Firstly, I would like to introduce myself. I am Tom and I have been using the Mini 4 Pro to get some shots of scenic areas. I have taken some good footage which appeared fine on the DJI Controller, however when I have come to view on PC the video does seem slightly blurry / pixelated with a distortion when the drone moves including the gimbal. I would like to seek some help to see if anyone would know what could be causing this, maybe something needs changing in settings for recording video. Images are fine, just video seems far from 4K which is set. Any help would be appreciated. Every day is a learning curve.
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HI Tom. Could you upload a short Youtube video as an example? Have you set your focus on AF all the way so you can see the infinite twin mountain symbol instead of AF.
I had a similar problem with my mini 2 SE video when viewing the card files on a card reader in my laptop, and that’s only 2.7 K video. The video was choppy, pixilated and sometimes just stopped altogether. The cause turned out to be the age of the laptop and lack of memory. On my new mini PC with 16GB ram and faster processor the videos play fine. The same goes for the 4K Potensic videos. The other thing that I think helps is that I turn record on and off as i need it, rather than recording the whole flight. You end up with smaller file size videos.
Thank you all for your feedback and support. @Stewrat Thanks, I have a high spec PC as well as Samsung Galaxy Book Flex, therefore have ruled out any system performance issues, however thank you for your advice regarding shorter shots, well noted. I seem to notice the quality difference when I playback on PC using Windows Media Player, but then when using a different program e.g Films & TV, the quality is upscaled.
As requested, here is the short example of footage which I have uploaded on YouTube.
Please let me know your thoughts on the issue and if anyone had any extra advice on settings which I can change to increase image quality that would be greatly appreciated. I have used a ND16 Filter on these shots, changing the shutter speed following the ‘180 rule’.
Are you definitely viewing images from the SD card in the drone, not from the controller? The controller can record a lower res version that’s heavily compressed and could look blurry / pixelated like you describe (I only have a M3pro but I’m guessing it works the same?)
@cameraguy_UK thanks for your reply. Correct, always use the drone SD card. I have not yet removed the controller SD card as not been required. During the flight, when recording, the video quality looks great. When I get home and I initially opened the video, it does not look as smooth and as 4K as I believe it should (seen many videos on YT since prior and post purchase of the Mini 4 Pro). Maybe worth removing the ND filter, unsure how much impact this would have on the quality of the footage itself?
I seem to remember a similar issue recently: it’s possible there are 2 identical video files - one a full-res .MOV and a thumbnail version (can’t remember the extension type). the full res 4K file size should be around 700MB per minute ( in 10bit D-cinelike 25P)
Ok thanks, I will double check tomorrow. Off the top of my head I think I could only see the 1 video on the SD card and was around 170mb for the 10 second or so clip which sounds about right. I may run back through all the settings for the camera and see if anything stands out and needs a slight nudge to up the quality. Thank you.
actually I think I got that wrong - I’m just looking at my card now and the only thumbnail files are still images so ignore that last message!
With regard the ND filter - in daylight ND16 is probably the minimum. it might only become an issue if flying at dusk/night as it cold increase the auto-ISO and/or lower the electronic shutter below 1/50th - which would give you blurry video.
No problem, thanks. I will double check the preferences and maybe tweak a few things, get the drone back up and test. Trial and error for the next few sessions I think At first, I was flying without the filters and the only used the ND16 over the past few flights and have not removed it as images look decent, just the video seems a little ‘bland’ looking upon playback on PC/Laptop. Will keep you posted, thanks again for your help.
@tom_ash23 What mode do you shoot in Tom, Normal, HLG or D-Log M? Do you use the colourising option if the latter?
I also recall some having focus issues with the mini 3 pro in AF, which was solved by having the focus perminantly on infinity (I never use any other setting). Does it show as AF or Infinity on the icon?
I’ve never had an ND filter that affected the focus of the image so I doubt that would be the cause.
What sharpness setting are you using?
Have you edited the footage or used a LUT to improve contrast, light and saturation etc?
At first, I was flying without the filters and the only used the ND16 over the past few flights and have not removed it as images look decent, just the video seems a little ‘bland’ looking upon playback on PC/Laptop. Will keep you posted, thanks again for your help.