Mavic Air 2 - H265 problem

[keio]

Greetings,
I recently bought a Mavic Air 2 and could finally get it in the air 2 days ago, but while i was pretty satisfied with its flight performances, when i checked the footage i shot once back home, i noticed that all videos were without sound and failed (frozen image, then slowmotion but not the feature lol, pixel artefacts, blanks...). Today, i decided to take a bit time and make a few tests at home, connected the drone to my RC, and made 2 series of tests for all 3 modes (4k, 2.7k, 1080p) in both H264 and H265.

H264 : all 3 mode success but no sound.
H265 : 4k was frozen, 2.7k mix of frozen and pixellization, and 1080p fine, all without sound.

For information, Windows 10 (x64) on an Asus Rog 752VY laptop (Intel I7 | DDR4 2133 MHz 32GB SDRAM | NVIDIA GeForce GTX980M 8GB GDDR5 VRAM | Samsung ssd 970 evo plus nvme m.2 ).
Obviously, OS, softwares, and nVidia drivers, everything up to date.
I tried reading the videos on VLC, Win10's player, and even in Da Vinci Resolve which is where i could see that i had blanks between the frozen images (light blue spaces).
I'm also familiar with video and already read H265 videos several times on my laptop (but still prefer using H264 to encode my videos for my part ^^).
So, i highly doubt that the origin of this problem might be on my gear, but as this is not really my field, i came here with the hope anyone would have encounter such type of issues.

Thanks in advance to anybody which could point me in the right direction. =)

 

[Peter B]

Greetings,
I recently bought a Mavic Air 2 and could finally get it in the air 2 days ago, but while i was pretty satisfied with its flight performances, when i checked the footage i shot once back home, i noticed that all videos were without sound and failed (frozen image, then slowmotion but not the feature lol, pixel artefacts, blanks...). Today, i decided to take a bit time and make a few tests at home, connected the drone to my RC, and made 2 series of tests for all 3 modes (4k, 2.7k, 1080p) in both H264 and H265.

H264 : all 3 mode success but no sound.
H265 : 4k was frozen, 2.7k mix of frozen and pixellization, and 1080p fine, all without sound.

For information, Windows 10 (x64) on an Asus Rog 752VY laptop (Intel I7 | DDR4 2133 MHz 32GB SDRAM | NVIDIA GeForce GTX980M 8GB GDDR5 VRAM | Samsung ssd 970 evo plus nvme m.2 ).
Obviously, OS, softwares, and nVidia drivers, everything up to date.
I tried reading the videos on VLC, Win10's player, and even in Da Vinci Resolve which is where i could see that i had blanks between the frozen images (light blue spaces).
I'm also familiar with video and already read H265 videos several times on my laptop (but still prefer using H264 to encode my videos for my part ^^).
So, i highly doubt that the origin of this problem might be on my gear, but as this is not really my field, i came here with the hope anyone would have encounter such type of issues.

Thanks in advance to anybody which could point me in the right direction. =)

Where did you expect the sound to come from.? There are no DJI drones that are equipped with microphones. Your mobile device would have to be configured or app. Equipped to record local sound. As far as Vick’s problems go, I would try another sd card. Format it in the bird and make sure it has high speed write specs. Hope this helps.

 

[keio]

Where did you expect the sound to come from.? There are no DJI drones that are equipped with microphones. Your mobile device would have to be configured or app. Equipped to record local sound. As far as Vick’s problems go, I would try another sd card. Format it in the bird and make sure it has high speed write specs. Hope this helps.

