4K video from Mini2 refuses to play on PC

[MavicAir2Marc]

My fear on that has always been that the DVD gets Scratched and it will not load. Other than the extra size does the Blue Ray have any extra protection towards scratching ?

Blu-ray discs are more resistant to damage caused by scratches and fingerprints than DVDs due to a TDK hard coat applied to the surface of the disc.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Blu-ray discs are more resistant to damage caused by scratches and fingerprints than DVDs due to a TDK hard coat applied to the surface of the disc.

Any that you recommend , going to try this out . thank you.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Any that you recommend , going to try this out . thank you.

I have a Pioneer burner as far as media goes, most of it is pretty reliable.

 

[lissforester]

H264 and H265 are settings in FlyApp in camera settings. I tried H265 and none of my PC's - new and old - would play them (requires a CODEC). Had to switch back to recording in H264 thru the app and I don't have any issues. I tried 4k and 2.4k and files were just huge. 1080p is a good setting if you don't have a 4k TV and are posting to social media. Yes, you can downgrade from 4 / 2.4k to 1080p, but can't go up from 1080p. So, you have to decide what works for you. 2.4k may be a good medium point.

There are decent video cards with 2-4 GB's of RAM on the market in the $200-$400 range; which should easily work with most systems. With the "chip shortage" the new fast cards are out of this world expensive and not something most of us droners need for video / pic production work.

For those whom backup to an SSD - you may want to rethink that or at least have a HHD as a backup. SSD's are great, yet they only have so many read / writes built in before "poof" they die. HHD's do eventually die to, so a dual drive / NAS setup is something to think about to protect your files from disappearing one day when you least expect it. A simple 2 drive dock costing maybe $20-$30 and a a couple of 2+ TB harddrives at about $60 is cheap insurance. If you shoot at 4k, then you want much larger drives for sure as you'll eat up 2TB's in no time.

Hi tlswift,

I totally agree with you comment about using SSD as a long term backup drive, they are fast but not especially stable.
Data is stored on the SSD drive by a very low electrical charge, this charge dissipates with time, 12-15 years is the general thoughts on that. the more you overwrite data on the drive the quicker this charge dissipates.
One thing you should ALWAYS do is to ensure that automatic defragmentation is switched off on your computer as this will kill your SSD drive in half the time.
Spinning Platter Hard Drives are the most secure way of storing long term data for the average person.

I have Samsung 7200 spin speed HDD's for my long term storage and I have them in a shuttle/case so they are remote from my computer IE: connected with a USB cable, the shuttles/cases are switchable, so they can be both electrically and physically disconnected from the computer.
Should your computer be effected by a virus or malware or even by ransom-ware your backup data is safe as it is detached from the attacked computer.
My understanding is that SSD's degradation starts from the time they are manufactured, so, if a drive has been in stock for two or more years they may have already lost life before you purchased it, so I guess the rule should be always but the latest version/model of your chosen manufacturer.

 

[lissforester]

Found this link:

ASUS Launches An Old GPU: The NVIDIA GT 710 with Four 4K HDMI Ports

www.anandtech.com

Says the old GT 710 (nVidia passive) can playback 4k60. And if you don't have a true 4k monitor, it'd do even better.

My card is an nVidia Geforce GT710 with 2Mb DDR 6 Passive cooler/heat sink. So might just need to play a bit more.
But I still expect to much from a card that cost about £26 UK pounds/ 35 USA Bucks.

Thanks eEridan.

 

[eEridani]

For those whom backup to an SSD - you may want to rethink that or at least have a HHD as a backup. SSD's are great, yet they only have so many read / writes built in before "poof" they die.

Actually this isn't entirely accurate in the sense using an SSD for daily work is worse for an SSD than using one for archival purposes. Archival is actually the better use case for SSD wear. But the more important aspect of any archival is durability over time. All media, SSD and BRD/DVD alike degrade over time and the data gets lost.

Just be sure you refresh those backups and ensure they are recorded in a highly processed encoding where multiple errors can be absorbed during reading. I use multiple copies across multiple media for my backups. I don't do the rotating offsite or cloud storage because my personal stuff isn't that important, but it would be better to have copies not subject to a house fire.

 

[eEridani]

My card is an nVidia Geforce GT710 with 2Mb DDR 6 Passive cooler/heat sink. So might just need to play a bit more.
But I still expect to much from a card that cost about £26 UK pounds/ 35 USA Bucks.

Thanks eEridan.

The 710 should be able to play 4k60 without a problem - but not H.265 encodings. I used a 710 variant to play video on a 4k TV and didn't have any significant issues -- video was all 1080p and real time upscaling was required. If you don't have a true 4k monitor, the video needs to be downscaled, which should be less work than upscaling.

