How to improve video quality?

generaltso · Nov 10, 2016

I've been having a blast flying the Mavic Pro. I love its portability and it controls like a dream. But I haven't been very impressed with the video quality I've been getting.

I'm definitely not a photography enthusiast, so I just leave everything on Auto. This is what I did with my Phantom 3 Pro, and the resulting video was very good. With the P3, I would record most video at 720p/60fps to keep the file size down, and I never had any issue with the quality. I've been trying to get close to that quality with the Mavic, but haven't had much luck.

First off, if I use a frame rate higher than 30fps, I get all kinds of jello in the video. Would an ND filter help with that? I don't have anything that can play 4k smoothly, so I've been mostly playing around with 2.7k and 1080p. But with either of those resolutions, the video looks overly compressed like a bad youtube video. It's in focus, but not very detailed.

Still photos are crisp and clear, but the video just doesn't look very good. I've seen plenty of Mavic videos online that look great, so what am I doing wrong? Are decent looking videos just not possible while all the settings are left in Auto mode?

NoPro · Nov 10, 2016

NoPro · Nov 10, 2016

Try that

thefrisbee995 · Nov 10, 2016

Lot of people I have seen using the mavic on youtube haven't be using tap to focus right. Make sure that isnt your problem.

generaltso · Nov 10, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
Lot of people I have seen using the mavic on youtube haven't be using tap to focus right. Make sure that isnt your problem.

Yeah, that's not the problem. It's not that it's out of focus, it seems like it's overly compressed or a much lower resolution than it should be.

thefrisbee995 · Nov 10, 2016

What's your setup? Could be your PC struggling? Or is it just after editing? In which case it could be settings...

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generaltso · Nov 10, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
What's your setup? Could be your PC struggling? Or is it just after editing? In which case it could be settings...

I don't think so. I'm playing the videos on an iMac that's about 2 years old with 32GB of RAM and a 4GB video card. It does struggle with the frame rate on 4K videos, but that's about it. It's the same machine I'm using to play the videos from the Phantom. No editing at all, just straight video out of the bird.

thefrisbee995 · Nov 10, 2016

So strange. My Retina MBP is last gen top of the line for comparison and has handled any 4K video I have thrown at it.. your iMac should be fine. Look on activity monitor when playing back and see how it is coping. Might have a lot running in the background. Btw an ND filter would make it worse if anything else. When the mavic is flying can you see it "shuddering" or anything? Or maybe your gimbal isn't stable? Maybe something is touching the gimbal causing it to pick up vibrations? The higher frame rates shouldn't the thing making ruining your video, it is probably just more noticeable when using higher frame rates

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Peel · Nov 10, 2016

See this thread: http://mavicpilots.com/threads/moir%C3%A9-aliasing-in-1080p-60fps.1159/

generaltso · Nov 11, 2016

Peel said:
See this thread: http://mavicpilots.com/threads/moir%C3%A9-aliasing-in-1080p-60fps.1159/

Thanks for the link. That Moire is definitely what I'm seeing with higher frame rates. From that thread, it doesn't sound like there's any fix for it other than using a lower frame rate.

So that explains the "jello" issue I was referring to, but still not the low video quality. Is anyone else seeing a drastic quality difference between the Mavic and the Phantom even in 30fps? I know there are some compromises with the Mavic's camera to get it so small, but I would think a Phantom 720p video could be matched for quality with a Mavic 1080p or 2.7k video, no?

generaltso · Nov 11, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
When the mavic is flying can you see it "shuddering" or anything? Or maybe your gimbal isn't stable? Maybe something is touching the gimbal causing it to pick up vibrations?

When it's flying, the video generally looks good on the iPhone screen. But I have noticed on a few flights in sport mode that the camera seems to jump for a split second. It's almost like somebody tapped the gimbal, but that's obviously not the case. I don't think that's directly related to low detail in the footage, but could be a defect in the gimbal. I figured I would deal with that issue once Mavics are readily available in case I need to send it in for repair.

thetjshow · Nov 11, 2016

Total noob here but there's something in the vid or camera option on the phone when you're plugged in; "cache video" or something like that does it maybe have something to do with this? There's option to increase size (Gb) and also to delete it.

