Warn about variable frame rate media

I've not been using Resolve for long, and ran into a weird problem with the audio on video that came from my phone. I found out through the help of this excellent forum (and somebody else who had the same problem) that this is because the video has a variable frame rate, which no NLE is generally expected to handle well.

So I'm not asking Resolve to solve that problem, as that probably requires faster-than-real-time transcoding which is a big ask, but it could detect such clips in the media pool and mark them as unusable, incompatible, refuse to import them at all or something along those lines.

I would not vote for this. I think most professionals know enough not to use a phone for filming.

The Studio version (not sure about the free one) allows you to work with such videos and bring them to any desired form. I checked.

I would not vote for this. I think most professionals know enough not to use a phone for filming.

One of the primary reasons for the Cut Page is to address the needs of YouTubers etc. Yes h.264 and VFR is a hot mess and there are ways around it... like using Filmic Pro on the IPhone but playing the "Professional" card is not the way to build an open forward looking community. As I pointed out once on the "Professional" Resolve group on FB when some "professional" went off on somebody for suggesting that the latest Iphone had "cinematic" capabilities... if Steven Soderbergh shoots any number of features on an Iphone then it is indeed a "professional" acquisition device. I left that group because of a few "professionals" chronically bullying newcomers with legit questions and points of view.

Look I like and am now committed to using Resolve as my NLE but as far I as I can tell not one "feature" or series seen on any of the streaming platforms has been cut on it. Given it's capabilities and the responsiveness Black Magic one should have been by now. Apple with Final Cut X has no problem adapting to the times... (and as I PC user I would prefer to not open that can of worms)... with the brilliant cut page BMD is too... Anyway... having a warning about variable frame rate footage seems like a legitimate request... as does figuring out a consistent way of handling it. Thanks for listening.

I would not vote for this. I think most professionals know enough not to use a phone for filming.

A quick addition (months later):

There are those of us who need to deal with VFR as professionals. I'm a DIT, and am currently working on a high end commercial project shot on an iPhone.

So as a professional, I don't have a choice: I need to deal with variable frame rates, and make sure that I can get the footage to post-production in a way that makes sense to them.

I think that a reminder that the footage may cause these issues would be useful.

We live in a world where more and more people will be using phones – even for professional projects.

There's a whole industry of professional filmmakers and editors that use mobile phone footage for at least B-roll footage if not (and many do) their primary camera footage. To discount these professionals based on their camera of choice is a mistake. Fortunately, Resolve does support VFR media as far as I can tell.

I would not vote for this. I think most professionals know enough not to use a phone for filming.

Yeah. Stephen Soderbergh and Michel Gondry are such amateurs.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/03/movie ... 201941565/

Last I checked, professionals aren't the only ones using DaVinci Resolve...I'm pretty new to video editing & I just discovered the horrorshow that is variable frame rate. I have to say I'm amazed the industry hasn't addressed this in a way that bridges the pro-am gap more smoothly. Handbrake works fine for conversion, but couldn't the NLEs find it in their hearts to flag such clips & even include a routine to convert & reimport them?

Last I checked, professionals aren't the only ones using DaVinci Resolve...I'm pretty new to video editing & I just discovered the horrorshow that is variable frame rate. I have to say I'm amazed the industry hasn't addressed this in a way that bridges the pro-am gap more smoothly. Handbrake works fine for conversion, but couldn't the NLEs find it in their hearts to flag such clips & even include a routine to convert & reimport them?

This has been addressed.
1) there is a specification. Phones manufacturer prefer not to adhere.
2) for phones there is software (like filmicpro) that give you control of the phone.

Hovered, i understand the pain: I have hours of video with my daughter and son done by my wife that are not handled nicely by resolve.

This isn't entirely a Resolve issue. I had some footage from an iPhone 5 that I was editing in FCPX a few years back and it had terrible audio drift. Especially when the phone was close to filling up. There was nothing I could do except cut it into a million pieces and line it up myself. So yeah, I don't think vfr plays nice with any nle.

As far as it not playing in resolve, I've not had that issue. I do have the Studio version though.

There's a whole industry of professional filmmakers and editors that use mobile phone footage for at least B-roll footage if not (and many do) their primary camera footage. To discount these professionals based on their camera of choice is a mistake.

