Video footage unusable....still!

[Eastcoast]

Hi there,

I've been primarily using drones for photography and some mapping work but have started to do more with video lately. I have a Phantom 4 Pro and a Mavic 2 Zoom.
Video on the P4P, never had any issues with (which may be luck given my current issues). try asa I might I cannot get any decent video footage from the Mavic. It seems to be full of weird effects and ghosting.

I looked around these forums and it seemed likely my Micro SD wasn't up to the job so I've been out and purchased a recommended one I saw discussed on here a SanDisk Extreme, with high write speed (see below photo).

However, I made some video passes today and the problem persists. I have this strange ghosting effect almost like the wind is blowing the surface of the scene across the screen, some strange interference like artefacts and occasionally multi colour flashes like a n RGB test card!
I have attached a link to a clip I did yesterday filming at various flying speeds and different light conditions. All useless! The link is: Link to film file in Dropbox

My Frame rate is set to 25fps & 264 and the clip quality setting is 4K.

I'm not sure if its me, the drone or my set-up/card type? Never had any issues like this with the P4P.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions anyone can offer.

ps - should just add if I view the footage on the DJI editor app, on my iPad it plays without any visible glitches at all??

 

[ff22]

Hi there,

I've been primarily using drones for photography and some mapping work but have started to do more with video lately. I have a Phantom 4 Pro and a Mavic 2 Zoom.
Video on the P4P, never had any issues with (which may be luck given my current issues). try asa I might I cannot get any decent video footage from the Mavic. It seems to be full of weird effects and ghosting.

I looked around these forums and it seemed likely my Micro SD wasn't up to the job so I've been out and purchased a recommended one I saw discussed on here a SanDisk Extreme, with high write speed (see below photo).
View attachment 96556
However, I made some video passes today and the problem persists. I have this strange ghosting effect almost like the wind is blowing the surface of the scene across the screen, some strange interference like artefacts and occasionally multi colour flashes like a n RGB test card!
I have attached a link to a clip I did yesterday filming at various flying speeds and different light conditions. All useless! The link is: Link to film file in Dropbox

My Frame rate is set to 25fps & 264 and the clip quality setting is 4K.

I'm not sure if its me, the drone or my set-up/card type? Never had any issues like this with the P4P.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions anyone can offer.

ps - should just add if I view the footage on the DJI editor app, on my iPad it plays without any visible glitches at all??

Glad you added that last sentence - it works in one manner but something else is limiting the display. What are you using to view the "glitched" footage? Computer, type? Tablet, type? App or program to display that video? I have read that some computers have "horse power" problems with some of the potential outfile formats. I'm not that up on the highest quality video filming methods. Is it the raw file that you placed in dropbox or was it edited in some fashion.

Hopefully, our better informed members will chime in with suggestions.

 

[Eastcoast]

Hi there, I'm using an iMac computer with the following spec:

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2 GB

I have literally taken the card out the drone and uploaded to my Hard drive.
The playback has been with Quicktime and VLC (both same results)
The dropbox file is just a copy of the original file from the Sd card copied to the cloud, no editing

Looking more closely the video on the DJI app isn't as high quality as the original should be, I guess thats a storage consideration for the device you use on the controller? ....anyway its not good enough to use for anything serious.
I would welcome any constructive ideas.

 

[Thomas B]

I don’t use the DJI app to view. Wonder if you uploaded the low res versions or if that’s default of the DJI app?
I remove the card from the drone and insert it into the card reader on my iMac. Once loaded I drag and drop the imaging files to a folder I created and the rename with current date. If I’m going to share then UL to YouTube and wait a while for the hi res version to be available... usually about 2-4 hrs. Initial version there is SD.
This works flawlessly for me.
Example of results:

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[sar104]

Hi there,

I've been primarily using drones for photography and some mapping work but have started to do more with video lately. I have a Phantom 4 Pro and a Mavic 2 Zoom.
Video on the P4P, never had any issues with (which may be luck given my current issues). try asa I might I cannot get any decent video footage from the Mavic. It seems to be full of weird effects and ghosting.

I looked around these forums and it seemed likely my Micro SD wasn't up to the job so I've been out and purchased a recommended one I saw discussed on here a SanDisk Extreme, with high write speed (see below photo).
View attachment 96556
However, I made some video passes today and the problem persists. I have this strange ghosting effect almost like the wind is blowing the surface of the scene across the screen, some strange interference like artefacts and occasionally multi colour flashes like a n RGB test card!
I have attached a link to a clip I did yesterday filming at various flying speeds and different light conditions. All useless! The link is: Link to film file in Dropbox

My Frame rate is set to 25fps & 264 and the clip quality setting is 4K.

I'm not sure if its me, the drone or my set-up/card type? Never had any issues like this with the P4P.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions anyone can offer.

ps - should just add if I view the footage on the DJI editor app, on my iPad it plays without any visible glitches at all??

I doubt many people are going to download a 2.6 GB clip to evaluate the problem. Perhaps you could trim it down to a reasonable size?

 

[Eastcoast]

Apologies, your quite right its too big. I have edited so just the first 15 seconds are shown, direct from the card. there are enough issues in that clip to demonstrate my issues.

