Why is 100Mbps is the minimum recomended bitrate for 4K? Mavic at 60

Micah · Dec 15, 2016

Hi, I was told that 100Mbps is the minimum recomended bitrate for 4K for commercial usage. Why is this the case? Is there any difference in the Mavic's 60 MBS?

capnzoog · Dec 15, 2016

A bigger issue would be the 4:2:0 color depth, most broadcasters will only accept 4:2:2 color except for current events/news.

The bitrate differences will depend on the movement and complexity of the scene. A field with wind in the grass is pretty easy to make the Mavic Pro fall apart on. I disagree that 100Mbps is actually considered pro/commercial, that's still prosumer.

None of this changes that the Mavic Pro has a great camera for it's price point.

masmole · Dec 15, 2016

The Mavic is a consumer/enthusiast drone intended for non-professional work, regardless of the fact that some pros might find it adequate for some of their needs. 60Mbps is pretty standard for a drone like the Mavic and most peoples' home workflows and video editing hardware will already be challenged by 4k video recorded at 60Mbps. For most people this is plenty good enough. If it isn't good enough then the Mavic was the wrong drone to buy.

For commercial work, pros will turn to a Phantom 4 Pro at the bare minimum (which does 100Mbps) but the better tool would be an Inspire 2 and record raw with Apple ProRes or Cinema DNG workflows, or perhaps a Matrice or the like for bigger camera payloads.

Chase R · Dec 15, 2016

masmole said:
The Mavic is a consumer/enthusiast drone intended for non-professional work, regardless of the fact that some pros might find it adequate for some of their needs. 60Mbps is pretty standard for a drone like the Mavic and most peoples' home workflows and video editing hardware will already be challenged by 4k video recorded at 60Mbps. For most people this is plenty good enough. If it isn't good enough then the Mavic was the wrong drone to buy.

For commercial work, pros will turn to a Phantom 4 Pro at the bare minimum (which does 100Mbps) but the better tool would be an Inspire 2 and record raw with Apple ProRes or Cinema DNG workflows, or perhaps a Matrice or the like for bigger camera payloads.

This. I would be shocked if more than 1/10 people have a computer at home (Mac or PC) that can truly handle 4K video editing.

Micah · Dec 15, 2016

Chase R said:
This. I would be shocked if more than 1/10 people have a computer at home (Mac or PC) that can truly handle 4K video editing.

Yes, agreed...I have notice the difficulties in any sort of advanced editing. I have a topped out macbook pro that is almost 3 years old now....I think I'll have to upgade shortly if I continue down this video path and I'm hoping that the newest Macbook Pro's will be plenty adequate to handle the software and file size.

Is a 3 year old macbook pro very underpowered for this type of work?

Micah · Dec 15, 2016

masmole said:
The Mavic is a consumer/enthusiast drone intended for non-professional work, regardless of the fact that some pros might find it adequate for some of their needs. 60Mbps is pretty standard for a drone like the Mavic and most peoples' home workflows and video editing hardware will already be challenged by 4k video recorded at 60Mbps. For most people this is plenty good enough. If it isn't good enough then the Mavic was the wrong drone to buy.

For commercial work, pros will turn to a Phantom 4 Pro at the bare minimum (which does 100Mbps) but the better tool would be an Inspire 2 and record raw with Apple ProRes or Cinema DNG workflows, or perhaps a Matrice or the like for bigger camera payloads.

Agreed...I'll prob purchase one of those with my partner as well and split it...but I do very extensive low budget travel and the Mavric would be perfect. I know that for pro work; yes the Mavic is the lower end of the stick; but I've been shooting with the P3P at 4k and that has been suitable...so from what I'm hearing the Mavic is of equal quality to that if not better...so at least it should be passable...I'm hoping

masmole · Dec 15, 2016

Micah said:
Yes, agreed...I have notice the difficulties in any sort of advanced editing. I have a topped out macbook pro that is almost 3 years old now....I think I'll have to upgade shortly if I continue down this video path and I'm hoping that the newest Macbook Pro's will be plenty adequate to handle the software and file size.

Is a 3 year old macbook pro very underpowered for this type of work?

