DJI Smart Controller Image and Movie Files and File Locations

[Bob001]

In another thread, W2EJ and I have been having a discussion about the use of the DJI Smart
Controller in retrieving image and video files from the Mavic 2 Pro. Creating a new thread
seemed proper since this topic wasn’t the actual subject of that thread and it’s a topic which
might well be of interest to Mavic 2 owners separately.

The original discussion came out of an issue of file loss on a Mavic Aircraft SD card. That issue
wasn’t resolved but in that discussion, I thought it beneficial to mention that image files could be
retrieved from the DJI Smart Controller for those of us who have them. W2EJ questioned the
resolution of the SC files and I replied that SC image files are identical to those on the SD card of
the aircraft. These are located on the SC SD card at SD\DJI\dji.go.4\DJI Album. This depends on
the SC camera control being set to Sync HD and SD Card. I’ve verified this and can state that
they are the same pixel resolution and identical pixel-for-pixel, and include EXIF information.

W2EJ replied that aircraft and SC files were different sizes for video. I didn’t have a good
answer since I haven’t been shooting video, but in communicating with DJI, they indicated that
video should be available in the same location (DJI Album) and didn’t say anything about
resolution changes.

If identical files are available on the SC, the advantages are that they can be retrieved without
touching the aircraft or its SD card, and an extra set of files exists apart from the aircraft should
something catastrophic happen to it or its SD card. The method I currently use involves only the
SC and my computer to obtain the original image files created by the aircraft (though not under
their original aircraft SD file name).

I’m attaching a SC file map for still images (from what I’ve been able to discern). This applies
for still images captured with an SD card in the SC and SC camera control set to “SD Card” &
“Sync HD”.

Anyway, feel free to chime in if you have questions or answers.

 

[W2EJ]

Hello @Bob001, The files I mentioned with the one from the aircraft being about 10 times larger than the one on the SC was video, and 4K at that. I don't believe there is any way to get full res video files on the SC's SD card. They must be be gotten from the aircraft. I will do a test with stills to see if AC and SC are the same, as you say, and I'll let you know the result. BTW, that's a very nice chart of the SC's file layout that you made. That's something DJI should have included with the Smart Controller.

 

[Gilbertlopez1]

Yup, I’ve tried this too, video files taped at 4K are different sizes from the SC SD card, and the craft. The craft if set to 4K resolution, will record at 4K resolution. But at the SC the highest resolution you will get is like 1280 x 760 I think it is, The SC will not record at 4K no matter what settings you enter. If you want the 4K video footage, you have to get it from the craft. This goes for both the M2P, and M2Z, I have both. Also they , I’m talking about the craft and SC only record in 5 minutes segments, in other words, if you recorded 20 minutes of video footage, you will have 4 five minute files. Good informative thread. Hope other people chime in with their experiences.

 

[W2EJ]

Yes, 4K files are much too big, and would take up tremendous bandwidth, if the aircraft had to send them to the SC or any controller.

 

[Bob001]

Have you tried HD? UHD is extremely taxing on bandwidth and data rates as was mentioned but HD might work. It sticks in the back of my mind that's what "HD sync" refers to (as well as photos at full res).

I know that's not fortunate for UHD but technology is what it is That could be what's happening too - the UHD is being downsized to HD to go to the SC memory and those are the smaller files you're seeing.

 

[W2EJ]

Yup, I’ve tried this too, video files taped at 4K are different sizes from the SC SD card, and the craft. The craft if set to 4K resolution, will record at 4K resolution. But at the SC the highest resolution you will get is like 1280 x 760 I think it is, The SC will not record at 4K no matter what settings you enter. If you want the 4K video footage, you have to get it from the craft. This goes for both the M2P, and M2Z, I have both. Also they , I’m talking about the craft and SC only record in 5 minutes segments, in other words, if you recorded 20 minutes of video footage, you will have 4 five minute files. Good informative thread. Hope other people chime in with their experiences.

The 5 minute files are a result of the max file size that can be written under the file system format that the aircraft supports. It's not a DJI thing. Any editor, I think, can put them together, and you won't see any gap.

 

[Bob001]

The 5 Minute limitation is due to the FAT file structure of the SD card which is limited to no more than 2GB per file. That means that video must be rolled over into a new file around the 5 minute time limit. FAT is the only formatting allowed for the SD card (in the Mavic system) so it has to be that way, but as mentioned, an editor can combine the individual files seamlessly.