New link to the clip is: New Smaller Clip

To clarify, I'm only using the DJI app to view as I was having these issues. My normal work flow is to remove the card, copy the MP$ files to my hard drive to a work in progress folder before I review and then edit in Premiere Pro or iMovie. always work with the file as its downloaded from the card I remove from the drone.

 

[gnirtS]

Its not normal - definitely digital artefacts there.

Have you tried internal storage instead of external as a test? That'd rule out an SD card issue.
Its possible you have a faulty drone.

 

[Brockrock]

Have you tried internal storage instead of external as a test? That'd rule out an SD card issue.

This! Let's rule out that SD Card and see a clip off the internal storage. It will be short at 4K, but it would be the next logical step in troubleshooting this possible issue.

 

[Eastcoast]

OK. I'll try and get some footage recorded on the internal storage today/tomorrow and view and upload that. Thanks.

 

[Harro]

The clip is real bad, lots of "tearing" and artifacts. Are you sure that the new card is not faulty?

 

[Eastcoast]

I don't believe the card is faulty as I had the same issue with 2 separate cards in the last week prior to this.
I'm going to film some additional footage Monday and try internal storage as well as onto the card, plus different video settings. I'll post the results tomorrow.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

1. I recommend the SanDisk Extreme Pro series, over the SanDisk Extreme. Although both should be fast enough for 4K video, it's worth the extra $10 to get a faster card that is more future proof, and who knows, maybe it will help.
2. You are getting the files off the SD card using your iMac. Are you using a built-in card reader, or a USB card reader? Can you try another card reader to make sure the card reader isn't corrupting the video files? I have had this happen before and got similar effects in the video. Switching to a newer, faster card reader fixed my issues.
3. If new card reader does not help, can you try a different computer? To verify the computer itself isn't corrupting the video files.
4. What adapter are you using to convert the MicroSD to SD? It maybe defective and corrupting the files on transfer. Start here, adapters are cheap.

 

[gnirtS]

Internal storage is a way of eliminating and checking for all the above issues.

Also, there are a LOT of fake SD cards out there on Amazon and elsewhere so its not absolutely impossible its the card.

 

[Eastcoast]

Ok, well I thought I'd upload an onboard and MicroSD copy of footage tonight and it would be obvious.....however I'm just more perplexed!!

There are three clips below, all about 22 seconds. The first onboard footage when I uploaded and played looked fine in terms of play quality. Brilliant I thought!
Then I uploaded the footage from the MicroSD card. However I used a SanDisk SD card adaptor (micro card into the larger card) and pu that into my adaptor unit and tried that route. end result, it too looks fine.
Finally I uploaded the MicroSD card as I have in the past. Straight from card into the USB adaptor. Much to my surprise it too looks artefact and distortion free!!!

Why on earth is it now apparently working! don't get me wrong I'm delighted but if I can't identify the issue, how do I prevent it when it matters and I need the footage!!
Only difference in conditions is that the previous 'iffy' footage was in breezier conditions but I can't see how that would impact it!

I'm baffled. Any thoughts?

Onboard Recording

MicroSD uploaded via SD adaptor card

MicroSD straight upload

 

[Brockrock]

Thanks for keeping us updated. I suppose the initial problem could have been radio interference or something. Whatever it was definitely produced a very poor video effect. At this point maybe do a few more flights, and maybe even one on an equally windy day again to rule out a possible connector issue.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Only difference in conditions is that the previous 'iffy' footage was in breezier conditions but I can't see how that would impact it!

I'm baffled. Any thoughts?

This makes me suspect some loose connection in your Mavic. Try doing a flight with a lot of hard turns, stops, and acceleration and see if you get the artifacts.

 

[jmbsmt63]

As above, Double check that SD card...the colors of that card in your photo look "off". Where did you purchase that card? A lot of counterfeit cards out there online.
Get one of the SD card benchmarking/testing programs and see what it does.
The image of that card straight from the SanDisk web site does not look like yours?

 

[BERNIEdoc]

I don’t use the DJI app to view. Wonder if you uploaded the low res versions or if that’s default of the DJI app?
I remove the card from the drone and insert it into the card reader on my iMac. Once loaded I drag and drop the imaging files to a folder I created and the rename with current date. If I’m going to share then UL to YouTube and wait a while for the hi res version to be available... usually about 2-4 hrs. Initial version there is SD.
This works flawlessly for me.
Example of results:

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lovely footage we have nothing like that to film in England , you are very fortunate , but then again you do have Mr Trump lol

 

[ff22]

I don’t use the DJI app to view. Wonder if you uploaded the low res versions or if that’s default of the DJI app?
I remove the card from the drone and insert it into the card reader on my iMac. Once loaded I drag and drop the imaging files to a folder I created and the rename with current date. If I’m going to share then UL to YouTube and wait a while for the hi res version to be available... usually about 2-4 hrs. Initial version there is SD.
This works flawlessly for me.
Example of results:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Hiked there Nov 2016. Terrific video. One of the many great hikes around Sedona. (just 3 months after the hip was replaced the second time!!!)

 

[Harro]

Try cleaning the card contacts with a hard rubber (eraser). Maybe they were dirty.