Variable frame rates: Sync problem in Premiere Pro but WORKING in Premiere Rush

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
April 23, 2022
3 replies
890 views

Dear Adobe - team,

importing video files with variant frame rates is still a big problem in Premiere Pro and is existing for many years. Since in Premiere Rush it is working very well and there are no sync problems why is this still a problem in Premiere Pro?

Many thanks in advance!

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Warren Heaton

Community Expert

If you happen to be on macOS, right-click the clip in the Finder and then choose Encode Selected Video Files. When the options dialog box appears, choose ProRes. ProRes source in a ProRes Timeline should play back just fine and will take advantage of Smart Rendering.

N

Napoleon5C7AAuthor

Participating Frequently

Many thanks for your answer! I am using Windows 10 Pro, not a Mac. These video files were taken by an iPhone. So I guess that this problem might be specific for Apple as well, but though I am not sure about it.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

Rush is "optimized" for phone use. That is the primary "home" of that app.

Premiere is optimized for desktops.

They are, by code, very different apps. And really, built for different major goals.

It's not really an iPhone versus others issue. My Samsung also does VFR, and although a few short clips can work ok in Premiere, I tend to convert/t-code if there's much phone vid in a project. I use batch processing, and set the job for when I am gonna be away from the computer. So I don't waste time.

It's awesome we can start with something in Rush on a phone, it's really an amazing capability. But when you switch to Premiere, well ... it's a different working environment. "It is what it is".

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

R Neil Haugen

Legend

We "helpers" here are peers. Other users. Ann, in particular, is one of the most experienced in a wide range of workflows helping here. You want an expert? With her, you got one.

But as she said, we're not clairvoyant. Troubleshooting always requires information as to the hardware, media, and effects involved. As the vast majority of issues only exist under certain conditions.

Variable frame rate media is a freaking hassle ... you do understand the audio and video are recorded differently, right? The audio is recorded constant, the video varies. I can set my Samsung phone to 30fps, and I'll get a file that constantly varies from say 27.66fps to 31.1fps.

Phones have specific hardware to handle this. Video players don't have to mesh an audio stream with multiple video streams like an NLE, so they may struggle a bit on a computer but get by.

The NLE has to mesh perfectly frames that aren't there with stuff that is, on the fly. That is an enormously difficult process. And is why NLEs really struggle with VFR media. I'm totally a practical guy. I go with what works.

VFR, like most H.264/5, are great capture formats for devices with the specific hardware chips that do the encode. They're lousy editing formats because of their structure however.

And as far as converting VFR, you should also look at ShutterEncoder. It has a more "modern" UI than Handbrake or ffmpeg.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...