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Variable Frame Rate (VFR) Fix in CC2017?
My Premiere system is really humming along right now, so I have obvious trepidation about upgrading to the initial release of CC2017. I was wondering, however, if Adobe has finally addressed the sync issue with iPhone and other variable frame rate videos. I’ve not been able to find any info one way or the other. Does anyone have insight on this? The percentage of VFR video I receive from clients has been steadily increasing, so this is a rather important issue for Adobe to address. I’d rather not change platforms, but the added time needed for re-encoding (which doesn’t even work all the time) is becoming a real productivity killer.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
24 Replies
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https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html
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Adobe Certified Expert Premiere Pro CS6/CC
Adobe Community Professional -
Unfortunately, that’s not a realistic option. These are non-professionals who often don’t even use a tripod or external microphone. I’m a remote sub-contractor, so I have no contact with those who are shooting.
I’m sure I am not alone in these kinds of scenarios. We are in a time when it’s simply not plausible to demand best practices, as we are often hired to work with what can best be compared to “found footage.” We are allowed our professional standards only when we control the process.
The fact of the matter is that there are millions upon millions of iPhones and other cameras that shoot variable frame rate video, the majority of which are in the hands of people who have no idea what a variable frame rate is. Adobe is a company that often boasts about its great flexibility. To me, this cannot be viewed as anything but a failure to back up that claim.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
are you saying that handbrake fails re-encoding? even professional users have to transcode for proxies, digital intermediates, redcine-x etc. The world out there isn’t kind to slow computers.
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Hi Chris,
There are no new changes in PPro 2017 to address VFR issues. However, if your recording video on an iOS device, Filmic Pro announced an update that could be helpful for this workflow. NOTE: I have not tested this yet.
From the “FiLMiC Pro” Version 5.5 for “iPhone” Release Notes (Nov 11, 2016):
“… v5.5 includes fixes and optimizations to our iOS 10 codebase including the following: —Adobe Premiere and Windows compatibility has been assured. NOTE: This undertaking has required a change of the default audio encoding format from AIFF to PCM. AIFF is still supported in the app but should not be used if the intention is to export to Adobe Premiere or playback on Windows PCs. (Double-check and/or reconfigure your presets to use PCM audio if you plan to use FiLMiC Pro footage in Adobe Premiere and/or on a Windows PC) —Focus reticle refinements ensure accurate, smooth, and crisp focus actuation.”
We’re still looking into making changes on the Premiere side as well, but this at least helps users with this workflow.
Thanks,
Peter Garaway
Adobe
Premiere Pro -
No, it has nothing to do with slowness of computers. If anything, my setup could be described as overkill for blog videos (2015 workstation with gobs or ram, all SSD, fast Nvidia, yada yada).
Handbrake works some of the time, but nowhere near every time. When there is too much “corrected” camera shake in these VFR files, there are no viable fixes that I’ve found. So I just chop it up and slip a few frames here and there. Either way (transcoding or editing the sync slippage), it is an unnecessary and time-consuming step when there are other products on the market that have handled this issue better for years.
We can all say that best practices of professionals like ourselves would eliminate any such problems, and I certainly agree when it comes to work that I’m doing. The reality, however, is that collaboration across disciplines becomes greater every day, and many of us “professionals” will have clients, or even supervisors who don’t have a clue about best practices, but are still signing expecting a result.
I think that hiding behind the argument of Premiere being a professional product, so it doesn’t need to address basic functionality of its competitors, is short-sighted at best, and a B.S. excuse at worst. It would be like saying that Adobe Premiere only accepts video with SEMPTE timecode. Yes, once upon a time, that was a obiquitous professional standard, and might have been an acceptable limitation, but times change.
Like them or not, iPhone cameras are viable cameras. When you have millions of viable cameras on the market, to me it is irresponsible not to address an issue that causes workflow disruption to those of us who must work with the resulting footage.
And please do no post another link to Adobe’s feature request page. I’ve made this request numerous times, as have many others, only for our requests to fall upon deaf ears. It’s nice for Adobe to collect feedback, but is a bit disingenuous to hide behind that feature request page as a way of dodging responsibility for R&D expectations. Issues like this should fall under the umbrella of competitive analysis. Or is Adobe satisfied with ceding all of those potential users to FCP X and other inferior (except with this particular issue) products?
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
That sounds like a nice update. But it unfortunately doesn’t help much in situations where we have no control over the acquisition process. Still, if I were shooting on an iPhone, I would certainly appreciate this effort.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
This is the second post (that I’ve seen this week) blaming Adobe for not fixing Apple’s shortcoming.
The problem is not Premiere. The problem is Apple not making a fixed frame rate camera part of the iPhone.
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I think I addressed how this is not a reasonable expectation in my Dec 6 post. I hate to use the old “time is money” cliche, but it is certainly appropriate here. I’m sure there are others like me whose ability to maintain a good hourly rate is dependent upon volume. If I need to wait 5 minutes to encode a video that takes me less than 5 minutes to edit (a common situation for me), my productivity has been reduced by more than half.
It would be one thing if this were a common limitation across all nonlinear platforms. It is another thing altogether when competitors have had a solution for years, and you simply refuse to address it. And perhaps the following statement is best for the “debate” forum, but one must wonder whether Adobe would have been so dismissive if they didn’t have users trapped with the subscription model.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Alan Lloyd] “The problem is not Premiere. The problem is Apple not making a fixed frame rate camera part of the iPhone.”
I cannot agree with this. The premise is flawed, because the editing platform must follow the capture technology, especially if the capture product becomes widely accepted. If you’d used that logic in the past, no NLEs should have ever accepted H.264 footage. Or, as I mentioned earlier, using that same logic, Adobe would be justified in refusing any footage that lacks dedicated time code. Adobe continually touts how flexible their creative tools are. In this case, they are being extremely inflexible.
What if Apple, or anyone else, creates a revolutionary VFR codec that is 10X the quality and 10x more efficient? Would it still be okay to ignore the sync issue, when everyone is buying these amazing new cameras?
As one technology evolves, it is the responsibility of those who serve users of that technology to adapt (or die). Those of us who’ve been in the game long enough surely remember the post-houses who refused to finish on NLEs in the mid 90s, because online tape-to-tape suites were “the professional” way to do it. Those post houses are now paintball facilities and parking lots.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee
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