Making an Android VFR usable after downloading

[outersquid]

I recorded a vid on Monday on my phone (Google Pixel 7a, Android 15) that plays fine on the phone, but I cannot get it into a playable format anywhere else. It's 4'57" but presents at ¼ speed on everything other than Google Photos, on desktop (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 and vlc) or even on the phone on every video editing software I've tried. Every piece of software I've tried on either platform presents it a 19'51" of painfully slow content. I've tried various suggestions I've found online to correct things in ffmpeg or handbrake with zero success.

The (probably) relevant data from mediainfo is:

Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Minimum frame rate : 21.167 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 56.356 FPS
FrameRate_Real : 120.000 FPS

I can upload the thing if that's helpful; it's private, but only of a friend playing a song. Not immediately re-recordable as they're 300 miles distant until I next visit!

Any help/suggestions gratefully received. I've never had problems with phone vids before (short clips recorded last weekend are fine, and a six minute live gig recording last month too), but this is the first more-than-a-minute vid I've recorded since my last Android update.

[Alwyn]

Attach it and let's have a play!

[Alwyn]

How about VDub2?

AVISynth might be able to play it properly so you can then re-encode it at the correct play speed, but we'd need to have a sample to try.

[outersquid]

I've put it here!

[outersquid]

I put it on my website, linked in a comment, but that's awaiting moderation! Oh, there it is… ��

[davexnet]

Is that direct from the phone? Never seen that strange pulsing/distortion before (I have a Pixel 7)
Not sure why it plays at a quarter of the speed. Does this look right?

[outersquid]

Thanks! That sounds about right, but the video issues are weird. The thing plays flawlessly on the phone; there must be some way to make the thing playable elsewhere.

[davexnet]

Thanks! That sounds about right, but the video issues are weird. The thing plays flawlessly on the phone; there must be some way to make the thing playable elsewhere.

I copied your file into my phone, and it looks as bad as the file I posted - in both
google Photo's and third party app Xplayer.

If I were you, i'd close the camera app, go into to phone settings/apps/camera/force stop/storage/ and clear the cache.
Then look for any updates in google Play

[outersquid]

Experimenting, '-filter:v "setpts=0.25*PTS" -filter:a "asetrate=192000"' in ffmpeg almost fixes things; the video still flickers. and the audio isn't *quite* perfectly synced. I shall persevere, and when I find time, experiment with the phone to find out when and why it does this. I've not changed any camera settings between my last unb0rked vid and this one!

[Selur]

About the luma flickering: when using ffmpeg, try something like 'hqdn4d=0:0:40:0"

[outersquid]

About the luma flickering: when using ffmpeg, try something like 'hqdn4d=0:0:40:0"

Thanks! That helps a lot. Overblurs a bit. so I'm playing with the parameters. Oh, and hqdn3d.

[hello_hello]

What sort of lighting was it?
To me it looks like a rolling shutter being out of sync with the pulse/flicker rate of the room lighting. Example attached.
The fact that you couldn't see it on the display while recording it, or that it plays fine on the phone is a mystery though, so maybe I'm wrong.
I've only looked at the sample davexnet uploaded though as the original was large and downloading painfully slowly.

[outersquid]

Indoor indirect bright daylight.