 

[W2EJ]

Hello @Bob001 - I finally did the test on the still pictures that I promised. I had the aircraft (M2P) set for RAW + JPG. I took a picture and found the .JPG files on the aircraft and the Smart Controller were identical, except for the name. However , the RAW file, the .DNG, a 39.5Mb file, was only on the aircraft's SD card.

 

[Bob001]

Hello @Bob001 - I finally did the test on the still pictures that I promised. I had the aircraft (M2P) set for RAW + JPG. I took a picture and found the .JPG files on the aircraft and the Smart Controller were identical, except for the name. However , the RAW file, the .DNG, a 39.5Mb file, was only on the aircraft's SD card.

Good to know that. It makes sense since DNG files are the equivalent of UHD in terms of size and the bandwidth of the aircraft to SC isn't wide enough to transmit that much information in a practical length of time. I haven't used DNG yet but for some shots I certainly will.

 

[Gilbertlopez1]

The 5 Minute limitation is due to the FAT file structure of the SD card which is limited to no more than 2GB per file. That means that video must be rolled over into a new file around the 5 minute time limit. FAT is the only formatting allowed for the SD card (in the Mavic system) so it has to be that way, but as mentioned, an editor can combine the individual files seamlessly.

Thank You, I Learned Something Today ! I Didn't Realize That !

 

[SBBob]

In another thread, W2EJ and I have been having a discussion about the use of the DJI Smart
Controller in retrieving image and video files from the Mavic 2 Pro. Creating a new thread
seemed proper since this topic wasn’t the actual subject of that thread and it’s a topic which
might well be of interest to Mavic 2 owners separately.

The original discussion came out of an issue of file loss on a Mavic Aircraft SD card. That issue
wasn’t resolved but in that discussion, I thought it beneficial to mention that image files could be
retrieved from the DJI Smart Controller for those of us who have them. W2EJ questioned the
resolution of the SC files and I replied that SC image files are identical to those on the SD card of
the aircraft. These are located on the SC SD card at SD\DJI\dji.go.4\DJI Album. This depends on
the SC camera control being set to Sync HD and SD Card. I’ve verified this and can state that
they are the same pixel resolution and identical pixel-for-pixel, and include EXIF information.

W2EJ replied that aircraft and SC files were different sizes for video. I didn’t have a good
answer since I haven’t been shooting video, but in communicating with DJI, they indicated that
video should be available in the same location (DJI Album) and didn’t say anything about
resolution changes.

If identical files are available on the SC, the advantages are that they can be retrieved without
touching the aircraft or its SD card, and an extra set of files exists apart from the aircraft should
something catastrophic happen to it or its SD card. The method I currently use involves only the
SC and my computer to obtain the original image files created by the aircraft (though not under
their original aircraft SD file name).

I’m attaching a SC file map for still images (from what I’ve been able to discern). This applies
for still images captured with an SD card in the SC and SC camera control set to “SD Card” &
“Sync HD”.

Anyway, feel free to chime in if you have questions or answers.

I flew my M2P at last night's sunset; did not have the card properly inserted, so the SD card has no images, although all are in the smart controller. The controller did not alert me until late in the flight, and asked something like "no SD card, do you want to save internally". I said yes, but only the last 4 images show up in the drone; the 74 images in the smart controller do not show up. I am trying to get those images from the sc to my Mac laptop. Tried connected the drone itself to the computer, but only the last 4 images show up. When I connect the smart controller to the drone, it first asks me if I want to charge or transfer files or photos. When I select the transfer option, it tells me that I can only transfer via bluetooth. It then seems to get list asking me for the blue tooth device. I am stuck. Help.

 

[SBBob]

I followed a youtube video right on target, unfortunately the sc told me all images were transferred so my cache is now empty, however, there are no new images on the card. So now I seem to have lost nearly all images from last night's shoot.

