<p>Almost all encoded frames depend on the surrounding frames, so it's virtually impossible to delete anything from the encoded output without negatively affecting the video. Short answer: no, you can't do that.</p>

<p>One consolation is that true duplicate frames cost almost nothing in terms of file size. They can effectively be represented by a short sequence that means "repeat previous".</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-11T20:41:52.267Z
2017-01-11T20:41:52.267Z
Jim Mack
<p>I have a file which from progressive 24fps was rendered into a h264 high profile 60fps file by mistake. This can be clearly seen advancing frame by frame because every other frame is duplicated except sometimes there are four equal frames. Is there any software able to <em>drop</em> those duplicates frames producing a 24fps stream <em>without encoding</em> again? Is this possible at all or would those frames depend on previous ones, making it impossible?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-11T20:49:38.673Z
As @JimMack said, no. If there were no B-frames, then an experiment could be run to manually remove the duplicate frames, but it would likely fail.
Gyan
<framerate><h.264>
Can duplicate frames from an h264 stream be dropped without encoding?
Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz
# Can duplicate frames from an h264 stream be dropped without encoding?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-01-11)

I have a file which from progressive 24fps was rendered into a h264 high profile 60fps file by mistake. This can be clearly seen advancing frame by frame because every other frame is duplicated except sometimes there are four equal frames. Is there any software able to *drop* those duplicates frames producing a 24fps stream *without encoding* again? Is this possible at all or would those frames depend on previous ones, making it impossible?

**Tags:** framerate, h.264

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: As @JimMack said, no. If there were no B-frames, then an experiment could be run to manually remove the duplicate frames, but it would likely fail.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-01-11. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Almost all encoded frames depend on the surrounding frames, so it's virtually impossible to delete anything from the encoded output without negatively affecting the video. Short answer: no, you can't do that.

One consolation is that true duplicate frames cost almost nothing in terms of file size. They can effectively be represented by a short sequence that means "repeat previous".


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