h.264 vs h.265... CHOPPY VIDEO

[Luckyguy9]

Mini 4 Pro is producing choppy video. I tried swapping SD cards to no avail. Earlier I asked on this form "what is the best viewer", and tried the suggested VLC Media Player which was even worse!! You couldn't even make out what the subject of the video was.
Then I discovered the problem... my videos at default H.265 setting are basically worthless. (unless I can convert them somehow to H.264)

They look fine on the RC2 controller in the album but when I take the SD card out of the drone, transfer the video file to my computer and open it and view the MP4 files the ones recorded at H.265 are choppy like it's individual photos strung together. Anyone else discover this problem with the M4P. I didn't ave this problem with the mini 2 but I think it only offered H.264.

 

[Meta4]

Mini 4 Pro is producing choppy video. I tried swapping SD cards to no avail. Earlier I asked on this form "what is the best viewer", and tried the suggested VLC Media Player which was even worse!! You couldn't even make out what the subject of the video was.

The issue is most likely that your computer isn't up to the task and the video files are fine.

 

[old man mavic]

@Luckyguy9 i had a similar issue when i first got my Air 3, the default video setting was H.265 and i couldnt play the videos on my computer either ,i found a free app from microsoft that enabled the H.265 format to be played ,but once i realised that it was possible to select either H.264 or H.265 in the settings for the Air 3 i selected H.264 and have had no further playback issues
just be aware, that sometimes ,if there is a firmware update, then it can revert back to default settings, after the update is applied so always check your settings to make sure they are the same

 

[Dave Maine]

H264 and H265 produce almost identical imagery. The H265 files take up much less space. Decoding the much smaller files requires a much more powerful computer, ideally with a built in hardware decoder.

 

[Ridgeback65]

M1 Apple Silicone handles H265 well (at least in Resolve).

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

just be aware, that sometimes ,if there is a firmware update, then it can revert back to default settings,

Also be aware that higher frame rates require H.265. You may not have a choice, but Handbrake will convert H.265 to H.264. I'm not sure if there's a Windows version or not, I'm all Apple ecosystem here.

 

[SethB]

Also be aware that higher frame rates require H.265. You may not have a choice, but Handbrake will convert H.265 to H.264. I'm not sure if there's a Windows version or not, I'm all Apple ecosystem here.

Handbrake is a primary tool for converting to h.264. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Free! Highly recommended!

HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder.

handbrake.fr

 

[Luckyguy9]

@Luckyguy9 i had a similar issue when i first got my Air 3, the default video setting was H.265 and i couldnt play the videos on my computer either ,i found a free app from microsoft that enabled the H.265 format to be played ,but once i realised that it was possible to select either H.264 or H.265 in the settings for the Air 3 i selected H.264 and have had no further playback issues
just be aware, that sometimes ,if there is a firmware update, then it can revert back to default settings, after the update is applied so always check your settings to make sure they are the same

I'm still looking for the app to upgrade media viewer to handle H.265. Thanks!

 

[Luckyguy9]

Also be aware that higher frame rates require H.265. You may not have a choice, but Handbrake will convert H.265 to H.264. I'm not sure if there's a Windows version or not, I'm all Apple ecosystem here.

Good to know that I should check repeatedly to make sure it's staying on each talk to 64 when I do updates. Thanks.

 

[Luckyguy9]

Also be aware that higher frame rates require H.265. You may not have a choice, but Handbrake will convert H.265 to H.264. I'm not sure if there's a Windows version or not, I'm all Apple ecosystem here.

I found that program handbrake also and converted all my 265s that I filmed to 64s. Now I'm gonna leave the settings on 264. I may just need to upgrade my computer.

 

[Krrr]

I found that program handbrake also and converted all my 265s that I filmed to 64s. Now I'm gonna leave the settings on 264. I may just need to upgrade my computer.

What system do you think would work? I would also like to get a base computer for editing and viewing my views. Any ideas?

 

[ExEvo]

What system do you think would work? I would also like to get a base computer for editing and viewing my views. Any ideas?

Mac-wise, I think you would be OK with any current iMac, Mac Mini or Airbook. Get the latest M2 chip - but FWIW, my 7yr-old iMac and 8yr-old Mac Mini can both play H265 video fine. Ask the vendor to confirm in writing that it can.
DJI, for whatever reason, chose not to pass on the storage-saving benefit of H265, claiming that their iteration of H265 contains more data than H264 and is therefore superior quality - but they both come in at exactly the same file size! For reference, my M4P 5-minute 4K/30 video clips come in at 3.7GB.
If it were possible, DJI would surely have given owners the option to choose higher quality or (much) smaller file size (which would be of equivalent quality to H264) but I'm guessing they can't (yet) handle the on-board processing and live streaming if they go for the smaller file size.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I found that program handbrake also and converted all my 265s that I filmed to 64s. Now I'm gonna leave the settings on 264. I may just need to upgrade my computer.