I have a 2012 Macbook pro retina quad-core i7 (maxed at the time) with max memory and SSD and I can barely consider it adequate for FCPX editing of 4K content from the Mavic. It does struggle at times but does get the job done. I'm waiting on my pre-order of a new MBP touchbar with maxed specs which should arrive any day now. I certainly hope I'm not wasting my money and that it will be a healthy improvement over my 2012 MBP.

Micah · Dec 15, 2016

masmole said:
I have a 2012 Macbook pro retina quad-core i7 (maxed at the time) with max memory and SSD and I can barely consider it adequate for FCPX editing of 4K content from the Mavic. It does struggle at times but does get the job done. I'm waiting on my pre-order of a new MBP touchbar with maxed specs which should arrive any day now. I certainly hope I'm not wasting my money and that it will be a healthy improvement over my 2012 MBP.

Yeah I think I'm in the same boat.....prob very similar laptop that is fine for all other uses still; however seems to struggle with 4k a bit. It is useable; but far from smooth. I just hope that the extra $$ on the upgrade will be well worth it

LuvMyTJ · Dec 15, 2016

I am using a (late 2012) iMac 27" 3.4Ghz i7 that does OK with either the Adobe Suite or FCPX.
I am currently waiting on a new custom build, maxed out MacBook Pro with additional video RAM. It should be here before Christmas.

Chase R · Dec 15, 2016

Micah said:
Yes, agreed...I have notice the difficulties in any sort of advanced editing. I have a topped out macbook pro that is almost 3 years old now....I think I'll have to upgade shortly if I continue down this video path and I'm hoping that the newest Macbook Pro's will be plenty adequate to handle the software and file size.

Is a 3 year old macbook pro very underpowered for this type of work?

I've got the bottom end Late 2013 (or whatever) MBP and I can't even run the free version of Davinci Resolve. FCP barley makes it and is skippy as hell. I shoot all in 2.7K now just so I don't have to deal with the 4K files.

I talked to my computer engineer friends and they all recommended building my own PC. Parts alone to edit 4K footage efficiently are pushing $1500K without monitor. Can't bring myself to make the purchase quite yet.

masmole · Dec 15, 2016

The new MBPs are so expensive though. While I already pulled the trigger and ordered one, I still have a bit of sticker shock and second-guessing myself. $4300 for a laptop?? ugh. That's tough to swallow. That's like 4 Mavics lol... or the cost of an Inspire 2 with X4S and extra batteries haha. If only the Apple ecosystem didn't already have me by the balls...

EasyV · Dec 15, 2016

phantompilots.com has a great thread on this in the p4pro. It seems the 4k is not native, but either interleaved or some other method of upsampling to 4k. Too bad all the drone forums are spread out on different namespaces....but peek in that forum, a great discussion

stealle · Dec 15, 2016

Guys, I would seriously reconsider the mac book pro until you see more reviews. I was considering it, but I'm not hearing good things about it for 4K editing. Please give check out the link and video below.

Cinema5D review
Is the New Macbook Pro 2016 Fast Enough for 4K Video Editing? | cinema5D

Iphonedo YouTube video review

chippie · Dec 16, 2016

stealle said:
Guys, I would seriously reconsider the mac book pro until you see more reviews. I was considering it, but I'm not hearing good things about it for 4K editing. Please give check out the link and video below.

Not to mention that is appears battery life is about half of what they state (~5 hours rather than 10), well according to numerous posts I have seen. This is why they have apparently taken away the "Remaining Usage Time" in the latest iOS update giving the reason that it was not accurate and depended on what you were actually doing on the machine lol.

Kilrah · Dec 16, 2016

I've jsut read an article saying that yesterday's Sierra updates apparently solves the excessive battery drain problems.

chippie · Dec 16, 2016

Thats good to hear I guess.Why take away the time remaining then. Still, it is apple lol

Ryan Jenkins · Dec 16, 2016

I normally edit in proxy mode to bypass the lag issues with 4K. Then when I export the video I'll switch back to normal mode. It takes a long time to create the proxy files, but you can start the process and leave it vs. waiting for your computer to catch up every time you try to do something while editing.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

lumy · Dec 16, 2016

I question the "pro" of anyone who buys the new MacBook Pro for 4k editing honestly. Purely a fanboy device at this point, complete ripoff that sacrifices performance for size. No offense to anyone, I'm typing this on a 2013 MBP Retina.

Now if you are buying one to coffee shop browse, then yeah it's great other than the price.