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DJI Fly Editing Issues, I Think

Hillbilly1236

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I am new to drones and video editing and I'm having some issues with the DJI Fly editor. Most likely operator error but I'm looking for guidance. I find the editor to be easy to use and much faster than IMovie plus the Fly editor comes with a bunch of music files that I don't have on IMovie. However when I edit a video in the Fly editor and export it I don't have control over where it is stored and the quality drops significantly, even though the video was filmed in 1080P and exported in 1080P. The Original file size was about 250MB and the exported file, with a music track added, was only 140MB. Then when I upload it to YouTube the quality is reduced again, even though I uploaded it in 1080P.

Here is a link to the first video upload.
 
I am new to drones and video editing and I'm having some issues with the DJI Fly editor. Most likely operator error but I'm looking for guidance. I find the editor to be easy to use and much faster than IMovie plus the Fly editor comes with a bunch of music files that I don't have on IMovie. However when I edit a video in the Fly editor and export it I don't have control over where it is stored and the quality drops significantly, even though the video was filmed in 1080P and exported in 1080P. The Original file size was about 250MB and the exported file, with a music track added, was only 140MB. Then when I upload it to YouTube the quality is reduced again, even though I uploaded it in 1080P.

Here is a link to the first video upload.
I was always under the assumption that DJI marketed their editor for the younger social media crowd, so not for YouTube larger screens and uploads proper. Would be fine for instagram, Farcebook type phone screen type apps. If you want more professional editing I would take the advice from myself and others and take the next step up in a real editor, I think you will then like what you see....plenty of YouTube how to videos to help you transition to a "real" editor and take advantage of what your camera is giving you...best of luck :)

IMHO take that same clip (Full HD, from SDCard) and upload it straight to your YouTube Account using their editor adjust and trim if you wish and add music there (Free)...let's compare from there;) IT is a down and dirty editor, but for friends and family..it will work.
 
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All reasons to consider using the iMovie since you have it... I do most of may editing using it and do 4K straight through including my YouTube uploads.
Thanks. I just find it very slow compared to the DJI App and I don't have any suitable music for videos. I suspect I can find some for free somewhere and with more experience I would get better and maybe faster with IMovie.

I was always under the assumption that DJI marketed their editor for the younger social media crowd, so not for YouTube larger screens and uploads proper. Would be fine for instagram, Farcebook type phone screen type apps. If you want more professional editing I would take the advice from myself and others and take the next step up in a real editor, I think you will then like what you see....plenty of YouTube how to videos to help you transition to a "real" editor and take advantage of what your camera is giving you...best of luck :)

IMHO take that same clip (Full HD, from SDCard) and upload it straight to your YouTube Account using their editor adjust and trim if you wish and add music there (Free)...let's compare from there;) IT is a down and dirty editor, but for friends and family..it will work.
I can assure you I am far from being part of the younger social media crowd but that makes sense, as there are options to upload the videos directly to those platforms from this editor.

I wasn't aware that YouTube had an editor and will check that out. I got into this hobby thinking it would be interesting to take some aerial videos and pics to share with family and had no intention of doing any editing. However It is pretty much essential and when I see the quality this little drone can produce and the potential for some good quality videos, I found the need to delve into editing and now find myself going down a new rabbit hole.
 
If what you want is quality, there isn’t much choice except an external editor, and a deep dive into the mechanics of handling video files.

A brief work flow that gets the most from YouTube.

1. load original drone files from the sd card to your computer.
2. Edit footage to taste - note that most people do not want to watch long drone shots where there are only slight visual changes. A static 5sec shot is about right.
3. If you have iTunes or Music, you can use the music there, although there may be music rights issues depending on your usage.
4. Export the result as a4k h264 file.
5 upload to YouTube.

Note that YouTube will re-compress what you upload. When a viewer plays your movie, YouTube provides a version that is tailored to the user’s connection speed. This is usually a lower quality encode to allow for the poor download speed.

This leads to unpredictable lower quality viewer experience in some cases.
 
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There are several excellent free video editors available - the two that spring most readily to mind are DaVinci Resolve and VSDC, both of which give far superior results to the inbuilt DJI editor and for both of which there are loads of YouTube tutorials. It's also really easy to find royalty-free music, just Google that expression. Good luck!
 
If what you want is quality, there isn’t much choice except an external editor, and a deep dive into the mechanics of handling video files.

A brief work flow that gets the most from YouTube.

1. load original drone files from the sd card to your computer.
2. Edit footage to taste - note that most people do not want to watch long drone shots where there are only slight visual changes. A static 5sec shot is about right.
3. If you have iTunes or Music, you can use the music there, although there may be music rights issues depending on your usage.
4. Export the result as a4k h264 file.
5 upload to YouTube.

Note that YouTube will re-compress what you upload. When a viewer plays your movie, YouTube provides a version that is tailored to the user’s connection speed. This is usually a lower quality encode to allow for the poor download speed.

