FrameShift

Your Videos, Made Compatible.

FrameShift is designed to help make videos recorded on newer iPhones and Android phones playable on older Android devices.

The problem

Newer phones often record video using formats, codecs, or recording settings that older Android devices may not support. A video can fail to play, show a black screen, or display a “codec not supported” message.

There are already video converters available, but in my own testing, some converted files still showed “codec not supported” on the older phone I was trying to use. A file ending in .mp4 is not necessarily compatible: the video and audio inside it matter too.

FrameShift is built around that specific compatibility problem. It aims to create a more broadly supported MP4, rather than simply changing the file extension.

What it does

• Accepts .MOV, .MP4, and .M4V video files.
• Re-encodes video to H.264 MP4 with AAC audio.
• Converts high-resolution footage to a maximum dimension of 1080p and limits frame rate to 30 fps.
• Includes Balanced and Fast conversion options.
• Provides a separate page explaining the intended older Android device compatibility.

Conversion can reduce quality, and compatibility depends on the source file and target device. FrameShift cannot guarantee playback on every handset.

Run locally

Requires Node.js 18 or newer.

npm install
npm start

Open http://localhost:3000.

Optional setting: MAX_MB controls the upload limit (default: 500 MB).

Project structure

frameshift/
├── public/
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── compatibility.html
│   ├── style.css
│   └── app.js
├── server.js
├── package.json
└── README.md

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Tech Stack

• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Video Processing: FFmpeg
• File Handling: Multer
• Video Encoding: H.264 (AVC), AAC
• Deployment: Render

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Created by Shravani Joshi as a personal project, inspired by a video compatibility issue I experienced firsthand.