Hi there,

Maybe and most likely this question was raised here a couple of times already but unfortunately I can't find any useful information and therefore I'll just ask one more time and maybe smb can help me to understand the solution.

I have a Mavic 2 Pro and I know a lot about photogrpahy and photo editing but currently I know zero about video and video editing.
I have multiple videos which I recorded with my drone but the problem of these videos is that they are choppy.

The video settings of the videos are:

• .mp4
• 25 f/s
• 4k
• h.264
  

The memory card I used to record these videos - Sandisk Extreme Pro 64 gb
https://www.24.se/pub_images/large/70580-0.jpg

Since I have very little undertanding of how the video is built and how to work with it I just tried to follow some advices and decode the video to ProRes 422 using Adobe Media Encoder but unfortunately the video is even sloppier than before. I didn't test it on Mac but on Windows it's afwul.

Is anybody familiar with this issue and perphaps knows the solution?

Thank you!

Don't run the videos from the memory card, load them into your computer and run them from there.

if you don't use ND filter for video, your shutter speed must be too high resulting in jerky footage playback. With 25fps, try to impose a shutter of 1/50s and close the apperture as far as you can.

James 0522 Posted at 10-8 03:28
Don't run the videos from the memory card, load them into your computer and run them from there.

I'd copied files to the computer. It didn't solve the issue

Fre Mo Posted at 10-8 03:52
if you don't use ND filter for video, your shutter speed must be too high resulting in jerky footage playback. With 25fps, try to impose a shutter of 1/50s and close the apperture as far as you can.

I did use ND filter and I applied the 25 f/s = 1/50s rule. I read about it before making my last set of videos - it didn't solve the problem. So I anticipate the issue is with the codecs themselves as little as I know about them.

Your settings look fine maybe it's the software you're using to render the finish product. I use basically the same settings or maybe tweak to higher FPS/Resol but mostly render in 1080p and video comes out buttery smooth. I render my videos using MAC and FCXP.

Have you tried FCPX ?  

SD_Pilot Posted at 10-8 05:07
Your settings look fine maybe it's the software you're using to render the finish product. I use basically the same settings or maybe tweak to higher FPS/Resol but mostly render in 1080p and video comes out buttery smooth. I render my videos using MAC and FCXP.

Have you tried FCPX ?

I haven't tried using Mac for now since I have a powerful computer from work available with Adobe package and Windows running.
I just tried to encode it to H.264 with preset High Quality 1080p HD using Adobe Encoder. It seems like the video is way smoother now but the size of the file shrank 5 times: from 500 to 100 meaning that a lot of data got lost on the way.
Which codec will be the best to use to preserve the quality of the video then?
Does it mean that there's no chance to have it in 4k playing smoothly?

Thank you!

nannnshe Posted at 10-8 04:50
I'd copied files to the computer. It didn't solve the issue

Give the h.265 codec a try.

When rendering from 4K to 1080, yup you're going to lose data.

Hello and good day nannnshe. Thank you for reaching out. I hope that you will get the best information from our valued DJI co pilots on how they edit there videos. Thank you.

What type of CPU are you using?  Which editing software are you using?

Some further questions :
- What framerate are you editing in (timeline)?
- Is the choppyness also in the original (unedited) footage?

Neo Supreme Posted at 10-8 10:59
What type of CPU are you using?  Which editing software are you using?

My computer is: i7 - 6829HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz
RAM - 32 GB

I didn't start with editing yet because I thought I need to fix the video choppiness first but eventually I will use Adobe Premiere Pro. For encoding I use Adobe Media Encoder.

Montfrooij Posted at 10-8 22:38
Some further questions :
- What framerate are you editing in (timeline)?
- Is the choppyness also in the original (unedited) footage?

I didn't start editing yet and yes, the choppiness is in the original video.
For now I was prepaying the videos for editing by encoding them so they would be smooth which I can't achieve  without lowering the quality to 1080p.
Maybe I'm wrong and I should encode only after I edited the video? But then how can smb work with the video when it's not smooth?

Thank you.

SD_Pilot Posted at 10-8 07:49
When rendering from 4K to 1080, yup you're going to lose data.

Yes, of course I understand that. But if I want to keep it in 4k? I just need to get free of the choppiness and not quality.

I have not dealt with this issue personally, but have you tried converting the MP4 files to DNxHR and then editing those files ? H264 takes a lot to decode so it usually gets choppy(during editing). That being said I'm also not well informed in video editing, so i can't really give too much help, Sorry.

nannnshe Posted at 10-9 01:21
I didn't start editing yet and yes, the choppiness is in the original video.
For now I was prepaying the videos for editing by encoding them so they would be smooth which I can't achieve  without lowering the quality to 1080p.
Maybe I'm wrong and I should encode only after I edited the video? But then how can smb work with the video when it's not smooth?

If the choppyness is in the original footage, you can't fix that in post.
But I would love to see a (original) source file.
Can you share one?

Do you have a video card in your pc? or is the motherboard doing the video processing? you may also want to check whether you video render is set to software or hardware decode.

