Premiere Pro is very glitchy when using HEVC videos from iPhones.

[kevinc56993]

Alright so h265 is a bit newer but many issues exist in premiere when handling. come on iMovie handles it like a champ. why can't my custom pc handle these? everything is moving to h265 so why isn't adobe??? yes, it "works" but often times premiere pro just gives up and the clips are unplayable or render weird. 

[R Neil Haugen]

HEVC from iPhones isn't just  an HEVC issue. It's the VFR nature of the media that causes by far the bigger problem.

VFR is Variable Frame Rate. The frame-rate you have set in the phone is just an 'average' setting, as the actual frame rate jumps dramatically from moment to moment while shooting. The device guesstimates how few frames of video it can get by on for the movement currently happening, and 'shorts' frames during slow movement periods. My Samsung phone media, when set to 30fps, will vary within a clip from around 26.8fps to 31.2fps. The audio is fixed time though.

And the reason iMovie handles that media better is because the "amateur" apps all worked at handling VFR media long before any of the professional apps did. Pro apps had always focused on pro type media, which never used to include any VFR. CFR ... constant frame rate ... was the only type that pro apps used. Premiere finally started working at being able to use VFR media at all just a couple years back, and still ... will work fine with some VFR but others can be dicey.

My Samsung phone media works perfectly ... well, almost all the time ... within Premiere. iPhone HEVC is a rather more "out there" media pushing the format/codec standards out there a bit farther than most other rigs. And is therefore more dicey to work with in Premiere.

Each update, they do improve the VFR handling of Premiere. So it is something that is being worked on. But it's a relatively new ability within the app.

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Kevin C,

Sorry! Working with these formats natively is just not in the cards for many computers, especially those that have processors that do not support Quick Sync technology. What system specs do you have?

No Quick Sync processors, or do you have a machine that falls short of system requirements? My advice for any H.264 or HEVC formats is to transcode them at ingest. Turn them into editing codecs, such as, ProRes LT as iMovie does "in the background." You can turn on transcode at ingest on in the Media Browser, pick a format, then import your HEVC footage that way.

You can also use the proxy workflow.

Try either workflow, whichever sounds best, then report back. 

Thanks,
Kevin

[Michael Grenadier]

Kevin, Ann Bens told me in a post a few months agothat there were issues with using AME for transcoding hevc footage to a constant frame rate and the tests I tried seemed to confirm this.   If I remember correctly, the transcoded material's audio would be screwed up.   She said to use handbrake to make the material have a constant frame rate.  Is that no longer true if you got a machine that supports Quick Sync technology?  

[snaphix25015890eiud]

I have the same problem constantly since most of my own footage features the HEVC codec and many customers also send me HEVC footage. My sollution to this problem is rather long, depending on your pc and your amount of footage, but always works.

I first convert all of the footage to .M4V through the Aiseesoft Video Converter Ultimate. After that I paste all my clips into premiere, put the speed to 50%. I render them into one file and place that file above the clips in Premiere. Then, I cut them accordingly with the help of the single clips below and I speed them up again (the rendered ones). You have all your clips on your timeline now, which you may not like too much but they wont glitch.

You really don't gotta do that much, its basically a 3 step process. But you will have to wait some time, can do anything else meanwhile.

David

[Kyle Kramb]

You can now shoot prores QTs on your iPhone. That's a simple way to eliminate this issue and gives you a much friendly file for editing. 

[RjL190365]

Only the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max officially allow you to do this. Older iPhones, and the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini, are stuck with HEVC.

[Kyle Kramb]

I use a third party app called Filmic. It allows you do do all sorts of things with video that you can't do natively on a phone. 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/filmic-pro-video-camera/id436577167

[Kyle Kramb]

Including recording Prores on a non 13 Pro iPhone 

[Jeff Bellune]

Near as I can tell from the Filmic website and online articles, ProRes in Filmic is still limited to iPhone 13+.

Log V3 HEVC is limited to iPhone 12+

My 11 Pro Max doesn't have ProRes available as an option in Filmic's settings. Is ProRes available in the CineKit for my 11? I haven't purchased that (yet).

[Kyle Kramb]

I've used Filmic for years and have always had the ability to record Prores

[Kyle Kramb]

Seems like I am either remembering wrong or it lost this feature at some point. But the Filmic Mode is a mov format, that should elemenate the issues you were having. Avoid HVEC anf H264. 

[Jeff Bellune]

Using Filmic Quality or Filmic Extreme, I still get a MOV file that is VFR H.264. No ProRes, no CFR. If VFR is indeed the source of the OP's issue, then Filmic won't help.

[Michael Grenadier]

.mov (aka quicktime) is just a file wrapper which can contain many different video codecs including h264.  Don't know if h265 or not...

[Kyle Kramb]

not sure what the native Filmic codec is but you can most definitely lock the frame rate. I've used an iPhone as a b-camera and was able to sync my footage with a BMBCC for an hour-long show with no noticeable drift. When I first got the app the iPhone camera app wouldn't record 4k and Filmic allowed you to do that.

As far as the codec and no matter the codec, I find that working with .movs generally works better. Some codecs, such as Prores are superior. 

You can do a bunch of other stuff like adjust white balance, manually focus and set exposure, and record in Log. I stopped using the app because instead of buying a new iPhone I got the BMPCC. Same price and if you already have some EF lenses from your DSLR (or can borrow some) you are good to go.

Sounds like Transcoding or Proxie is the best solution no matter what app you use to record.

[Kyle Kramb]

If you aren't shooting sound you could also try to modify your clip to the frame rate you want. This may help, but I don't know for sure.

right-click the clip in bin > modify > Interpret Footage > Assume Frame Rate of, and input the frame to match what you would have shot it if your iPhone could do CFR.

[Christian.Z]

Encode those files using handbrake