Using 59.94 fps video in a 60 fps project

[martin_ueding]

I’m trying to start with video, and picking the right frame rate turns out to be really hard. I want to produce for social media, so I think that 60 fps is the right target. I might want to do a mix of phone and camera videos. My Samsung Galaxy A33 offers 30 and 60 fps, but they are variable. I need to convert these. The Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II offers 59.94 fps in NTSC mode and 50 fps in PAL mode.

I have set my project to 60 fps. When I import the 60 or 30 fps smartphone videos, I am asked to convert them:

So does this convert all the images?

When I import the 59.94 fps video from the camera, it is shown as such. (Cannot show the screenshot, new users can only share one image.)

I did not get a conversion prompt there. Was will happen when I export it with 60 fps? Will it just stretch the video or will it cause duplicated frames? Or even worse, will it re-render all the frames?

[Elusien]

A similar question was asked on the forum last week. Click on the thread below to see the responses:

Using 29.97 fps and 30 fps clips in same project?

I’ve tried searching for this question and I haven’t really seemed to come across an answer to my particular situation. I’m still very new to video editing so my Shotcut projects are very basic… I use different clips online + detach/delete the audio + add music My question is how do I deal with clips with different fps? For example: My current Shotcut project has 5 different video sources. 2 of the video sources are 30 fps 1920x1080 3 of the video sources are 29.970030 fps 1920x1080 I am…

[Austin]

@martin_ueding

My Samsung Galaxy A33 offers 30 and 60 fps

That’s what the UI says, but there is a 99.999% chance that the frame rates are actually 29.97 and 59.94.

@martin_ueding

When I import the 60 or 30 fps smartphone videos, I am asked to convert them

This is to remove the variable frame rate, as opposed to change the frame rate (in this case).

@martin_ueding

Will it just stretch the video or will it cause duplicated frames?

It will drop or duplicate frames as needed to get the frame rates to match. But in your case, all frame rates appear to be in alignment already, so the timeline can be set to 59.94 to match the video files and stuff will just work.

[Austin]

If the phone videos actually are 30/60fps and not fractional rates, there is an additional angle to consider.

The phone videos should be converted to remove variable frame rate, which provides the highest frame accuracy when making cuts on the timeline. The process of removing variable frame rate will drop or duplicate frames as necessary to compensate for any slowdowns or speed-ups caused by the variable rate.

Since the phone footage is at risk of dupe/dropping frames anyway due to VFR, there is little reason to put a priority on having the timeline rate match the phone. The PowerShot is the most steady and reliable camera on your list, so I would consider matching the timeline to it, and then conform the other videos as necessary to match the PowerShot. Meaning, set everything to 59.94 in your case, based on what we know so far.