Video Suddenly in Slow Motion

[fivestar51]

I took my Air 2S out last weekend. When I got home i pulled out my SD card and put it into the computer as I normally would. Every video played back in something like slow motion. I thought it was a fluke at first...that maybe I hit something wrong when I was getting ready to fly. I went back out tonight and sure enough, same thing. Ended up turning the drone on and recording in the house as well.

I formatted the card twice...once from my computer, and once from the app itself. Settings look right as far as I can tell. The last time I flew it, the video was fine. I had updated it right before I flew last weekend however. This card works in my GoPro Hero 10, and does not play back in slow motion when recoding here in the house.

Something is amiss with the drone somewhere.

Any ideas?

 

[brett8883]

I took my Air 2S out last weekend. When I got home i pulled out my SD card and put it into the computer as I normally would. Every video played back in something like slow motion. I thought it was a fluke at first...that maybe I hit something wrong when I was getting ready to fly. I went back out tonight and sure enough, same thing. Ended up turning the drone on and recording in the house as well.

I formatted the card twice...once from my computer, and once from the app itself. Settings look right as far as I can tell. The last time I flew it, the video was fine. I had updated it right before I flew last weekend however. This card works in my GoPro Hero 10, and does not play back in slow motion when recoding here in the house.

Something is amiss with the drone somewhere.

Any ideas?

What frame rate are you recording in? Many video players will play back video shot above 30 fps in slow motion.

 

[FLDave]

What are the technical details of the file. Details should should provide frame rate and resolution. With file explorer the file properties and details information.

 

[fivestar51]

I’ll have to check. Never paid any attention….never had to before…the default was never slow motion. I’ll report back.

Thanks.

 

[fivestar51]

4k 60 fps

 

[brett8883]

4k 60 fps

That’s why. Shoot in 24 or 30 fps if you don’t want it to be in slow motion straight out of camera. For the files you already have you can re encode the them in a video editor to change the playback speed.

 

[fivestar51]

Nope. No change at all.

 

[brett8883]

Nope. No change at all.

After you changed the frame rate in a video editor or after you you changed the record settings on a new video?

 

[fivestar51]

Neither. Changed the settings in the dji fly app itself.

 

[fivestar51]

So I just tested a bunch of short videos.

1080p 24 fps works fine. So does 2.7k 24 fps. Anything 4k and above puts it into a weird slow motion thing

Yep, confirmed again with a few more test videos. 2.7k 24 fps is fine. 4k and up is slow motion.

 

[brett8883]

So I just tested a bunch of short videos.

1080p 24 fps works fine. So does 2.7k 24 fps. Anything 4k and above puts it into a weird slow motion thing

And you have been able to record and playback 4k videos from this drone before right? What memory card are you using?

Could also be your device is struggling to play the higher res video smoothly. Try rebooting your device and check if other videos you know where working correctly before do the same thing. Then try transferring the video you are having problems with to your phone or computer (which ever it’s not on now and trying it. Just trying to rule everything out before we say it’s the drone

 

[fivestar51]

Yes Sir, I believe so. Honestly though, I never noticed the settings until today. I've had the drone since March I beleive and have taken lots of videos before. It sat for a couple of months prior to last Saturday. I pulled it out, charged the batteries, and made sure the syuff was up to date. It was after coming home Saturday evening tat I noticed the issue.

Same SD card, same computer, everything is the same. I tested my Hero 10 tonight as well with 4k and it plays fine on the computer, again with the same SD card and computer.

Prior videos all play the correctly. Oddly enough, when I go into the cache files of the problematic videaos, the play fine on my iphone. It's only the computer that has an issue. However, again, the Hero 10 doesnt have an issue. I'll reboot the computer and go from there then.

Thanks for all the help. At least I can use it in 2.7k I don't really do anything important with the equipment thankfully. More of an annoyance than anything I guess.

 

[brett8883]

Yes Sir, I believe so. Honestly though, I never noticed the settings until today. I've had the drone since March I beleive and have taken lots of videos before. It sat for a couple of months prior to last Saturday. I pulled it out, charged the batteries, and made sure the syuff was up to date. It was after coming home Saturday evening tat I noticed the issue.

