MOV from iPhone won't play in sync in PTs

[Tim R.]

I recorded a 22 minute video on my iPhone (6Plus) set at 1080p/30fps (QT Inspector shows Format: 1920X1080 AAC 44.1 mono 29.98FPS). When I import this MOV (with audio) into Protools the video plays back out of sync with the associated audio (that came from the MOV itself). I'm finding a fair amount of discussion on the issues with H.264 files. Just wondering what the best standard practice is to get the video to play accurately in Pro Tools? If converting to another format is the solution, what do people use for the conversion?

Puzzling to me is that I get H.264 videos from Media Composer regularly for my post work that play fine in Pro Tools.

[Marcel Risberg]

I've heard something about the Apple/iOS interpretation of "30 fps" is in fact not at all what the rest of the world call 30fps. (I believe Russ from the Pro Tools Expert team has mentioned it on the podcast. Something like 30.1 fps - but I could be remembering that wrong.) If you find something meaningful about this, please update this thread about it. I'd also like to know.

[Sonny Keyes]

I remember reading a thread about this on an Apple user board; apparently the iPhone records video at various frame rates depending on the lighting conditions - the brighter the shot, the higher the frame rate. (!) The fix is to import the video into iMovie and export it again at the desired frame rate, which will be stable.

[john1192]

when playing your iPhone movie in QT (QT 7 preferably) and open the Inspector .. it will show your frame rate in realtime .. does it fluctuate .. ???

i just watch a movie i shot with Canon 5D shot at 23.98 Qt7 show 24 frames ..

very curious to hear what you find .. which iPhone version was used ???

cheers john

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by john1192

when playing your iPhone movie in QT (QT 7 preferably) and open the Inspector .. it will show your frame rate in realtime .. does it fluctuate .. ???

i just watch a movie i shot with Canon 5D shot at 23.98 Qt7 show 24 frames ..

very curious to hear what you find .. which iPhone version was used ???

cheers john

As I mentioned, here's my file info: Shot on iPhone (6Plus), iOS 9.2.1, set at 1080p/30fps (QT Inspector shows Format: 1920X1080 AAC 44.1 mono 29.98FPS)" The framerate does not appear to fluctuate when playing in QT player. It is also a totally static shot of an orchestra conductor for about 25 minutes.

[john1192]

i would expect it to say 29.97 (not 29.98) ... that is odd ... have you tried the imovie or QT conversion to see if it helps ??

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by john1192

i would expect it to say 29.97 (not 29.98) ... that is odd ... have you tried the imovie or QT conversion to see if it helps ??

I've tried exporting from QT player to 1080P before importing to PTs but that didn't help. Next I'll try exporting from iMovie. I'm just hoping to NOT lose too much quality in the transcoding just to get the damn thing to play in Pro Tools. As I said, the end product has to be "Bounced to move" from Pro Tools so I'm stuck with that file format as an end product.

[Kuba Pietrzak]

I did a sound post-production for a short recorded with an iPhone. And I would say, the frame rate iphone uses for capturing video (and audio) is really strange (I do not remeber the exact number of fps). We ended up with transcoding all recorded material to 25fps and then did the video edit and audio post for it.

To my best knowledge, a direct import a iPhone video into ProTools will not work.

Kuba

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by Kuba Pietrzak

I did a sound post-production for a short recorded with an iPhone. And I would say, the frame rate iphone uses for capturing video (and audio) is really strange (I do not remeber the exact number of fps). We ended up with transcoding all recorded material to 25fps and then did the video edit and audio post for it.

To my best knowledge, a direct import a iPhone video into ProTools will not work.

Kuba

Thanks Kuba, I suspected this to be the case. What did you (and others) use for the transcode? And what settings/format maintain the quality while creating compatibility?

[Kuba Pietrzak]

As I remember, Avid Media Composer was used. But I was not involved in the exact process (a machine room guy did it), so I cannot give you more details.

This was 1second = 1second method, so the actual speed of sound wasn't changed.

Kuba