First videos are terrible

brett8883 · Jan 13, 2020

dixiefla said:
The big test will be if these play on my big screen TV, which is where I really want to play them. So far connecting the SD card in a reader to a USB port on the TV doesn't work--says it "won't connect". I've ordered a card reader that uses HDMI, so I'll try that.

HDMI isn’t really a data connection protocol. I’m surprised they make an HDMI card reader frankly. It does have some data capability, mainly for protected content but you need a computer of some kind to decode the video and send it to the TV. Some smart TVs have some decoding capability but I doubt that it will decode h.265 natively from a memory card especially connected via HDMI particularly when it won’t do it via USB.

A memory card is just a data storage receptacle. It takes a computer or smart device to read the data on the card and decode the data into a usable video signal and send it to the TV.

A computer you do have that we know for sure can play the videos, has an SD card reader, AND and HDMI port is... your smart controller...

To play the video’s on your TV connect the smart controller to the TV via HDMI. No need for SD card readers to play back the footage on your TV.

Better yet if you record HLG video and your TV is real fancy and has HLG support, the Mavic 2 can play HLG video directly to your TV for the highest quality video it is capable of, no editing necessary. Most under rated and least taked about M2 function.

4wd · Jan 13, 2020

If you are familiar with HLG from other cameras it's worth a try without a HDR TV to view on, you are still recording a pretty nice balanced image with maximised dynamic range.

Cymruflyer · Jan 13, 2020

Many smart TV screens will play directly from your SD card, or better said, from a memory stick, like a thumb drive. However, do t=remember that amny TVs have a max limit of 32Gig thumb drives. Even if you have 10 Gigs on a 64, some TVs will not play it. So if you are having trouble, be sure you have transferred your video files from your Micro SD card onto a 32Gig thumb drive then just plug that into the USB port on your TV and you should be able to run through the file list and play everyone of them. I can on my 4K TV.

dixiefla · Jan 13, 2020

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I'll practice at lower resolution. BTW, I will try the suggestion to upload to YouTube, to facilitate watching on my TV; but the first upload--one video-- took 4 hours and was only 15% done when I decided to give up. Maybe overnight uploads will work??

Cymruflyer · Jan 14, 2020

dixiefla said:
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I'll practice at lower resolution. BTW, I will try the suggestion to upload to YouTube, to facilitate watching on my TV; but the first upload--one video-- took 4 hours and was only 15% done when I decided to give up. Maybe overnight uploads will work??

No need to upload to YouTube to watch on your TV. Just use a computer to move files from your drone's Micro SD card on to a 32GB USB thumb drive and plug the thumb drive into your TV and you can watch all the files on that 32GB drive. I do it often on my TV. Why spend all that time going through YouTube when it can be simply plug and play?

dixiefla · Jan 15, 2020

Well, as I said earlier in the thread, altho I have a "smart" TV and it has 2 USB ports; it recognizes that there is something plugged into the USB port, but gives an error that says "can't connect".

So per the suggestion, I tried a 32g SD card, and it read it and displayed the photos. Sot the earlier problem was I was trying to get it to read a 64g card, and an SSD drive.

On the 32g card, it recognized a small video I had made, but when I chose "play" it said cannot play the file. This could be because I used 4k 30 fps and H265. I'll make a couple with 2.7k and H264 and 1080p and see if it will play those.

In terms of connecting the smart controller via HDMI, isn't the issue there that the videos are saved on the SD card in the aircraft, not on the SD card in the controller?

Cymruflyer · Jan 15, 2020

There ya go, I discover that 32GB by accident, I too almost thought we needed a new TV, glad you tried that because that's how I got mine to play.

Endeavor · Jan 18, 2020

dixiefla said:
Thanks. I like watching YouTube, but I'm not a member and don't want to post my videos on YouTube. I'll try to find a player for Win7 that will play these videos on my PC and my TV.

Windows media player works just fine so just stick with that. I don't think the player is the problem here. You can post on Vimeo for free and hide hide videos if you like. I don't have any of my commercial videos available to the public only by embedded or private link. I had similar issues with my MPz where the video looked good but was choppy and jerky. It was the SD card and once I tossed that on and replaced it with another identical card everything was just fine. You can host your videos on your PC and install the PLEX server which will stream to Roku player on your TV. Perhaps firestick also but I don't know for sure. I typically don't do 4k as it is harder to process and uploaded videos are downgraded anyway.