Same SD card, same computer, everything is the same. I tested my Hero 10 tonight as well with 4k and it plays fine on the computer, again with the same SD card and computer.

Prior videos all play the correctly. Oddly enough, when I go into the cache files of the problematic videaos, the play fine on my iphone. It's only the computer that has an issue. However, again, the Hero 10 doesnt have an issue. I'll reboot the computer and go from there then.

Thanks for all the help. At least I can use it in 2.7k I don't really do anything important with the equipment thankfully. More of an annoyance than anything I guess.

It’s likely the bit rate of the videos from the drone is higher than the GoPro so that doesn’t really tell us what we need to know about the computer or SD card. The cache files from the drone don’t go through the SD card so that helps narrow it down. You didn’t answer the question of what SD card you are using. Just because using a problem card worked fine before doesn’t mean it’s not the problem now.

 

[FLDave]

If the properties of the recorded video show 4k, 60fps, then the problem is likely the video player (or device) not the drone or recording parameters.

 

[SkyeHigh]

If the properties of the recorded video show 4k, 60fps, then the problem is likely the video player (or device) not the drone or recording parameters.

Correct, depending on the video player, trying to play video at a higher rate than the computer is able to play may result in skipped frames to try and maintain a reasonable/supported playback rate or play every frame without skipping but at a lower frame rate leading to a slow motion effect.

A well designed video player should test playback speed as part of its installation routine. Unfortunately very few do and results are mixed. Some just rely on the inbuilt video player of the Operating System and installed Codecs. VLC by Videolan.org is one of the better ones.

 

[fivestar51]

Thats great guys. You've really helped me narrow things down. So, here's a bit more info. The micro SD card is a Sandisk 128 GB Extreme. I didnt know the difference between the Hero 10 and the Air 2S. Odd that I shoot my Hero in 4k though.

I just plugged in my external hard drives where everything is stored....Now, all my old videos play in the same slow motion...This now leads me to the same conclusion in that my computer is the issue and not the drone.

I've never heard of VLC, but maybe that's not even my fix if the computer itself can't keep up now. Time to upgrade the computer perhaps?

 

[fivestar51]

Ok, so I can see the date now of when things happened. In fact, on the same day, the first video is fine...but the next one and all subsequent videos play back in slow motion.

You guys have talked about the file size information and stuff, but I don't know how to see any of that. Is there a way to determine if I changed something back on May 28 when the issue first arose? Videos made before that date play just fine on my computer. After that date up to today play back is in slow motion in anything higher than 2.7k. I had always thought I used 4k, but maybe I never did.

BTW, I hit my stopwatch earlier this morning. Real time was 12 sec, and the video playback was only at 3 seconds.

 

[SkyeHigh]

Thats great guys. You've really helped me narrow things down. So, here's a bit more info. The micro SD card is a Sandisk 128 GB Extreme. I didnt know the difference between the Hero 10 and the Air 2S. Odd that I shoot my Hero in 4k though.

I just plugged in my external hard drives where everything is stored....Now, all my old videos play in the same slow motion...This now leads me to the same conclusion in that my computer is the issue and not the drone.

I've never heard of VLC, but maybe that's not even my fix if the computer itself can't keep up now. Time to upgrade the computer perhaps?

VLC is a very popular media player used right from the video novice through to broadcast professionals. It will often play videos that other media players don’t support or struggle to play. It will also give you all the information you need on the file size, format and bit rate etc.

It can play virtually all media formats and works across most computer operating systems including Apples’s iOS and Android devices.

 

[fivestar51]

I downloaded VLC a while ago....Does nothing but crash unfortunately. Went outside earlier this evening and flew a bit. Even the 2.7k lags a bit once I plugged the card into my computer. Something is definitely going on.

 

[FLDave]

I downloaded VLC a while ago....Does nothing but crash unfortunately. Went outside earlier this evening and flew a bit. Even the 2.7k lags a bit once I plugged the card into my computer. Something is definitely going on.

My suggestion is to copy the file to your computer and then use VLC to view the video. Also, use file explorer to verify the properties details of the video file.