Best 4K settings

[Nickyb65]

Hi

I've been really pleased with the 4K clarity of the Mini 3 Pro. However on my Mac when I play it back its a bit choppy (I set the FPS to 25 on the drone). I'm guessing its a not of processing for my 6 year old Mac i5 to do maybe?

Any suggestions to make it more fluid, without buying new hardware that is?

Have a good weekend!

 

[vindibona1]

You probably realize that the problem IS probably your old hardware if you want smooth viewing. However, what you CAN do is import the file into an editing program that your Mac can support that has a "proxy" viewiing feature.

IMO this situation is telling you that it is time for a new computer. If money is the issue the M1 Mac Mini might be what you need. It is reported to be well suited for video editing, and obviously viewing would not be an isse.

I've owned a lot of Macs in my time and I've never had one that lasted beyond 7 years and around 5 years started needing expensive repairs. I just gave my 7 year old Macbook Pro to my daughter after putting another $200 into it to keep it going after having put $250 into it just a few years ago. It is likely that your Mac is nearing "end of life" and even if you can keep it going for basic tasks it is no longer suited for more intensive operations.

 

[akdrone]

Also be sure your timeline is 25fps if you are shooting 25.

 

[scro]

I have an 8 yr old Dell laptop which copes fine with 4k 30fps. However, i find that viewing the video straight off the SD card can get a bit choppy as the card reader/USB port struggles to keep up with the data rate at times. Copying the file onto the laptop HDD makes it run quite smooth. It does get bogged down and show its age with 4k video editing though.

 

[4wd]

I have an 8 yr old Dell laptop which copes fine with 4k 30fps. However, i find that viewing the video straight off the SD card can get a bit choppy as the card reader/USB port struggles to keep up with the data rate at times. Copying the file onto the laptop HDD makes it run quite smooth. It does get bogged down and show its age with 4k video editing though.

Simply playing it really shouldn't be a problem my 11 year old #2 PC can play it provided I use MPV player.
Editing without proxies may be another matter on that one, but would echo you won't be able to play smoothly from a card reader even if it's USB3 it won't be able to transfer data fast enough

 

[Nickyb65]

Found the problem! It was in that I exported the footage as a .MOV file in iMovie, when I exported to .MP4 it was fluid.

 

[Made2Phly]

SSD and proxies should help a lot.