Newbie Transcoding Questions

[TheDreadPirate]

This may entirely be something with your phone. Motorola chose an odd SoC for the phone and the decoders available in it are extremely lack luster. Especially for a 2022 phone.

If you have access to a different phone model, give things a whirl on that device.

My Pixel 6a has no issues like you've described. So you definitely don't need a super high end phone.