Hi everybody,
New user here, but I'm a videographer who deals with codec stuff on a daily basis. I've been following this thread as I've been reading up on the
M2P. I've never flown a drone, but I'm hoping to get one in a few months (probably
M2P), and am currently studying for the 107 exam.
I hope to clarify some stuff about these codecs, because I see a lot of confusion about how to work with them. H.265 is indeed a new-ish codec which is very processor intensive (for now, anyway) compared to H.264, but rightly so - you are compressing 4K video data into a file the same size as an equivalent clip in 1080HD in H.264, in addition to the 10-bit color data. It takes the CPU/GPU, depending on config, some time to unpack all of that for playback and older hardware just can't handle it. Maybe I'm a bit old-school, but as a general rule, codecs like H.264 and H.265 were never meant to be used as native formats for EDITING. They are DELIVERY codecs as best, especially H.264. Given the newness of H.265, it's best to think of it as a "transport" codec. Drones like the
M2P are a small/lightweight and low-cost way of shooting aerial video, with the main focus being affordability. To get 10-bit 4K log video onto a microSD card, you need H.265. High-end film/video productions use cameras that shoot straight to lossless or uncompressed formats like ProRes or CinemaDNG on high-speed flash media so they can record extra dynamic range in a format that won't take a bunch of time to transcode, because it's already recorded in a format that is meant for editing. Just look at the difference between the
Inspire 2 and the
M2P on the codec side...the Inspire eve has high-speed media so it can record in those other formats.
With that in mind, the tradeoff to shooting HVEC is that you have to transcode it, which takes time but saves money on the hardware not to mention allowing DJI to cram high quality 4K video capture into a consumer/prosumer product. Big production houses would constantly be upgrading equipment if they had to edit in these new CPU/GPU hungry codecs every one was released. They would never make money that way, so if they need to bring in something that was shot on a budget in a format like HVEC, they just transcode it. Hard drive space is really cheap!
As for output, there really isn't a reason to output 10-bit color if it's going to go onto YouTube. The 10-bit color is there for grading purposes, and after those are applied, you don't need the excess data. Save yourself the time, export an 8-bit H.264 MP4 and upload it to YouTube - done! Finishing something for HDR isn't as simple as shooting it that way, either. You need HDR monitors and a properly set up editing system so that you can grade it accurately or there is no way of knowing if it really looks like what you are seeing on the screen. After that, its got to be output in the correct colorspace so it'll play back correctly. HEVC H.265 is one of the HDR compliant DELIVERY codecs, otherwise H.264 is perfectly fine for everything else. If you want to get into HDR, including Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG), here's a link to an in-depth article on grading/mastering/delivering in that stuff in Resolve:
HDR Video Part 5: Grading, Mastering, and Delivering HDR
My advice to anyone who is working with 10-bit 4K H.265 from the
M2P would be save the source files on a drive as an "Archive" of the original footage, then transcode those files into ProRes 422 (I'm not sure if the
M2P camera records in 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 color sampling, but ProRes 422 should work fine for most cases - you can't add color data that isn't there, so unless it starts out as 4:4:4, there's no use in going that high) using Adobe Media Encoder and then use the transcoded files to edit your project. Delete the transcoded media when you are done to save space, and if you ever need to do more edits, just transcode the files from your "Archive" again and reconnect them within your project.
I've got a 2015 iMac here at work with FCPX & Resolve...after transcoding some of the above DJI sample files to ProRes 422 and bringing them into both editors, they ran just as quick and smooth as everything else I work with on a daily basis. I'd expect the same at home on my much older 2013 iMac with half as much RAM. If I get any stuttering, it'll be because it's 4K...in that case, I could edit with low-res proxies and then finish it in 4K.
To recap, these highly compressed formats were never meant to be edited. Just because the software lets you do it does not mean its how they should be handled. They are for delivery, with HVEC/H.265 being the future in order to support 4K and HDR color spaces in a manageable file size.
Sorry for the long reply and I hope it is some help!