Is your computer all SSD or SSD&HDD? 4K never plays properly from HDD.

nannnshe Posted at 10-9 01:17
My computer is: i7 - 6829HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz
RAM - 32 GB

Ahh.  Your issue is your generation processor.  As far as Intel processors go, you need at least a 7th generation processor (I7-7xxx).  I had the same issue as you, as I previously had an I7-6700.  I currently have an I7-7700 and I have no issues.  Even though this mainly applies to H.265, 4K is still an issue for certain rigs.  It's one of those things that should be made common knowledge.  Adobe Premiere is the way to go for an editing suite.  I have Vegas 16 and Adobe Premiere.  For some reason, Vegas doesn't handle raw 4K footage/files properly.  Premiere has no major issues.

Hope this helps.

If you can record in H265, that will make your footage look better to because it can record more detail in the same amount of space. Also even 2 SSD in raid for me was not fast enough for good timeline/video editing performance. I really needed a PCI SSD. An upgrade to a ryzen 8 core processor can help a lot to.


If the video is pretty choppy, moving slower can help (it's only 25fps) and play with the aperture. If you really want to go advanced, motion blur can help to. If you use Davinci Resolve, that program can auto convert your video (caching) to something that your pc can handle very easy. It's like flipping a switch and works really easy.

QuanDar Posted at 10-9 04:25
If you can record in H265, that will make your footage look better to because it can record more detail in the same amount of space. Also even 2 SSD in raid for me was not fast enough for good timeline/video editing performance. I really needed a PCI SSD. An upgrade to a ryzen 8 core processor can help a lot to.

If she is already having problems playing back H264 footage, there is no way on earth her computer will handle H265.  H265 is far more compressed and WAY harder for a computer to handle gracefully.

Montfrooij Posted at 10-9 02:06
If the choppyness is in the original footage, you can't fix that in post.
But I would love to see a (original) source file.
Can you share one?

It would be great if she could share one of the original video files. That would allow us to view it and see if the problem is in the video itself or not.  

My guess is that it’s a computer issue, not an issue with the file itself.  

KlooGee Posted at 10-9 04:43
It would be great if she could share one of the original video files. That would allow us to view it and see if the problem is in the video itself or not.  

My guess is that it’s a computer issue, not an issue with the file itself.

Yes indeed. My initial thought as well.

Montfrooij Posted at 10-9 04:48
Yes indeed. My initial thought as well.

+1

Definitely the best and probably fastest way to unearth the source of any stutter issue. If the original file’s choppy (which nannnshe states it is) then editing, or using a different pc/Mac etc., wont fix the problem.

MrTitan Posted at 10-9 05:02
+1

Definitely the best and probably fastest way to unearth the source of any stutter issue. If the original file’s choppy (which nannnshe states it is) then editing, or using a different pc/Mac etc., wont fix the problem.

Hope we will see it soon

Are you looking at the footage in the editor?  One thing that kind of confused me was when the video was in the editor it looked like crap but after rendering it looked great. Turns out my computer is on the low side of being able to run Davinchi resolve and the previews wouldn't run very well. If this is the case just do your best in the editor and realize what you export will be better. Or just plain play the videos outside the editor before you start looking at how your gonna edit them. Just taking a shot in the dark. Maybe nothing is wrong.

When exporting try changing the Time Interpolation to Optical Flow. This seems to clean up the choppiness of the 4k footage coming from our Mavic 2 Pro

Hi
You can split your issue into two segments.
1.        The recording device / software
2.        The playback device / software
Point 1 above.
1.        Ensure your card can handle the speed of recording and your local agent can assist with that
2.        You can assume that the drone is doing the job it is intended to do with the correct compression being used, so no worries there
Point 2 above
1.        Avoid playing back directly from the card if it is still in your drone or the card is in a card reader. Copy the software to your hard drive and play from there.
2.        You will encounter choppy issues re playback depending on the PC you using AND the playback software you using for preview purposes. There are some tweaks one can do in apps like VLC but they don’t always work. Google those tweaks.
3.        Try plugging in the memory card reader and the card into a HD/UHD TV USB port and see if the issue improves. Some TV’s have a fast processing chip, especially the newer ones. This is just to do process elimination to see whether your PC is the issue. The TV eliminates the PC and the software.
4.        Lastly when editing use Premeirre Pro. This allows you to create a lower resolution proxy of your HD footage which you can then edit and render in the lower resolution until playback smoothly. Once your edits are ready for final rendering then “flip the switch” to the render the HD quality over night.
Hope that helps
Stephen
Cape Town
South Africa
Stephen.smit3@gmail.com

smit3330 Posted at 1-30 22:32
Hi
You can split your issue into two segments.
1.        The recording device / software

Furthermore, if your 4k footage is choppy, film in 2.7k and 1080. If its smooth on 2.7 and 1080 then its most likely your PC that cant process the 4k 264 or 265 protocols BUT premiere will be your saving grace for editing when you edit in proxy mode.