This leads to unpredictable lower quality viewer experience in some cases.
Thanks for that. I've noticed that most of the interesting videos on YT have short segments of 5 to 10 seconds before switching scenes. The movie I submitted was intended for my adult kids to see and not really for general public entertainment. In fact that is what most if not all of my videos will be geared toward, at least for now.

I have satellite internet and it is not great. I am constantly getting buffering when viewing videos even in very low resolutions.
All reasons to consider using the iMovie since you have it... I do most of may editing using it and do 4K straight through including my YouTube uploads.
I spent a little more time playing with IMovie and certainly prefer working on the larger computer screen. I think this will be a better solution in the end and it will just take some research and time to get more comfortable with it. I also see there are a ton of instructional videos for it on YT so shouldn't take to long to get better with it.

I'm also going to checkout the YT editor that Repaid1 mentioned, since I am only after something simple and not intending to make videos for the general public or to build a channel. Something down and dirty as he stated.

Thanks everyone. Always lots of help offered here.
 
Thanks for that. I've noticed that most of the interesting videos on YT have short segments of 5 to 10 seconds before switching scenes. The movie I submitted was intended for my adult kids to see and not really for general public entertainment. In fact that is what most if not all of my videos will be geared toward, at least for now.

I have satellite internet and it is not great. I am constantly getting buffering when viewing videos even in very low resolutions.

I spent a little more time playing with IMovie and certainly prefer working on the larger computer screen. I think this will be a better solution in the end and it will just take some research and time to get more comfortable with it. I also see there are a ton of instructional videos for it on YT so shouldn't take to long to get better with it.

I'm also going to checkout the YT editor that Repaid1 mentioned, since I am only after something simple and not intending to make videos for the general public or to build a channel. Something down and dirty as he stated.

Thanks everyone. Always lots of help offered here.
Just a note on your Internet and how internet works as far as upload and download. When you watch a video your using your download component. Given what you mention you don't have a "Decent" download speed. Upload when compared to download can be quite drastic in ratio and is generally a small percentage. When you load to you tube that is your upload component. So as I am sure you know that is going to be about like watching paint dry to upload a video, so you may want to stay with 1080p for your family/friends.

Many people that Vlog have terrible internet on location, so they turn on the upload in the evening when they are going to sleep. Thus why I said to use YouTubes editor and their music sources. You can get thousands of royalty free music on site and add it to the video once the video is up there you can pick by Genre and Length as well as various other filters to match to your video. You are also using their processing power to do all alterations such as trimming and such and adding the music, so that frees up your internet and uploading had you want to adjust something down the road.

This is just a test video for my Zoom and Orbit function I had laying around, I uploaded this yesterday, I had really not used any thing other than adding music to my test videos and upload them to my test channel...on this one I selected the video trimmed it for length and added a background track, all which I googled to learn how to do using their simple editor on the fly and did all in about 15 minutes..So It ain't great or any fancy editing...but for the purpose of showing someone as I had uploaded to do...it works...best of luck.. I can guide you somewhat on how to do stuff on YouTube but just as easy for you to do a "How do I do this" and follow a onscreen tutorial off of youtube.

 
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Than
Just a note on your Internet and how internet works as far as upload and download. When you watch a video your using your download component. Given what you mention you don't have a "Decent" download speed. Upload when compared to download can be quite drastic in ratio and is generally a small percentage. When you load to you tube that is your upload component. So as I am sure you know that is going to be about like watching paint dry to upload a video, so you may want to stay with 1080p for your family/friends.

Many people that Vlog have terrible internet on location, so they turn on the upload in the evening when they are going to sleep. Thus why I said to use YouTubes editor and their music sources. You can get thousands of royalty free music on site and add it to the video once the video is up there you can pick by Genre and Length as well as various other filters to match to your video. You are also using their processing power to do all alterations such as trimming and such and adding the music, so that frees up your internet and uploading had you want to adjust something down the road.

This is just a test video for my Zoom and Orbit function I had laying around, I uploaded this yesterday, I had really not used any thing other than adding music to my test videos and upload them to my test channel...on this one I selected the video trimmed it for length and added a background track, all which I googled to learn how to do using their simple editor on the fly and did all in about 15 minutes..So It ain't great or any fancy editing...but for the purpose of showing someone as I had uploaded to do...it works...best of luck.. I can guide you somewhat on how to do stuff on YouTube but just as easy for you to do a "How do I do this" and follow a onscreen tutorial off of youtube.

Thanks for that and the offer to help but I'm pretty sure I can get it figured out without tying up your valuable time. I've already found a couple of YT channels that offer great tutorials on using IMovie with YT music and have downloaded some music. I think it wont take too long before I get better with this.

I understand the difference between the upload and download speeds and have even done some speed tests to see if I'm getting the speeds I am paying for, which 10Mbps up and 1.5Mbps down. Sometimes I get those speeds and sometimes I only get less than half those speeds. When I was watching your video I left the quality setting to Auto in YT and it went as low as 360P and still buffered.

So far the uploads to YT haven't been terribly long, other than the first few that took 4 hrs or more. The last ones were a lot shorter.
 
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