Choppy image on 8 inch Tab A

WolfSpring · Jun 5, 2020

So I went out for my second flight tonight and I am using the Samsung Tab A 8 inch and when I am flying it is jumpy, I tried both 4K and 1080 and various "tests" to see when it jumped or not. The cache files are jumpy but the SD card footage is clean, so it's either a transmission issue or a processor speed issue I'd imagine. I switched to my Galaxy S7 and had zero issues at all and went much farther out then with the Tab A. I also prefer the phone for the location I can tell which way my drone is facing and where it is from me.

I had perfectly clear line of site and was flying over water at various heights and distances and the image was choppy at times I wasn't filming. I went with the Tab A over an iPad for price and GPS, but I am thinking maybe I should have gone the other route. I'm going to use my daughters iPad next trip and see if I get similar results or not and will try to DL the cached video to show here, but I just want others who might be considering the Tab A to know there may be some issues.

IMADMAN · Jun 5, 2020

What's the model # for the Tab A?

boblui · Jun 5, 2020

Same issue with the Smart Controller. That's why I sold it and switched back to the regular RC. Happy ever after :

WolfSpring · Jun 5, 2020

SM-T290

WolfSpring · Jun 5, 2020

Here is my example, this was literally from taking off less than a foot from the remote. Most of my cached videos are like this and the screen looked like this while trying to fly, makes it impossible to stay on a subject.

WolfSpring · Jun 5, 2020

I am using the standard cable that come with it, I even tried turning off wifi and bluetooth, not other programs are running, this is a new tablet with maybe 5 apps on it all for flying drones fully charged at the start.

rcmatmat · Jun 5, 2020

WolfSpring said:
So I went out for my second flight tonight and I am using the Samsung Tab A 8 inch and when I am flying it is jumpy, I tried both 4K and 1080 and various "tests" to see when it jumped or not. The cache files are jumpy but the SD card footage is clean, so it's either a transmission issue or a processor speed issue I'd imagine. I switched to my Galaxy S7 and had zero issues at all and went much farther out then with the Tab A. I also prefer the phone for the location I can tell which way my drone is facing and where it is from me.

I had perfectly clear line of site and was flying over water at various heights and distances and the image was choppy at times I wasn't filming. I went with the Tab A over an iPad for price and GPS, but I am thinking maybe I should have gone the other route. I'm going to use my daughters iPad next trip and see if I get similar results or not and will try to DL the cached video to show here, but I just want others who might be considering the Tab A to know there may be some issues.

This is a list of supported devices from DJI and the Tab A isn't on it you might want to contact them for a more updated version hope this helps.

WolfSpring · Jun 5, 2020

Other people said they had luck with the Tab A. I did see the list and did a lot of research and understand that if my device is not on the list it's my issue not DJI's(not that I'd even try to say it's their fault on this when my S7 works amazingly)I did just have an idea, I'm going to try it without caching, maybe that will cut down on the processor and ram usage and clear things up. I used it for the mavic mini and it worked great with no issues. Either way at the end of the day if someone else gets guidance out of my issues I've wasted nothing but down time.

boblui · Jun 5, 2020

WolfSpring said:
I used it for the mavic mini and it worked great with no issues.

The video feed of MM is just 720p which requires less video processing power.

Ace.7 · Jun 5, 2020

I have the same SM-T290 tablet and have the exact same stuttering live video feed issue. On my S10, absolutely smooth. I'm running on version 1.1.2 of the Fly app. Let's hope the issue improves on the new version of the app, 1.1.4, if not, then the SM-T290 tablet might be simply underpowered.

aokusman · Jun 5, 2020

Turn off cache in settings.

bp328i · Jun 5, 2020

The problem with Android tablets is most of them run older or lower power processors.

I'm Android through and though and when I bought my first DJI drone, a Phantom 4 Pro I bought the best Samsung tablet made at the time. I had so many issues with it it wasn't funny. I swallowed my pride, bought a 9.7" iPad Pro and it was night and day difference.

For the Mavic Air 2 I bought a iPad Mini 5 and it's flawless. You can find good deals on used ones on Swappa.