I think it is a bad idea to use a cheap camera like this for all the reasons stated above... plus there's no manual exposure control, terrible audio, no timecode, variable framerate, the whole thing. What I can buy is using a better camera like a Blackmagic Pocket or a Canon 7D or a Sony A7S and then degrade that material so it looks like a cellphone. At least those will shoot at a true 23.98fps frame rate and won't drift (or at least won't drift as much as a cellphone).

There is a need for real technical standards, and I don't buy that we can throw those out the window for productions of any budget. Affordable cameras are out there, and while they have their problems, they're better than the $50 cameras inside a cellphone:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/475356567 ... erial-cost

I don't have a problem with people shooting home movies and student films and other low-end projects with cheap cameras, because not many people will ever see them. But a real commercial, a real show, even a YouTube project seen by thousands of peopled deserves something a step better than that.

1) there is a specification. Phones manufacturer prefer not to adhere.
2) for phones there is software (like filmicpro) that give you control of the phone.

1) There are specifications, there are principles, and then there is reality (3 billion smartphones in use)
2) Filmic Pro does NOT overcome the camera's inherent use of VFR.
It's as if Logic Pro could not handle mp3s recorded with variable bit rate, which exists for [reasons]

1) there is a specification. Phones manufacturer prefer not to adhere.
2) for phones there is software (like filmicpro) that give you control of the phone.

1) There are specifications, there are principles, and then there is reality (3 billion smartphones in use)
2) Filmic Pro does NOT overcome the camera's inherent use of VFR.
It's as if Logic Pro could not handle mp3s recorded with variable bit rate, which exists for [reasons]

yes, filmic pro lock the framerate for what i understood, and it is the one app used by "professionals" when a phone is used.

yes, filmic pro lock the framerate for what i understood, and it is the one app used by "professionals" when a phone is used.

Not true from my experience (using the MediaInfo app to query Filmic Pro video output) and from what I glean from sources online, e.g.
https://www.provideocoalition.com/filmi ... -nab-2019/

"Professionals" use Filmic Pro, I suspect, because it includes a host of professional features (I like it too) but if the user is unaware that setting 30 fps in Filmic Pro is not the same as enforcing a constant frame rate, only a 'target' to be approximated, then they may be tripped up with bad audio sync as I was. I would love to have been alerted to this possibility by DVR on import before messing around with manual audio sync, all the while blaming Filmic Pro for the issue before coming to this forum to discover what was going on.

Hence my adding 2 cents worth to this subforum and thread.

yes, filmic pro lock the framerate for what i understood, and it is the one app used by "professionals" when a phone is used.

Not true from my experience (using the MediaInfo app to query Filmic Pro video output) and from what I glean from sources online, e.g.
https://www.provideocoalition.com/filmi ... -nab-2019/

"Professionals" use Filmic Pro, I suspect, because it includes a host of professional features (I like it too) but if the user is unaware that setting 30 fps in Filmic Pro is not the same as enforcing a constant frame rate, only a 'target' to be approximated, then they may be tripped up with bad audio sync as I was. I would love to have been alerted to this possibility by DVR on import before messing around with manual audio sync, all the while blaming Filmic Pro for the issue before coming to this forum to discover what was going on.

Hence my adding 2 cents worth to this subforum and thread.

I skimmed thru the article and yes: 24.000fps used in film is locked when used with filmic pro, hence no VFR.

Can you specify where the FIlmic pro fail in not enforcing a 24.000 exact frame rate?

(Disclaimer, i have android/samsung and in my experience, set to 24 force to 24.)

Hi Walter, in the first paragraph of the article cited above it states:

In the case of apps in iOS devices, to my knowledge, all iOS camera apps including the iOS camera app, FiLMiC Pro and MoviePro shoot at VFR (variable framerate) for efficiency’s sake, and the framerate you choose before shooting is only a target, not a final framerate.

That is consistent with my experience using Filmic Pro and examining the output file metadata, e.g. it reports Frame Rate Mode as Variable, with Max/Min Frame Rates of 28.571 FPS and 30.000 FPS respectively, in the most recent instance.

Good to know if Android-based cameras use constant frame rates, but I recommend to check the metadata to be sure. Elsewhere I've read that variable frame rate is standard on all smartphone cameras not just Apple's.
(edited to read 'smartphone')

I see if I can do a test one of those days