Intermittent jerky video - newbie here!

[Col O]

New Mini4Pro. Since new I have had jerky video, perhaps 20% of footage. Live feed can be jerky, maybe local interference. Some recordings mimic the live recording jerkiness, other times recordings are ok. Using different sd cards (including dji recommended) - no difference. Even happens in open countryside, at most unexpected times. Contacted dji - usual try this and that, but nothing changes. I think recording to internal memory is ok, even when live streaming is jerky. I never fly it far, at most 500 meters. Not a playback issue - same jerkiness at same spot on footage, whether played on pc, phone, or iPad. Could it be hardware issue, problem writing to sd card? Any thoughts?

 

[slup]

And just so you don't mix thing's up... the live screen & the recording onto the SD card in the drone is 2 different streams. The live screen can be recorded on your screen device & stored there as a low res video, and if you have interference in the transmission making the live screen jerky, you will have the same in the low res video... but not on the SD card recording.

Do you pan quickly or fly very close to ground or any other object where you see that jerkiness? if so, try to pan or pass the objects slower & see if that helps.

Here a link that explains how & why panning can make a video jittery/jerky:

https://www.red.com/red-101/camera-panning-speed

 

[Col O]

I don't fly close to ground, nor very high. Quite simple footage usually. Here's one I did a few days ago, which is spoilt by the jerkiness towards the end when panning slowly. I also get jerkiness just simply moving forwards slowly. I'm not expert on sharing files, hope you can access it!
dji_fly_20240222_101940_0_1708634081076_video_cache.mp4

 

[slup]

Is that video a unmodified file directly from the SD card in the drone... look like a low res recording of the live view?

And the panning in the end that starts where you front the castle... is way to fast if you use 24-30fps, panning that fast will usually generate a jerky recording, the approx recommendation is that you pan through the width of the pic during approx. 7sec if using the lower end of fps, you can pan a bit faster if using 60fps.

 

[Feek]

dji_fly_20240222_101940_0_1708634081076_video_cache.mp4

The filename suggests this is downloaded from the controller and isn't the actual video file from the SD card.

 

[EssenYVR]

The very first sanity check is: are you downloading video from the drone (or the SD card in the drone) or the controller (or its SD card). If the latter, switch to the former.

 

[rwilliam99]

I had issues with intermittent jerkiness (although not as bad as what you showed) on my M3P - but changing to 60fps greatly improved the issue. You do need to make sure you are using the video from the drone, not the cached version on the controller as others have mentioned.

 

[Col O]

Thank you all for your helpful answers. Yes, my mistake, I was viewing the cached file on the phone app, and was not aware the footage on the drone sdcard is different, and much better (and bigger!) All understood and sorted now! Certainly dji chat staff were not as clued up!

 

[slup]

...Certainly dji chat staff were not as clued up!

They rarely are... if the question/answer isn't in the script, they often make something up to get rid of you & take the next in line.

 

[Col O]

While I am here, 1 more question for you experts. Is it normal for it to take about 1 second to take a photo (12MP)? I find that I cannot take shots in quick succession, but have to wait a second or so between each shot. No difference whether using sdcard, or internal memory. Sure, can use burst mode, but not quite the same.

 

[slup]

...Is it normal for it to take about 1 second to take a photo...Sure, can use burst mode, but not quite the same.

Now I don't own a Mini 4 Pro... but 1 sec between shoots doesn't sound unreasonable to me, a lot needs to be achieved before the pic can be stored on the SD card, if it's jpeg's all the picture modifications needs to be done... like sharpness, color & white balance modifications & noise reductions. All this will push the processor in the drone & it takes some time, when it's done it gets stored.

All would be much worse if it took 1sec after that you push the shutter until the pic was actually taken...

In burst mode all pics are first buffered & then the processing starts... & there you will instead have a delay after the burst.