Smartphone Frame Rate Strangeness

[SameSelf]

I have a smartphone that records full HD video in MP4 format. When I pull up the Mediainfo for the file it reports a really strange frame rate. Could this really be the case? Or is this another example of Mediainfo struggling?

General
Complete name                            : E:\MOV_0001.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom
File size                                : 418 MiB
Duration                                 : 3mn 18s
Overall bit rate                         : 17.7 Mbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2014-05-04 00:51:09
Tagged date                              : UTC 2014-05-04 00:51:09
©xyz                                     : +30.1989-095.7297/

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=30
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 3mn 18s
Bit rate                                 : 17.5 Mbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 29.719 fps
Minimum frame rate                       : 14.859 fps
Maximum frame rate                       : 32.585 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.284
Stream size                              : 414 MiB (99%)
Title                                    : VideoHandle
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2014-05-04 00:51:09
Tagged date                              : UTC 2014-05-04 00:51:09

[smrpix]

It's variable frame rate, very common for phones. It allows for longer exposures in darker conditions and also allows for fewer frames when the processing demands are too high. It's a perfectly logical solution for short clips that are meant to be shared by internet. It's hell to edit.

[SameSelf]

Very interesting. I had no idea my phone was doing this. Fortunately, I don't acquire a lot of video via my phone. However, I pulled it into PPro and it seemed to handle just fine. Only doing simple cuts though. No advanced stuff like color correction or fast/slow motion. I also told PP to reinterpret the footage as 29.97 fps. Does this seem like a reasonable workflow?

[smrpix]

Premiere requires and will impose a constant framerate. The video you have will probably show blended and/or duplicated frames -- it's the nature of the beast. (That's the hell I referred to earlier.). you can edit as normal otherwise.

Yes, it's a reasonable workflow.