If you are playing directly from your SD Card, and you can't say for certain your reader is V30 rated, try copying the file to your NVME drive to see if that makes a difference. And then lastly, H.265 requires more processing power than H.264. If you don't have a hardware decoder then if falls to the CPU, and the CPU doesn't support H.265/HEVC, it's done in software, and skips and stalls are expected.

Nvidia NVDEC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

My computers play 4K with no problems. A few years old now but were top end at the time.
But I never play video from the SD card through a reader. I think that this may be your first bottleneck.
I spend the time to store onto a new folder on the fastest HD. Then roughly play through the saved video. After that I load into one of my video processing programmes either Pinnacle or usually Blackmagic Resolve.
Not near my computers so unable to give specs but will update later.
Have started to record with the Hevc 256 instead of 264 but needed to download the application to run it.
Would love to update my hardware but finances are tight and I don’t know if any of my videos warrant the 8k videos now coming out.

 

[Harro]

Scratching a DVD (unless severe) is not a problem, biggest concern is the medium quality, cheap ones may only last a few months. Make sure you get DVD's that are made in Japan as thy seem to be of a much higher quality.

 

[lissforester]

The 710 should be able to play 4k60 without a problem - but not H.265 encodings. I used a 710 variant to play video on a 4k TV and didn't have any significant issues -- video was all 1080p and real time upscaling was required. If you don't have a true 4k monitor, the video needs to be downscaled, which should be less work than upscaling.

If you are playing directly from your SD Card, and you can't say for certain your reader is V30 rated, try copying the file to your NVME drive to see if that makes a difference. And then lastly, H.265 requires more processing power than H.264. If you don't have a hardware decoder then if falls to the CPU, and the CPU doesn't support H.265/HEVC, it's done in software, and skips and stalls are expected.

Nvidia NVDEC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hi again,
I can not find any reference to H.265 or H.264 in my DJI Fly App, in the camera section of the App.
What I do have in the Camera Section of the App is below:

Under Video:
Video Subtitles switched on (Don't know what that is)

Under General:
Histogram
Overexposure Warning
Gridlines
White Balance

Under Storage:
Format
SD Card
Sync Downloaded Files to Photo Album
Auto Sync HD Photos
Cache When Recording
Max Vide Cache Capacity

Then:
Reset Camera Parameters
There is nothing else in the camera section Under video.


I have looked under "Photo" in the camera section and found nothing in there referring to H.265 or H.264, but then would not expect to as they seem by what I have read in here to refer to video only.

I am at a loss.
But never mind 1080p is OK :-(

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

It’s related to your video feed, not general settings. Click on the video settings. You get a choice there.
Turn everything on.
Click on the video icon on your screen.
Go into Camera settings.
It will then show up. Gives the 264 and 265.
MOV and MPEG etc

 

[lissforester]

It’s related to your video feed, not general settings. Click on the video settings. You get a choice there.
Turn everything on.
Click on the video icon on your screen.
Go into Camera settings.
It will then show up. Gives the 264 and 265.
MOV and MPEG etc

I think we have a misunderstanding going on.
If I click the three little dots in the top righthand side of my screen and go to camera (As shown in your picture) the first thing on my list is "Video Subtitles switched ON"
See the two photos below this is the entire contents of the "Camera Settings" on my Mini2, it maybe if you have a more powerful DJI drone you have more setting for a better quality camera or drone.

I have looked into the properties of my video files 1080p, 2.7K & 4K all are at H.264 coding, so it seems my issue is not the coding of my video. See pic sorry about the quality of the picture taken with mobile from my tablet screen

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

Maybe, I have Mavic Air 2.
But the screen shot I put up only shows up fully when you have chosen actual video mode before going to the settings.
Might be different with Mini 2.
You have to already be in video mode before going into the camera settings.
Apart from that I earlier posted about how I copy the SD card to a faster HD before playing it as this cuts down on one possible bottleneck.
As an extra, I believe the Mini will shoot 2.7k at Hevc 265.
Again you must first choose the video function which also gives you FPS and different video modes, before going into the camera settings.
Sorry if I’m not clear. I find it easier to do than tell about. There are some YouTube vids that will talk you through this a lot clearer.
Sorry.

 

[eEridani]

DJI Mini 2 Specifications:

• Video Formats​

• MP4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC）

No H.265 available, that isn't the issue.

