.

GLenn

[medeamajic]

Most phones use a MPEG codec so changing the file extension to .mpg might work. I have to do that with my Canon FS 200 but my phone's (HTC Thunderbolt) video files work fine. Go figure.

[CalebMcLaughlin]

Changing the extension to .mpg works for me as a workaround.  I'm not sure who I'm more upset with, Apple or Premiere.  Apple has a history of making things more difficult than they have to be, and Premiere has a reputation to uphold...

[MichaelWarbux]

I tried changing the extension, and I'm still having sync issues. I'm resorting to using video converter software. The weird thing is, Adobe Premiere Elements works like a charm with iPhone footage. How can it's Pro big brother not handle it?

[humananon]

Hey Michael,

Did you try handbrake yet?  I did this fix a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUo2j_ibpNM

Cheers!

John Noah P

[Jon H 22]

Simply changing the extension to .mpg worked for me, using both iPhone 4 and 4s footage that had out of sync issues. Be sure to properly change the extension rather than just adding ".mpg" on the end of the file name (on a PC with Windows 7 while viewing the folder in explorer you need to choose Tools - Folder options - View and then uncheck hide extensions).

[gkemperle]

that totally worked for me!!! what a ridiculous solution ... thank you!!!