From the RC ? I didn't expect the drone to record sound, but i tested the cam in front of me on the table, and i thought this little grid on the RC was a speaker/mic.
As for the card, it's brand new and works perfectly fine in my Osmo Pocket, and i doubt finding a better match as its type (SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB v30) which is what i use in all my devices for photo/video. But i'll make the test with another card just to be sure, even if i think it's not related (why would the sd card be only deficient for 4k/2.7k in h265 ?)
Thank you nevertheless for reacting to the post ! =)

 

[brett8883]

From the RC ? I didn't expect the drone to record sound, but i tested the cam in front of me on the table, and i thought this little grid on the RC was a speaker/mic.
As for the card, it's brand new and works perfectly fine in my Osmo Pocket, and i doubt finding a better match as its type (SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB v30) which is what i use in all my devices for photo/video. But i'll make the test with another card just to be sure, even if i think it's not related (why would the sd card be only deficient for 4k/2.7k in h265 ?)
Thank you nevertheless for reacting to the post ! =)

When you are recording video as cache to your mobile device (low quality video) there is an option for the mobile device to record audio. This audio gets attached to the low quality cache video on your mobile device not the high quality video on the SD card.

If you want the sound on the high quality video you should import both the high quality video and the low quality cache video from the SD card into a video editor and line up the clips. Then delete the low quality video without deleting the audio leaving just the high quality video and the audio. Though it may just be easier to use a separate audio recorder and import sound to the video in post.

Most people will find sound recording unnecessary.

Edit i was mistaken ,no audio record on the DJI FLY APP yet sorry

 

[keio]

When you are recording video as cache to your mobile device (low quality video) there is an option for the mobile device to record audio. This audio gets attached to the low quality cache video on your mobile device not the high quality video on the SD card.

If you want the sound on the high quality video you should import both the high quality video and the low quality cache video from the SD card into a video editor and line up the clips. Then delete the low quality video without deleting the audio leaving just the high quality video and the audio. Though it may just be easier to use a separate audio recorder and import sound to the video in post.

Most people will find sound recording unnecessary.

Ah ! I knew there was a way. ;-) Thanks a lot for the tip, i checked the cache videos on the smartphone too, horrific quality but they are not frozen at least, and i didn't have sound there either, thats why i was wondering. As for the process to import the sound part of the LQ video in a timeline, i'm familiar to the process. I don't think i'll use audio a lot, but it can be useful if you want to describe what you're currently filming or if you test, but i can also make post productions comments/sound, for sure.

Now, as for this h265 thing, i made another try : i encoded through handbrake one of the frozen h265 video, and it runs smooth, so i guess it must have something to do with my gear to my big surprise (as i already read other h265 videos). Will continue to dig into this.

 

[keio]

So, little update. Made a new test with another micro-SD just to exclude this possibility despite my doubts, and as expected, results were the same. H265 in 4k/2.7k is either a codec playback problem related to my current OS (which is weird as both VLC as well as Windows 10 have the needed HEVC codecs installed, i checked, which is also why i could read other h265 videos). I also discovered that the MA2 (mine at least) doesn't have the option to record sound as the MA1 under the 'record cache' option in general settings.

 

[dawgpilot]

When you are recording video as cache to your mobile device (low quality video) there is an option for the mobile device to record audio. This audio gets attached to the low quality cache video on your mobile device not the high quality video on the SD card.

While DJI Go 4 (used for other DJI drones) has that option, I don't believe that the DJI Fly app that is needed with the Mavic Air 2 has a similar option to record local audio.

 

[keio]

While DJI Go 4 (used for other DJI drones) has that option, I don't believe that the DJI Fly app that is needed with the Mavic Air 2 has a similar option to record local audio.

Ya, it doesn't sadly, at least in DJI Fly which is the one i used. I checked it directly after i saw another thread about how to activate sound on the RC.

 

[keio]

Little update. I now spent the day reading several hevc codecs related threads around the web, some linked to the MA2 some not, but mostly the issue was because the posters didn't have the codecs installed which isn't my case (see screenshots below). Somehow, i'm running in circles here, no idea how to be able to read those on my laptop which has enough 'power' to run 4k heavy stuff... I don't want to install another player like 5k or such, as it makes no sense. As told above, the data isn't corrupted, i can still manage to convert to any other format through handbrake, and then visualize my footage but it's a pain as i would like to be able to directly check what i filmed and to work on the original footage on Da Vinci/AE.

 

[Ace.7]

This might be a messy one, might be opening a can of worms to get to the root cause.

I'm assuming you already downloaded and reinstalled the HEVC drivers from the MS store?

