Variable frame rate not reliable for editing.. what can happen?

Help/How To
1

When I tried to import a file I got the message “Convert to Edit-friendly… This file is variable frame rate, which is not reliable for editing”, and the option to convert to different format.

I’d like to ask a question: what can happen if I work with the file as is?

  • Will I eventually get audio out of sync?
  • Will I most probably get audio out of sync?
  • Will I get a rendered video different from the video preview?

NOTE. Just in case some other user incurs in the same questions, I’d like to share a suggestion: Handbrake program works very well for converting variable to fixed frame rate. Instead, the job created inside Shotcut, when you press “OK” to the dialog I said at the beginning, will create huge files that, in my case, filled disk space causing job to fail.

2

Please get more disk space even if it is external HDD. You are losing quality by using Handbrake because it compresses heavily in a lossy manner.

The answers to your questions are:

  • maybe
  • yes
  • possibly, due to less accuracy of seeking to in points

Yes, you can try to use the file directly but it is more risky with regard to what-you-see-is-what-get.

3

Thank you for your reply!

4

I got this message too. I hit the don’t ask me this again thinking it would automatically convert any other files that need it…I was wrong! Do you know how I get this feature back? (Please be kind I am ok on computers but new to this program and video editing so I don’t understand much yet)