Blurry Footage on the Mavic Air

[mlash]

I bought my Air brand new a couple weeks ago. I was finding that the video was a little blurry. After looking into the settings a little more I found that the video was set to "PAL" instead of "NTSC" which is what we use here in the States. After I changed the setting to NTSC it was all good. I did not set this to "PAL" so they must have set it over in China when they were testing it.

 

[Thwyllo]

Could have been a grey import, set up for another geography? Where did you buy it from?

 

[Kilrah]

NTSC countries are a minority. Pretty normal PAL is selected by default.

No reason it would have any impact on "blur" in the first place anyway.

 

[Thwyllo]

NTSC countries are a minority. Pretty normal PAL is selected by default.

No reason it would have any impact on "blur" in the first place anyway.

But a major manufacturer would have their product set for the country of distribution, hence my question. Are you saying that everyone who ever bought a drone in the US had to switch it from PAL to NTSC? That's a serious question by the way, not having a dig.

 

[4wd]

That's not why it was blurry, I switch between the two at times for different frame rates.
However when you do that switch you reboot and reset the camera which is 'clearly' what fixedit.
You can reset the camera in the app directly if things seem odd.

 

[Kilrah]

But a major manufacturer would have their product set for the country of distribution, hence my question.

Most don't nowadays. Cost savings by having a single inventory entry.
I've never seen anything on a DJI device change by country apart from the power cord.
That's why they do things like choose RF power automatically by region, so as not to have to set that in advance.

 

[Thwyllo]

Most don't nowadays. Cost savings by having a single inventory entry.
I've never seen anything on a DJI device change by country apart from the power cord.
That's why they do things like choose RF power automatically by region, so as not to have to set that in advance.

But that RF thing is also about flexibility (going on holiday from a CE country to an FCC one for example) and DJI's "good guy" marketing strategy. I'm not seeing a flood of US owners saying they all had to switch from PAL to NTSC so at this point I'm assuming that DJI does in fact do the expected thing and programme it at the factory. They are probably building to order most of the time anyway... generally speaking only crappy companies have inventory these days.

 

[Kilrah]

The point is that PAL and NTSC are mostly irrelevant nowadays, it just changes framerate which is more of a creative choice than a regional one now. You can play anything anywhere, and most US owners could be filming PAL without even knowing or caring. It's just a setting like another you do anything you want with so there is no "have to switch" in the first place.

 

[Thwyllo]

It's only 25fps versus 30...again I'd challenge anyone to spot the difference in real life. There seems to be this ridiculous obsession among the drone community, new to videography in many cases, with 25fps, based on it being 'cinematic', or close to, since cinema is traditionally 24fps. But in the process they're confusing "cinematic" with "better looking"....and all the while, manufacturers are striving to produce stuff that does 30fps, 60fps or even higher, because that produces a much smoother result.

And as you say, with the advent of digital TV broadcasting - which I assume the US has - it's all but irrelevant anyway LOL

 

[mlash]

But a major manufacturer would have their product set for the country of distribution, hence my question. Are you saying that everyone who ever bought a drone in the US had to switch it from PAL to NTSC? That's a serious question by the way, not having a dig.

I bought it from Best Buy! I have bought 4 other drones including the Phantom 2 Vision+, the Phantom 3A, the Mavic Pro and the Spark and have never had to set to NTSC (already done)!

That's not why it was blurry, I switch between the two at times for different frame rates.
However when you do that switch you reboot and reset the camera which is 'clearly' what fixedit.
You can reset the camera in the app directly if things seem odd.

That could be the case but there are many opinions on this matter and you are only one. I have read up on the matter and there are plenty of people saying that it is an issue as well! Just Saying

 

[4wd]

That could be the case but there are many opinions on this matter and you are only one. I have read up on the matter and there are plenty of people saying that it is an issue as well! Just Saying

Well if you try playing it on a CRT TV from 1985 it might look funny if you record in PAL, otherwise you won't see any difference.

 

[mlash]

Well if you try playing it on a CRT TV from 1985 it might look funny if you record in PAL, otherwise you won't see any difference.

Here is a "Quote" from 1985!

 

[Cybernaut]

If it was set to PAL, then the Anti-flicker cycle rate is probably set to 50Hz, which is what is used in Europe. Make sure the Anti-flicker is set to 60 Hz, which is what we use in the USA..

My Mavic Pro also came in set to PAL and 50Hz.

 

[mlash]

If it was set to PAL, then the Anti-flicker cycle rate is probably set to 50Hz, which is what is used in Europe. Make sure the Anti-flicker is set to 60 Hz, which is what we use in the USA..

My Mavic Pro also came in set to PAL and 50Hz.

Thanks Cybernaut. I'm pretty sure the anti-flicker was set to "Auto." Thankfully it was not set to "CE," that would have been really annoying!