 

[lissforester]

Maybe, I have Mavic Air 2.
But the screen shot I put up only shows up fully when you have chosen actual video mode before going to the settings.
Might be different with Mini 2.
You have to already be in video mode before going into the camera settings.
Apart from that I earlier posted about how I copy the SD card to a faster HD before playing it as this cuts down on one possible bottleneck.
As an extra, I believe the Mini will shoot 2.7k at Hevc 265.
Again you must first choose the video function which also gives you FPS and different video modes, before going into the camera settings.
Sorry if I’m not clear. I find it easier to do than tell about. There are some YouTube vids that will talk you through this a lot clearer.
Sorry.

All is cool Michael I appreciate you taking the time to help.

OK! I am in video recording mode Manual or Pro Mode as DJI are now calling it in the latest versions of the Fly App,
25 Frames per second 1/60 shutter speed, (Seems to be the standard for Europe) hit the tree dots top right of screen and I get just the same as is displayed in the first two pictures from my last post.
I have gone through this process in both Manual/Pro and Auto mode same result.

My guess is that the drones you have are using more of the potential in the DJI Fly App, and this potential is not available on the Mini 2.
I have tried the above procedure in all of the video modes 4K, 2.7k and 1080p and I get exactly the same menu displayed in each of the settings.

I don't have the Format MP4 or MOV, Or the Color (Colour)D-Cinelike or Normal,
Or the Coding format options.

All is well with the with the coding as all my videos that I have checked are in H.264 so I am guessing this is a locked in default setting in the Mini2 that can not be changed.

Ahhh!
As I just scrolled up to your post with the image in it I saw another post from eEridani confirming that the DJI Mini2 is locked into the MP4 & H.264 format.

 

[lissforester]

DJI Mini 2 Specifications:

• Video Formats​

• MP4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC）

No H.265 available, that isn't the issue.

Thanks for the info eEridani, I was beginning to think I had completely lost the plot LOL!

So the issue I am experiencing with not being able to display 4K Video on my Computer (Win10) is slowly being pin pointed.
My main drive being a Samsung 970 EVO M.2 PCle NVMe SSD drive with a Read speed of 3621.28 MB/s is not an issue.
I copy the contents of my drone Micro SD card to this M.2 drive and attempt to play the 4K video directly from the M.2, so this is not an issue.
The Micro SD Card I am using is super fast professional photography SD Card V90 U3, so all is good with that, I have also tried a Sandisk Extreme V30 U3, with exactly the same results, so I think I can eliminate an SD card issue.
The Coding on the drone is correct H.264 (Thanks eEridani)

So my weak links in the chain seem to be only having 16Gigs of HyperX 3200 DDR4 Ram. (32Gigs might help)
Or, Having a slow passive/heatsink 2 GB Graphics Card ( nVidia GeForce GT710)
Or could it possibly be my monitor not keeping up?
Monitor is a Phillips 24inch Flat screen: Refresh Rate 75H, Resolution 1920 X 1080 (Native screen resolution)

I love this little monitor the colours just pop and are pretty true to life.

 

[eEridani]

... attempt to play the 4K video directly from the M.2, so this is not an issue.

Agreed - if you are playing a file from the M.2, the data path is not the issue.

The Micro SD Card I am using is super fast professional photography SD Card V90 U3, so all is good with that, I have also tried a Sandisk Extreme V30 U3, with exactly the same results, so I think I can eliminate an SD card issue.

If playing from M.2, SD is a don't care.

The Coding on the drone is correct H.264 (Thanks eEridani)

H.264 reduces or eliminates the need for HW decoding.

So my weak links in the chain seem to be only having 16Gigs of HyperX 3200 DDR4 Ram. (32Gigs might help)

Another don't care. RAM speeds are far above the video data rates.

Or, Having a slow passive/heatsink 2 GB Graphics Card ( nVidia GeForce GT710)

This is probably the most likely.

Or could it possibly be my monitor not keeping up?

Another ignorable concern.

You can try another test... record video on your drone, but set it to 1080p/60 rather than 4k. Then see how that plays on your system. If drone 1080p plays well, there's one more thing you can try.

Install Handbrake, and recode one of the failing 4k videos to 1080p (use the General/Fast1080p30 preset). Then play the new 1080p version.

If all you ever want to do is play drone video on your PC, then just drop your captures to 1080p and enjoy. If you want to move up to 4k at some point, record 4k now and recode to 1080p for the interim - put the 4k files somewhere safe (external RAID1 NAS box - two drives, mirrored).

