4K video playback choppy

[Hunter Cole]

Good morning, I am shooting video on my mavic with all the default camera settings (4K, .mov). When I try to play the video back in QuickTime I experience stuttering and choppiness when viewing on my brand new one month old late 2016 MacBook Pro. I'd prefer this conversation not turn into a PC vs Mac debate, this hardware should be more than sufficient to play the clips. The odd part is, sometimes the same clip will lag, and sometimes it will playback smoothly. Any advice?


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[Crusader]

Hi, are you playing direct frome the sd card or frome hard drive?

 

[Ryan Jenkins]

It is a common hardware issue. The laptop cannot handle playback of the 4K clips.
If you are using final cut or premier you can import the video with a proxy and the playback and editing will be smooth and quick. Then you can switch back over to the original files when exporting.


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[Hunter Cole]

Hi, are you playing direct frome the sd card or frome hard drive?

Great question, I always copy the files locally to my desktop first before playback


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[Crusader]

Ok thats good, just ruleing out some things here.

 

[Crusader]

I have heard Quicktime player is not the best for playback of heavy HD footage.
Maybe give a different player a go.

 

[Hunter Cole]

I have heard Quicktime player is not the best for playback of heavy HD footage.
Maybe give a different player a go.

Same result in VLC

 

[niclariv]

It might be that the mov files the Mavic makes are less easy to play than a standard 4K video file due to compression (or lack/less of it). On my 2011MBP I load the files in to Final Cut Pro and select to make a proxy file. Those are lower res files that play easily. You need to select to use the proxy in the viewer display. When I export my finished project from FCPX in 4K that plays fine.


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[Hunter Cole]

Thanks for all the help guys! I'm working in premier so I'll just go with the proxy method mentioned

 

[lildevilx]

You got more specs of your MacBook for the not so apple inclined people?
However I do get that too with my desktop... But that's only because it is a 8 year old desktop..... (Thing is still running a 4gb ddr2 ram )

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[Emf42783]

I am having the same issue when trying to play the 4K videos on my fully loaded 2016 macbook pro. Just tried changing the file format to .mp4 and it appears to be playing a little smoother.

 

[Dmbrody]

Early 2016 MacBook.

Plays 4K just fine in Final Cut. I haven't actually tried play back in Quicktime player. I always use .mp4 so it conceivable the problem is with .mov (although that makes no sense unless DJI borked the .mov container encoding).

Here are some things to try/consider:

- make sure MacBook is plugged in. Many MacBooks step down video card performance when unplugged.

- make sure you have exited out of all other applications.

- make sure you have plenty of free disk space. Delete old videos, etc. Ideally you have over 50% free space on your drive for maximum performance.

- repair disk permissions using Disk Utility (which comes with OSX)

- make sure the issue isn't in the video itself. Render a copy of the video out at 1080p or 720p. If it still skips then the problem is on the capture side.

- how much RAM do you have? 16GB is ideal. More than 16GB would be better, but MacBooks max out at 16.

- normally it's not advisable to defrag a MacOS X hard drive because OS X file system prevents fragmentation and does its own regular maintenance in the background. However, the one exception to this is for people with lots of large files (any thing over 1 or 2 gigs). So if you have a lot of 4K video, that could be you. Try iDefrag. Or spend some extra cash and get Drive Genius (which apples own techs use). NEVER DEFRAG AN SSD drive!

Edit:
FYI: Adobe Premiere doesn't perform as well as Final Cut on a MacBook when playing h.264 video files. QuickTime *should* be the same performance as Final Cut since use the same "engine."

 

[P0V]

There are multiple discussions here on the topic of 4k. Long story short: Don't use the Mavic to record 4k. It can't handle the bitrate that would make 4k look good, so it limits it. You'd have a higher quality video if you record lower than 4k.

It might not be related to your problem, but good advice nevertheless.

 

[Intrglctcrevfnk]

@Hunter Cole
Is your 2016 MacBook Pro a 13" or 15"?

I ask because the 13" only has integrated graphics, which would have trouble churning through 4K IMO.

I have an early 2013 15" with dedicated graphics (NvidiaGT 650M) and it handles 4K no problem. I keep the files on a USB 3 external hard drive, and I don't use proxy media in FCP either. Only time it choked was when I had 2 windowed 4K clips on top of a main 4K clip, plus effects and audio track. Once I renedered it out no problems in QuickTime.

If you have a 13" then I could see why you have issues, if it's a 15" then more troubleshooting would be in order (like graphics switching in system settings).

Side note- anyone else having VLC errors when trying to update? Mine consistently fails to update. (Really just need to delete and reinstall, just wondered if I'm the only one) It is an older version of VLC.

 

[Dmbrody]

There are multiple discussions here on the topic of 4k. Long story short: Don't use the Mavic to record 4k. It can't handle the bitrate that would make 4k look good, so it limits it. You'd have a higher quality video if you record lower than 4k.

It might not be related to your problem, but good advice nevertheless.

Personally I'm not so sure about that anymore. I posted this earlier (last week), but I'm liking 4K better. I absolutely understand the bit rate vs resolution issues. I'm familiar with the well established problems with DJI's implementation of h.264 compression. So I propose we don't take this thread further off topic by discussing those issues here.

Admittedly, I haven't done enough testing to come to a final opinion, but now that I've got a proper set of filters and I'm getting a good exposure at lower shutter speeds, I'm liking the 4K footage better than 2.7@30

But I guess this is off topic so I'll stop now.

 

[anthonysyne]

Good morning, I am shooting video on my mavic with all the default camera settings (4K, .mov). When I try to play the video back in QuickTime I experience stuttering and choppiness when viewing on my brand new one month old late 2016 MacBook Pro. I'd prefer this conversation not turn into a PC vs Mac debate, this hardware should be more than sufficient to play the clips. The odd part is, sometimes the same clip will lag, and sometimes it will playback smoothly. Any advice?


Not sure if this helps but it makes a difference what frame rate you edit in. I shot some footage this morning which was really choppy at 24fps and then the same clip in a 30fps timeline and the clips are smooth.

 

[Deadleg]

I am running a 6 core Mac Pro with 64 GB DDD3 and 1GB SSD. It is supposed to be capable of supporting 3 x 4K monitors. Now, here's the interesting thing. Sometimes it plays back Mavic 4K footage smooth as silk - and sometimes, playing the exact same video clip, it stutters every few seconds. It can run for half an hour or more without a problem, and then starts to stutter.

It is not the Mavic. The video clips are fine (no, they are great - don't let anyone tell you not to use 4K!) I don't have a clue what's causing this unpredictable behavior. Could be hardware or software. I use Quicktime and VLC, I use mp4 and mov files. I use an LG Ultrawide 3440 x 1440 Thunderbolt monitor, and a Samsung 4K 55" KS9000 via HDMI, and I have problems on both, or it plays fine on both. The problem is intermittent. Any ideas most welcome.

 

[MavicMikeGA]

Oddly, VLC chokes badly on 4K on my Asus laptop but Windows Medial player can play 4K smooth as silk. Go figure.

 

[mikeyC181]

I too had the same issue with 4K playback and not a quick laptop. I was reading a thread somewhere and found Wondershare Video converter (free download) and it worked just fine after that.

 

[Twinpop]

So a great deal of discussion here with a lot of things to try. I too hav e issues with lagging on my MAC desktop using various playback methods on 2k footage.

I had an interesting conversation with a local news photographer/drone pilot filming a story where we vacationed last week. He was flying an Inspire2 and said they also have. Mavic pro. He told me they only shoot in 1080P as even with their news gear, 4K is too difficult to work with right now.