CareyL · Jan 18, 2020

dixiefla said:
I'm using an SanDisk Extreme 64g V30 (the recommended SD card). I am playing back on my PC with Windows 7. 64bit.

I went back into the controller and now I see most of the "manual" camera adjustments are for still photos. So there isn't much to change for videos, but maybe I have some setting wrong??

Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7. You can upgrade for free to Windows 10. I suggest you do it. Windows 10 also comes with Movie Maker. It natively reads and edits mp4 files.

CareyL · Jan 18, 2020

dixiefla said:
Hey, thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I'm really relieved that its a playback issue, not a problem with the actual videos.

You are right I probably need a faster PC. I may upgrade the video card, and I'll bet that will make a difference. I don't want to upgrade Windows -- tried Win 8 and 10 at my office, hated them--they want everything to be translated into apps like a cell phone instead of programs on a PC...

Don't know how you got that information. On Windows 10 I am running: Win 95, Office 2010, Adobe Premiere 2004, etc. programs.

drjulian · Jan 18, 2020

dixiefla said:
I'm using an SanDisk Extreme 64g V30 (the recommended SD card). I am playing back on my PC with Windows 7. 64bit.

I went back into the controller and now I see most of the "manual" camera adjustments are for still photos. So there isn't much to change for videos, but maybe I have some setting wrong??

Download Windows 10

Dave Maine · Jan 18, 2020

The h.265 codec is very hardware intensive. Use the h264 codec. The files will be a lot larger, but less powerful computers/older computers without high powered graphics cards can play it.

HerManSoft · Jan 20, 2020

dixiefla said:
I just got my M2P and am practicing first flights taking videos. I just took several "first" videos. Clearly I don't know what I am doing yet. They ALL were terrible:

1. Blobs of highlights kept jumping into the image, I assume due to momentary overexposure, with the camera trying to readjust maybe?? I had the video set on 4K 30 fps, auto everything,, with a PolarPro 8PL ND filter on an overcast day. So I don't know why these anomalies would appear if they are overexposures that camera is trying to deal with. It just wasn't that bright a day.

2. The videos are choppy. Rather than the smooth videos I have seen on YouTube, mine were all choppy. Very annoying.

3. In some of the videos, the camera "skipped", almost like the camera was stopping and starting again, or like it was taking still photos. These were a fraction of a second, then video ran again. This was a different issue than the "choppiness".

3. For most videos I was flying in normal mode. But even when I tried Intelligent Flight Modes, first QuickShots, doing Dronie, Circle, and Helix the drone is flying very smoothly, but the videos are choppy, in addition to having the highlights flashing into the picture, they skip or chop. Finally I tried Cinema mode, but didn't see much difference, maybe a bit smoother.

I have seen on YouTube that one shouldn't use "auto" but instead set the camera for manual and adjust the exposure etc. I'll try that, which may get rid of the highlight flashes, but what would cause the choppiness and the skipping, even when using QuickShots, which I understand is only 1K, and flies the drone smoothly??

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi, Mavic 2 Pro, being studied also for professional filming, has and gives the possibility to use DLOG hevc LUTs in practice, when you shoot in this mode the video is to put it short, off and amorphous, then in the post-production phase you apply the LUTs that are nothing else (simplifying) information that color and heat, color or cool your videos. Sorry if I explain myself badly with my bad english. Use standard codec that already has colors in place. Then tomorrow if you want, you will deepen the rest, the LUT gradient effects etc. Hoping the problem was that DLOG (which is not a problem) greetings from Italy.

Mavic Mac · Jan 21, 2020

@Fred Garvin has these posts recommending books for shooting better video

This one is in MavicPilots

All about drone photography and video shooting (Need a bit good recommendation)

Hello, First of all, I have to say my English aren’t very good.. =) I had my first flight with the drone about half year ago, and I was satisfied, so I bought a new mavic Air fly more combo. I know the Mavic air is very capable for taking photos and shooting videos, Only if you know what...

mavicpilots.com

This one is in the "sister" forum CommercialDronePilots - I purchased this one and found it to be an excellent book.