iPhone 4 jumpy video playback

dw0519 wrote:
but when I import to iPhoto, etc., the video playback is jumpy

I think the problem is quicktime. Use VLC to play back the videos, and you should be fine.

Notch another one in the problem area. I record from IPhone and it is great. But play it back on the latest quicktime player on any computer and it's as though I skip half a second every 2 seconds. How anoying! I can play it on any other player (like total video player or VLC) and it is fine. I have tried to play with the settings of quicktime but no luck.

It plays fine everywhere else except quicktime player, so it must be a 'fault' somewhere in QT.

The video is on my hard drive so the speed is fine. The computer is fast enough as it plays nicely on other programs.

Xp Pro, AMD CPU.

I'm surpirised there is not more talk about this. I have been having this same EXACT video playback choppy problem since I first purchased my iPhone.

This is absurd. And I don't see how people don't complain about this and something get done.

My issue seems worse than others. My video plays back choppy on ALL players on my computer. But if I burn a DVD movie of it, it will play back fine on my TV and real DVD player.

Here's my stats:

iPhone 4, lastest O.S., latest update.

Computer - PowerBook (laptop) G4 17", 1.67Ghz Aluminum Last PPC Edition (Higher Res model)

Players tested with SAME horrible results - Quicktime (default .mov file), VLC, WMV, Flip For Mac.

I shoot some video (any length) with my iPhone 4 (which has no video camera settings, sooooo...IDK). Video plays back flawless on iPhone.

Plug iPhone into computer, download raw footage to desktop via "Image Capture". From that moment on, video playback acts like computer can't handle its quality, (choppy, skipping lots of frames, timing horribly off, etc..). Reacts same way with ANY player I use. Actually VLC is the worse, it just completely chokes. Quicktime will at least play it, just horribly choppy. ALL players are up to date.

BUT if I burn a video DVD of it using Toast Pro, etc... then play it on convential DVD player and TV, it plays back awesome ! ALSO, if I "export for web" in Quicktime and wait a amazing amount of time, I get a new file (MP4 or something), and that file will play fine on any player in my computer. BUT it is of a low quality, in which is BS that I have to go so low to view it cause I've played other videos downloaded from the net, or various places and they playback fine via QT or ANY player for that matter. Full screen, high res videos too !!

So I ask, what is the issue ? And why has this not been extensively discussed here and why has Apple not at least publically acknowledged this issue and gave its official word ? Is there something I can do ? Why can't the iPhone have camera settings on it to allow me to lower its video quality ? Or more importantly, why can't my computer seem to handle a simple video file that is really NOT true HD (1920x1080) ? Its honestly not even much above TV resolution (720 x something). My computers screen resolution is 1680 x 1050 dpi, and my video card is a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, AGP 128.

I could be mistaken, but I am almost sure I've downloaded and viewed movies (in file format) via QT that are of a better quality even and they playback fine. So can I get some clarification on this please ?

Thanks for anyones time --

Well I know that it is a Apple Quicktime fault.

I have just built a new computer and the trouble is exactly the same as my old one.

The new computer is an Athlon x2 @3.1Ghz speed, 4 meg DDR3 Ram, Gigabyte Board, Gigabyte GeForce 210 graphics card and a SATA3 drive. This is more than plenty to run the Apple aplication of quicktime.

However, even with a system that is much faster than my original specs, the problem continues.

One odd thing though. If I watch a quicktime movie on it, it's good. If I watch something that I recorded off my IPhone4 the video keeps jumping every second.

I have uploaded a original to youtube which runs properly. It's at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJXBDRxZZto

Next link in following message.

Another video download in youtube shows the problem quite clearly. It's at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCrOiWQIk54

So you can see the difference between the two. If you run it in quicktime, it jumps every second like it has been edited. Any other video player makes it run smoothly. So quicktime is broken!

Well I honestly do not think this is JUST a Quicktime problem, as if you read my post again carefully, you will see I have the problem on ANY player I use. And I have triple verified this over and over.

BUT, for me, it just may be the computer itself can't handle the "Data Rate" that the iPhone records at, which is pretty high.

I notice per MB, a iPhone recorded movie is MUCH larger than a industry standard DVD movie ! So it does have a lot of info packed into it.

I notice you are on a PC, and a dang new and powerful one ! I hear others with new Macs have no problems playing the iPhone movies on Quicktime or any other player either. AND I hear others on PC's say the same thing you are, the movie plays fine in any player EXCEPT Quicktime.

So I figure this, its a two for one,

1- The iPhone takes video at 10mb/s, the standard professional released movie is at 1 mb/s - SO, if you have a older computer with a old video card like mine, then you will get choppy video playing back a iPhone recorded movie on ANY player and computer (that can't handle the specs).

2 - BUT if you have a new Mac (that the video card is also decently powerful and the computer itself can handle it), the iphone recorded video will play fine on ANY player including Quicktime. BUT if your on a newer PC (that the video card is also decently powerful and the computer itself can handle it), then there IS a problem with Quicktime for PC cause the video will play fine on any player EXCEPT Quicktime.

The reason the iPhone movies are choppy after import is because you held the camera upside down.

The right way up is with the lens at the top of the iPhone with the camera controls on the right.

If you record a movie with the lens at the bottom, QuickTime stutters as it compensates on playback.

VLC will play the movie smoothly, but if you shoot it upside down it will appear in VLC as upside down.

Test it for yourself now.

I just tried the video in all 4 directions, even turning the phone upside down!

ALL are jumpy in Quicktime video no matter which way the video was recorded!

I also used Total Video Player, Nero showtime and others and it is smooth and not jumpy at all.

Maybe Quicktime on anything except a Apple Mac doesn't work properly? Maybe we should just uninstall Quicktime and use a player that works.

John.

On a seperate note, Total Video Player did show that the way the camera is held does make a difference. If I have it with the controls on the right, it is the correct way up. If I have it with the camera on the left, it played it upsidedown. TVP also played it with no jumpy playback either way.

You're right. My first attempt appears incorrect because I did it again myself. The first time I tried it, it did work. There does seem to be a slight improvement in the movie shot the right way up.