Also, something to watch out for, if you do use a higher frame rate that requires H.265 and then go back to a lower frame rate, it will stay at the H.265 codec. You have to go back into the settings and manually change it back to the H.264 codec. That's at least how it was on the older models, I don't know if they changed that on the newer ones or not.

 

[SethB]

What system do you think would work? I would also like to get a base computer for editing and viewing my views. Any ideas?

Mac-wise, I think you would be OK with any current iMac, Mac Mini or Airbook. Get the latest M2 chip - but FWIW, my 7yr-old iMac and 8yr-old Mac Mini can both play H265 video fine. Ask the vendor to confirm in writing that it can.
DJI, for whatever reason, chose not to pass on the storage-saving benefit of H265, claiming that their iteration of H265 contains more data than H264 and is therefore superior quality - but they both come in at exactly the same file size! For reference, my M4P 5-minute 4K/30 video clips come in at 3.7GB.
If it were possible, DJI would surely have given owners the option to choose higher quality or (much) smaller file size (which would be of equivalent quality to H264) but I'm guessing they can't (yet) handle the on-board processing and live streaming if they go for the smaller file size.

The paid editing apps such as Premiere and DaVinci Resolve have minimum and recommended system specs.

The specific issue with h.265 is that for decent performance there *must* be hardware decoding built into the computer or mobile device. This is part of the display hardware, the graphics processing unit, or GPU.

As mentioned by @ExEvo recent computers all have it… but just what “recent” means is hard to pin down. 5 years? Also, I’d guess there are some value-based computers meant for email and internet access that just won’t be suitable editors even with h.265 hardware decoding.

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

DaVinci Resolve System Requirements + Recommendations for Mac, Windows, and Linux

See the system requirements needed to get great performance from DaVinci Resolve.

www.simonsaysai.com

I myself would think of a mid-tier i7 processor, 16GB of RAM (system memory), and 4GB of VRAM (GPU memory) as a bare minimum. I don’t really have any experience with the newer Apple M1 and M2-based systems, where things may be different.

 

[jephoto]

Also be aware that higher frame rates require H.265. You may not have a choice, but Handbrake will convert H.265 to H.264. I'm not sure if there's a Windows version or not, I'm all Apple ecosystem here.

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

Also, if you want 10 bit video, is the .265 necessary?

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

Also, if you want 10 bit video, is the .265 necessary?

There is no quality difference between the two. H.265 is just a high efficiency codec that gives you smaller file sizes but requires more intense decompression.

 

[SethB]

There is no quality difference between the two. H.265 is just a high efficiency codec that gives you smaller file sizes but requires more intense decompression.

That *can* be true, quality between h.264 and h.265 can be the same, depending on how the h.265 is encoded.

DJI seems to have taken a different approach - they’ve prioritized quality over file size. Testing by forum members has shown near-identical file sizes between DJI’s h.264 and h.265 files. Which means an increase in quality.

However, those increases in quality are not always visible (or important!) to pilots and editors. It can benefit more aggressive color correction/grading. It can preserve detail in high-motion areas, like leaves of trees or fields of grasses blowing in the wind, moving water, etc.

 

[ExEvo]

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

Also, if you want 10 bit video, is the .265 necessary?

DJI's H265 files are the same size as their H264 files but claimed to be higher image quality.
Exporting a DJI H265 video to H264 (using Quicktime Player), the H264 file is much smaller.
Using a short 4K clip from my M4P, the H265 clip weighed in at 160MB.
The same clip exported as H264 weighed only 43MB.
The H264 clip was muddier and less sharp than the H265 clip (on a Retina iMac 5K screen) - see below.
Exporting any video clip will always lose some data so a better comparison would be between two DJI clips filmed using the different codecs (albeit the screenshots couldn't be identical).

 

[jephoto]

So what is the result after converting? Are you losing any quality? Or does the file size go up- therefore negating the advantage of the .265 smaller file?

Also, if you want 10 but video, is the .265 necessary?

DJI's H265 files are the same size as their H264 files but claimed to be higher image quality.
Exporting a DJI H265 video to H264 (using Quicktime Player), the H264 file is much smaller.
Using a short 4K clip from my M4P, the H265 clip weighed in at 160MB.
The same clip exported as H264 weighed only 43MB.
The H264 clip was muddier and less sharp than the H265 clip (on a Retina iMac 5K screen) - see below.
Exporting any video clip will always lose some data so a better comparison would be between two DJI clips filmed using the different codecs (albeit the screenshots couldn't be identical).

The loss in detail on the 164 converted clip is pretty apparent.
Does that happen every time you export a clip after post processing?

 

[ExEvo]

The loss in detail on the 164 converted clip is pretty apparent.
Does that happen every time you export a clip after post processing?

I have never previously converted H265 to H264 and compared them; but, for sure, every time a video is processed/resaved it loses some detail unless working in ProRes. Best never to do it imho.