 

[Bob001]

I flew my M2P at last night's sunset; did not have the card properly inserted, so the SD card has no images, although all are in the smart controller. The controller did not alert me until late in the flight, and asked something like "no SD card, do you want to save internally". I said yes, but only the last 4 images show up in the drone; the 74 images in the smart controller do not show up. I am trying to get those images from the sc to my Mac laptop. Tried connected the drone itself to the computer, but only the last 4 images show up. When I connect the smart controller to the drone, it first asks me if I want to charge or transfer files or photos. When I select the transfer option, it tells me that I can only transfer via bluetooth. It then seems to get list asking me for the blue tooth device. I am stuck. Help.

Don't select "Transfer Photos". Select "Transfer Files". That should bring up a rm500 device in your computer browser (your smart controller will also tell you there is not enough current capacity in your computer USB outlet for charging so click "ok" to that). In the rm500 device, your smart controller and its external SD card (if you have one) should show up. Your original files should be in DJI > dji.go.vx > DJI Album if they were mirrored properly (you need to have had that function turned on). Hope you can find your lost files. (Note: the x in the location is your version of dji.go; example: it will be dji.go.v4 if you have version 4).

 

[ff22]

You can download/copy files from the drone to the Smart Controller or tablet/phone connected to the regular controller using the Preview or Review function found under the Shutter Icon. Warning - videos can take a long time to transfer whereas pictures move across the ether quicker. Also, this transfer process takes battery power. While moving a photo when the drone is still airborne is possibly, it is probably not advisable for videos.

 

[JHood]

Hello @Bob001, The files I mentioned with the one from the aircraft being about 10 times larger than the one on the SC was video, and 4K at that. I don't believe there is any way to get full res video files on the SC's SD card. They must be be gotten from the aircraft. I will do a test with stills to see if AC and SC are the same, as you say, and I'll let you know the result. BTW, that's a very nice chart of the SC's file layout that you made. That's something DJI should have included with the Smart Controller.

Pardon my ignorance. But are you saying that raw photos won't save on the sd card in the smart controller? In order to save raw photos, you have to use the SD card in the mp2 instead?

I've been trying to save raw photos to my SD card in my smart controller..and I instantly get a message saying that I don't have enough space on my SD card (when I don't have anything on the card yet). Is this because the raw pictures won't get transmitted to the smart controller because they are too large? Again, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about clearly..so please bare with me. Just trying to figure out why I'm having trouble saving raw photos to my smart controller.

Thanks

 

[Bob001]

To date, I've only had jpeg files transferred and haven't delt with RAW files. It takes about 4 seconds per image to transfer a jpeg and RAW files are considerably larger so it makes sense that Mavic chose not to provide for the transfer of RAW files but I can't say for sure that's not possible. If you have a reasonably sized SD card, it should be able to hold RAW files but the bandwidth to send those just might not be there for practical reasons.

 

[W2EJ]

Pardon my ignorance. But are you saying that raw photos won't save on the sd card in the smart controller? In order to save raw photos, you have to use the SD card in the mp2 instead?

I've been trying to save raw photos to my SD card in my smart controller..and I instantly get a message saying that I don't have enough space on my SD card (when I don't have anything on the card yet). Is this because the raw pictures won't get transmitted to the smart controller because they are too large? Again, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about clearly..so please bare with me. Just trying to figure out why I'm having trouble saving raw photos to my smart controller.

Thanks

It's not ignorance, it's confusing. High res video and still images, are only available on the card carried in the aircraft. I use a 128Gb card in the bird, and I don't run out of room. I transfer them to my computer and then format the card for next use.

 

[Bob001]

High resolution IS available on the Controller SD card, but apparently only in jpeg form. Jpeg can be quite good although it lacks the adjustability that RAW does. While not RAW, the jpeg files have the same spatial resolution that the RAW files would.

 

[JHood]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Hope this works. A while back my aircraft wouldn't recognize an SD card, unless I also had one in the smart controller. And even with 2 individual cards in each, only the one in the smart controller worked. Hopefully that issue is no more..

Thanks again

 

[Bob001]

As a note, I've had difficulties with the drone syncing the jpegs to the controller. When I first started using this feature, the files would be in the controller SD card as soon as I finished shooting, but now I have to reslide the sliders for syncing and then turn the controller off and back on - then the files are transferred to the DJI gallery folder in the remote. Another gripe I have is that they are renamed from the drone files and have seemingly random names so they have to be resorted by the EXIF data to get a chronologically correct sequence again. I've compared these transferred jpegs to the drone versions and they are pixel-for-pixel identical.