Have you manually checked to see if you have the latest chipset drivers installed? Are you on the latest bios version, 307?

 

[Ace.7]

I was responding to your last post from yesterday around the same time as you submitted your newest post.

I see you have answered by question about the HEVC drivers from Microsoft.

 

[keio]

I was responding to your last post from yesterday around the same time as you submitted your newest post.

I see you have answered by question about the HEVC drivers from Microsoft.

You got it. See why i'm perplex ? =/ I'm pretty sure i already watched some 4k H.265 videos on this laptop, but it would take me days to search on my storage HDDs which ones.
As explained before, i managed yesterday to convert the "frozen" footage through handbrake in a perfectly smooth H.264 video. A few minutes ago, i did the same operation again but chosing this time H.265 as format, and guess what ? Perfectly smooth video too. This makes no sense...

 

[dawgpilot]

You got it. See why i'm perplex ? =/ I'm pretty sure i already watched some 4k H.265 videos on this laptop, but it would take me days to search on my storage HDDs which ones.
As explained before, i managed yesterday to convert the "frozen" footage through handbrake in a perfectly smooth H.264 video. A few minutes ago, i did the same operation again but chosing this time H.265 as format, and guess what ? Perfectly smooth video too. This makes no sense...

Handbrake could still be decreasing the bitrate when you export in H.265.

 

[keio]

Handbrake could still be decreasing the bitrate when you export in H.265.

I chosed 've chosen specifically the 10-bit H.265 option though.

 

[dawgpilot]

I can't explain it then.

 

[keio]

I can't explain it then.

Ya, me neither =( This was the best i could think of to test, don't see anything else at the moment. Edit : Do you by any chance have a 'raw' footage of a few second you could hand me per pm to download ? That way i could check if it's specific to my own footage or general to all MA2 footages as i don't have problems reading other types of H.265 videos afaik.

 

[Peter B]

While DJI Go 4 (used for other DJI drones) has that option, I don't believe that the DJI Fly app that is needed with the Mavic Air 2 has a similar option to record local audio.

You are correct, there currently is no sound option on the cache video recorded on the phone (Mobil Device). I was accustomed to using that sound track from my Mavic pro to make audio notes during flight. I kind of miss it but can live without it. Could be that a future version of Go Fly May include it again if there is a enough demand.

 

[Peter B]

So, little update. Made a new test with another micro-SD just to exclude this possibility despite my doubts, and as expected, results were the same. H265 in 4k/2.7k is either a codec playback problem related to my current OS (which is weird as both VLC as well as Windows 10 have the needed HEVC codecs installed, i checked, which is also why i could read other h265 videos). I also discovered that the MA2 (mine at least) doesn't have the option to record sound as the MA1 under the 'record cache' option in general settings.

While DJI Go 4 (used for other DJI drones) has that option, I don't believe that the DJI Fly app that is needed with the Mavic Air 2 has a similar option to record local audio.

You are quite correct, curently, Go Fly does not have the ability for the mobile device or remote control to record sound. I spent a lot of time on that one...

 

[keio]

You are quite correct, curently, Go Fly does not have the ability for the mobile device or remote control to record sound. I spent a lot of time on that one...

As you said in your previous message, it's not a big deal, i can also live without it as MA2 is still a fantastic beast (at least for me), and i carry on me the Osmo Pocket anyway which would provide further footage if needed + audio. It's just that i don't get why they took it away if it was implemented for older models. Also, the RC being specially equipped by DJI with a speaker for the warnings, why not integrating a mic too ?

 

[dawgpilot]

As you said in your previous message, it's not a big deal, i can also live without it as MA2 is still a fantastic beast (at least for me), and i carry on me the Osmo Pocket anyway which would provide further footage if needed + audio. It's just that i don't get why they took it away if it was implemented for older models. Also, the RC being specially equipped by DJI with a speaker for the warnings, why not integrating a mic too ?

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I don't think that's a full speaker. It's a vent for the electronics. (the controller just has a crappy beeper inside) The audio warnings actually come from your connected phone/tablet.