Km5er · Jun 5, 2020

WolfSpring said:
So I went out for my second flight tonight and I am using the Samsung Tab A 8 inch and when I am flying it is jumpy, I tried both 4K and 1080 and various "tests" to see when it jumped or not. The cache files are jumpy but the SD card footage is clean, so it's either a transmission issue or a processor speed issue I'd imagine. I switched to my Galaxy S7 and had zero issues at all and went much farther out then with the Tab A. I also prefer the phone for the location I can tell which way my drone is facing and where it is from me.

I had perfectly clear line of site and was flying over water at various heights and distances and the image was choppy at times I wasn't filming. I went with the Tab A over an iPad for price and GPS, but I am thinking maybe I should have gone the other route. I'm going to use my daughters iPad next trip and see if I get similar results or not and will try to DL the cached video to show here, but I just want others who might be considering the Tab A to know there may be some issues.

Tab A does not have the processor power to process video like you are doing. This is not a very expensive tablet and this is why. Good tablet...just not for this purpose.

Ace.7 · Jun 5, 2020

aokusman said:
Turn off cache in settings.

Turning off cache mode doesn't make a difference.

crosswired · Jun 5, 2020

bp328i said:
The problem with Android tablets is most of them run older or lower power processors.

I'm Android through and though and when I bought my first DJI drone, a Phantom 4 Pro I bought the best Samsung tablet made at the time. I had so many issues with it it wasn't funny. I swallowed my pride, bought a 9.7" iPad Pro and it was night and day difference.

For the Mavic Air 2 I bought a iPad Mini 5 and it's flawless. You can find good deals on used ones on Swappa.

did the same lol and no issues at all, flying on my Samsung S20+(only if I have to) or mini 5 as app for iOS is much better optimised than Android one

aokusman · Jun 5, 2020

Ace.7 said:
Turning off cache mode doesn't make a difference.

On my tablet (Asus zenpad z8s, 3gb of ram) the live feed was lagging until I turned this off.

WolfSpring · Jun 5, 2020

So I turned off Caching and switched to Smooth transmission vs HD what I read said smooth is 720p/60fps and HD is 1080p/30fps which I'm not sure if that will help, but it's worth a try. Even if I don't get this to work right I bought it more for the mini so it's good, I just can't justify buying another tablet right now when my phone works great, just not bright enough and so small for what I'm doing, will post results this weekend.

WolfSpring · Jun 6, 2020

Went out tonight to the same spot turned off caching and had it in smooth mode and it was awesome I had no issues. I did notice the difference between smooth and HD, but did not try HD again, had some other issues I was working out. But it was awesome, not one bit of lag or jumpiness at all smooth flying so I am happy with the Tab A, though I really miss not having a locator on the screen like my phone, might start tethering for that though.

Ace.7 · Jun 6, 2020

WolfSpring said:
Went out tonight to the same spot turned off caching and had it in smooth mode and it was awesome I had no issues. I did notice the difference between smooth and HD, but did not try HD again, had some other issues I was working out. But it was awesome, not one bit of lag or jumpiness at all smooth flying so I am happy with the Tab A, though I really miss not having a locator on the screen like my phone, might start tethering for that though.

Glad to hear 'Smooth' mode is working flawlessly compared to 'HD', I will give it a go when I get a chance, probably not till after the weekend once the weather improves.

At least you won't have to replace the Tab A for a while longer thankfully.

Satchs02 · Oct 1, 2020

WolfSpring said:
So I went out for my second flight tonight and I am using the Samsung Tab A 8 inch and when I am flying it is jumpy, I tried both 4K and 1080 and various "tests" to see when it jumped or not. The cache files are jumpy but the SD card footage is clean, so it's either a transmission issue or a processor speed issue I'd imagine. I switched to my Galaxy S7 and had zero issues at all and went much farther out then with the Tab A. I also prefer the phone for the location I can tell which way my drone is facing and where it is from me.

I had perfectly clear line of site and was flying over water at various heights and distances and the image was choppy at times I wasn't filming. I went with the Tab A over an iPad for price and GPS, but I am thinking maybe I should have gone the other route. I'm going to use my daughters iPad next trip and see if I get similar results or not and will try to DL the cached video to show here, but I just want others who might be considering the Tab A to know there may be some issues.

thanks for the info, I too was considering the cost