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generaltso · Nov 11, 2016

thetjshow said:
Total noob here but there's something in the vid or camera option on the phone when you're plugged in; "cache video" or something like that does it maybe have something to do with this? There's option to increase size (Gb) and also to delete it.

That shouldn't affect the video recorded on the SD card. That just has to do with what's cached on the mobile device during the flight.

generaltso · Nov 11, 2016

generaltso said:
the camera seems to jump for a split second. It's almost like somebody tapped the gimbal, but that's obviously not the case.

I just saw this video that somebody posted about some Mavic issues. If you skip to the 3:01 mark, he talks about "Gimbal Judder" and shows some examples. That's exactly what I'm seeing. Do they all do that?

So, just to be clear, I seem to be experiencing 3 video related problems that I don't think are related.

1. Moire on frame rates higher than 30fps (seems to affect all Mavics)
2. Gimbal Judder (not sure how common this is)
3. Overly compressed video that seems to be missing detail.

generaltso · Nov 12, 2016

Okay, I've been flying a bunch more today and comparing different video settings. It appears from my own tests and other reports I've seen that there are some things the Mavic is just not good at. Videos at 720p and 1080p fall into that category. They simply look like garbage. 2.7k out of the Mavic looks pretty close to the 720p video that I get from the Phantom, which is quite good. So I'll stick to 2.7k from now on. Since that maxes the frame rate at 30fps, I'm also not getting the horrible moire that I was getting at higher frame rates. I'd prefer 60fps, but I can live with 30.

So really, the only remaining issue is the gimbal judder. It happens most frequently in sport mode, but does also happen sometimes in standard mode. Do all Mavics do this?

JonasHess · Nov 13, 2016

generaltso said:
Okay, I've been flying a bunch more today and comparing different video settings. It appears from my own tests and other reports I've seen that there are some things the Mavic is just not good at. Videos at 720p and 1080p fall into that category. They simply look like garbage. 2.7k out of the Mavic looks pretty close to the 720p video that I get from the Phantom, which is quite good. So I'll stick to 2.7k from now on. Since that maxes the frame rate at 30fps, I'm also not getting the horrible moire that I was getting at higher frame rates. I'd prefer 60fps, but I can live with 30.

So really, the only remaining issue is the gimbal judder. It happens most frequently in sport mode, but does also happen sometimes in standard mode. Do all Mavics do this?

Have you tried adding some sharpness in post? From what I have seen the Mavis easily compares to the phantom 4. Even at higher frame rates.

HeavensAbove · Nov 13, 2016

That fence is going to make a mess of the props. Good footage though.

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Boscobrown · Nov 13, 2016

JonasHess said:
Have you tried adding some sharpness in post? From what I have seen the Mavis easily compares to the phantom 4. Even at higher frame rates.

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When you film 1080p/96fps Does the video naturally come out slo mo? I filmed some horses running and other landscape shots today and everything is slo mo without any editing. Is this normal or is it my computer not being able to handle the high framerate?

JonasHess · Nov 13, 2016

Boscobrown said:
When you film 1080p/96fps Does the video naturally come out slo mo? I filmed some horses running and other landscape shots today and everything is slo mo without any editing. Is this normal or is it my computer not being able to handle the high framerate?

That is normal. It actually records in 96fps but saves the file in 25fps.

Boscobrown · Nov 13, 2016

Good to know.

What did you do in terms of editing in your skate video? Do you play with speed until it looks like normal speed and then keep the slo mo stuff untouched?

is there some sort of rule or guide to follow regarding speeding video up to make it look natural?

Also the magic started creating .srt files when i switched settings. Any idea on that?