As a footnote, when I bought my EVGA 3080, I signed up at EVGA for their in-stock notification, and I was able to buy my card at MSRP at a time other sources like Amazon and BestBuy were selling the card for twice MSRP. The process worked well for me: sign up for the card you want, in a few weeks you'll get an email when the next shipment comes in - and you click a link in the email to buy the card. It ships the next day.

https://www.evga.com/products/productlist.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+30+Series+Family

I got the EVGA 3080 FTW3 for the $870USD MSRP, when they were selling at Amazon for over $2500USD.

And you don't need a 30 series for HEVC or H.265 - a 10 series or 20 series will playback 4k video quite well.

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

Sorry haven’t been any more help.
I have MSI gaming laptop. Intel(R) core i7-5700, 8 core @ 2.70 GHz.
RaAM 16 GB
NVIDIA GTX970m
Also Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 core processor.
3.00 GHZ
RAM 64 GB
I use the main HDs to run my programmes, store the videos and photos on separate drives, SSDs.
On the whole no problems playing 4K
Both computers do need upgrading though as the newer tech gobbles up more and more computer power.
I think personally, unless you are wanting to play on large screens and possible more professionally, then 2.7 k would be sufficient.
If I could afford it then yes upgrade to the max, get a large screen.
Just my opinion but a bit of digression.
Hope you can get your issues sorted.
Cheers from an ex pat down under.

 

[lissforester]

Agreed - if you are playing a file from the M.2, the data path is not the issue.

If playing from M.2, SD is a don't care.

H.264 reduces or eliminates the need for HW decoding.

Another don't care. RAM speeds are far above the video data rates.

This is probably the most likely.

Another ignorable concern.

You can try another test... record video on your drone, but set it to 1080p/60 rather than 4k. Then see how that plays on your system. If drone 1080p plays well, there's one more thing you can try.

Install Handbrake, and recode one of the failing 4k videos to 1080p (use the General/Fast1080p30 preset). Then play the new 1080p version.

If all you ever want to do is play drone video on your PC, then just drop your captures to 1080p and enjoy. If you want to move up to 4k at some point, record 4k now and recode to 1080p for the interim - put the 4k files somewhere safe (external RAID1 NAS box - two drives, mirrored).

As a footnote, when I bought my EVGA 3080, I signed up at EVGA for their in-stock notification, and I was able to buy my card at MSRP at a time other sources like Amazon and BestBuy were selling the card for twice MSRP. The process worked well for me: sign up for the card you want, in a few weeks you'll get an email when the next shipment comes in - and you click a link in the email to buy the card. It ships the next day.

https://www.evga.com/products/productlist.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+30+Series+Family

I got the EVGA 3080 FTW3 for the $870USD MSRP, when they were selling at Amazon for over $2500USD.

And you don't need a 30 series for HEVC or H.265 - a 10 series or 20 series will playback 4k video quite well.

Hi again eEridani,
I have for a couple of months now been flying/recording in 1080p.
Sadly the recordings I did at 4K and 2.7 I deleted from my system as I could not play them, so, assumed they were of no use to me. :-(
The recordings I have done in 1080p are of good quality and to be honest even on my large screen TV they look very good, but as the drone is capable of 4K or even just 2.7K I would love to try it out to see what the quality looks like compared with my very acceptable 1080p clips.

Thanks for all your help and advice, just ordered another 2 X 8GB Kingston HyperX Fury 3200 memory modules to up my system to 32 GB and see what this does if anything.
The next step would be looking at replacing my Graphics Card, but not until they come back down to a sensible price, if they ever do.

Thanks for all your input appreciated man

Gas/Petrol in the United Kingdom now is £1-39 a litre or £6.32 a Imperial Gallon or 8.60$a gallon in your currency WTF!!!!

 

[lissforester]

Sorry haven’t been any more help.
I have MSI gaming laptop. Intel(R) core i7-5700, 8 core @ 2.70 GHz.
RaAM 16 GB
NVIDIA GTX970m
Also Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 core processor.
3.00 GHZ
RAM 64 GB
I use the main HDs to run my programmes, store the videos and photos on separate drives, SSDs.
On the whole no problems playing 4K
Both computers do need upgrading though as the newer tech gobbles up more and more computer power.
I think personally, unless you are wanting to play on large screens and possible more professionally, then 2.7 k would be sufficient.
If I could afford it then yes upgrade to the max, get a large screen.
Just my opinion but a bit of digression.
Hope you can get your issues sorted.
Cheers from an ex pat down under.

Hey Michael,
An converted Aussie eh lol!
Got Rellies in your neck of the woods, Bro-in-Law in Melbourne.

Michael you have been a great help as have all the other contributors to this post, I have leaned a lot, so I feel better equipped going forward with my flying and my videoing, so thanks for all your help and everyone else who has contributed.
This is a great forum with some great contributors.