My Mavic Mini takes better photos/videos. This is absolutely frustrating as these photos/videos are taken for my business. I have been downloading directly from SD card via Micro SD adapter to my iPhone 11. I just bought a Mavic Air 2 and was extremely excited to take 4K videos. I set it to 4K before filming, filmed, downloaded to iPhone from SD adapter, transferred to a Shared Album where I was able to access the same album from my MacBook, transferred files into iMovie and got absolute GARBAGE QUALITY VIDEOS IN 720!!!!! And to top it off, I deleted the files from my SD card upon downloading. WTF!!!

Also, the quality of the videos on my iPhone are muchhhhh better than what I am seeing when I get them into iMovie. Can I not win? Why is it technology never works for me, but it works flawlessly for everyone else.

I have a before and after video of a house, and the before was filmed with the 2.7K Mavic Mini while the after was filmed with the 4K Mavic Air 2... the before looks WAY better than the after!!!!! I'm pulling my hair out. DJI has enough instructions on how to power up the drone but ZERO instructions on how to get the high quality videos they claim it has!

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 12:42
I have a before and after video of a house, and the before was filmed with the 2.7K Mavic Mini while the after was filmed with the 4K Mavic Air 2... the before looks WAY better than the after!!!!! I'm pulling my hair out. DJI has enough instructions on how to power up the drone but ZERO instructions on how to get the high quality videos they claim it has!

It most likely the person than the craft, I have taken some really good footage 4k 25fps 50fps, if the quality is reducing to 720p that’s your device , if you recorded in 4k that’s what you will have, but if your device cannot play 4k then this could be the problem.
Can you upload sample of video.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 12:50
It most likely the person than the craft, I have taken some really good footage 4k 25fps 50fps, if the quality is reducing to 720p that’s your device , if you recorded in 4k that’s what you will have, but if your device cannot play 4k then this could be the problem.
Can you upload sample of video.

No, it's absolutely the craft. Because the person (me) filmed it in 4K and it somehow ended up in 720 in iMovie. And I cannot upload a video. Apparently the web host is from the 1800s and can't support a simple video file

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 12:50
It most likely the person than the craft, I have taken some really good footage 4k 25fps 50fps, if the quality is reducing to 720p that’s your device , if you recorded in 4k that’s what you will have, but if your device cannot play 4k then this could be the problem.
Can you upload sample of video.

I have multiple videos from the drone that look decent on my iPhone but I cannot get the same quality when dropping it into iMovie. It looks like pure garbage!

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:08
I have multiple videos from the drone that look decent on my iPhone but I cannot get the same quality when dropping it into iMovie. It looks like pure garbage!

Well then it’s iMovie that’s the problem, you might need better SW to use on 4k.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 13:15
Well then it’s iMovie that’s the problem, you might need better SW to use on 4k.

what's SW?

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:15
what's SW?

Software......

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 13:16
Software......

Ok, but how do you do it? What am I doing wrong?! I am literally transferring the files correctly. My Mavic Mini shot better video and used iMovie for that as well....

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:24
Ok, but how do you do it? What am I doing wrong?! I am literally transferring the files correctly. My Mavic Mini shot better video and used iMovie for that as well....

I use FCPX or LumaFusion both can handle 4k, iMovie obviously cannot. How old is your phone ?

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 13:37
I use FCPX or LumaFusion both can handle 4k, iMovie obviously cannot. How old is your phone ?

I have an iPhone 11 and iMovie can handle 4K..

So I transfer from SD to iPhone 11 via adapter.. then I drop the videos into a shared album that I can access from my MacBook, and then import into iMovie. If I watch the  video from my phone it looks pretty good... If I watch the video from the MacBook or iMovie it looks like 480 garbage

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:41
I have an iPhone 11 and iMovie can handle 4K..

So I transfer from SD to iPhone 11 via adapter.. then I drop the videos into a shared album that I can access from my MacBook, and then import into iMovie. If I watch the  video from my phone it looks pretty good... If I watch the video from the MacBook or iMovie it looks like 480 garbage

Then either they cannot play 4k or they’re set to play at lower resolution.
If the video you recorded plays ok on the phone then the video is ok. It’s your software iMovie or whatever is on your Mac, I don’t use iMovie but I imagine when uploading to it you must have a choice of what resolution you upload at or edit at.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 13:50
Then either they cannot play 4k or they’re set to play at lower resolution.
If the video you recorded plays ok on the phone then the video is ok. It’s your software iMovie or whatever is on your Mac, I don’t use iMovie but I imagine when uploading to it you must have a choice of what resolution you upload at or edit at.

I think I have determined it's iMovie as well... what I did was AirDrop the videos from my iPhone 11 to my MacBook and the quality is CRISPPPP. But the second I import the video into iMovie, enlarge the screen, and hit play... I can literally watch it destroy the video and blur it. I will look into this more.. why is everything so difficult?

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:53
I think I have determined it's iMovie as well... what I did was AirDrop the videos from my iPhone 11 to my MacBook and the quality is CRISPPPP. But the second I import the video into iMovie, enlarge the screen, and hit play... I can literally watch it destroy the video and blur it. I will look into this more.. why is everything so difficult?

Take your time, patience it will turn out ok in then end.


“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 12:42
I have a before and after video of a house, and the before was filmed with the 2.7K Mavic Mini while the after was filmed with the 4K Mavic Air 2... the before looks WAY better than the after!!!!! I'm pulling my hair out. DJI has enough instructions on how to power up the drone but ZERO instructions on how to get the high quality videos they claim it has!

The answer is to remove the SD card from the aircraft, plug it into an SD card adapter and copy the movies and photos direct to a computer, without going through the iPhone.
Stop messing around with iphones, particularly those from Apple, they do all sorts of ridiculous things with files, parrticularly in terms of re-compressing movies to fit the available space. Apple think they know better than you do, and that you should not be copying very large movies files to your phone.

Geebax Posted at 5-16 14:05
The answer is to remove the SD card from the aircraft, plug it into an SD card adapter and copy the movies and photos to a computer. Stop messing around with iphones, particularly those from Apple, they do all sorts of ridiculous things with files, parrticularly in terms of re-compressing movies to fit the available space.

I think this is his issue.  Go straight from sdcard to your pc

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:15
what's SW?

I think SW is short for software.

wow, lot of (misdirected) anger here ) When travelling, I also use my iPhone or my iPad to download from the SD card. I just save the files directly into the Files app under the iCloud Drive account. This way they are simply seen as “files”, not “videos” so nobody’s gonna try to re-encode them or anything. Then you just go to your Mac, open Finder and look under your iCloud Drive folder. All of this obviously if you’re travelling and don’t have access to the Mac. Otherwise, just stick the SD directly in the laptop.

P.S. You owe DJI an apology

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 13:53
I think I have determined it's iMovie as well... what I did was AirDrop the videos from my iPhone 11 to my MacBook and the quality is CRISPPPP. But the second I import the video into iMovie, enlarge the screen, and hit play... I can literally watch it destroy the video and blur it. I will look into this more.. why is everything so difficult?

...how you ever made it to the moon?

Sorry for venting but this is just the process I had to go through. I'm just tired of nothing ever working when it comes to technology (at least for me). The fact that I can't just record a 4k video and transfer it into one of the most well known movie editors without upset me. Technology is here to make things easy, not the other way around. Thanks for all the replies...

ryanesaurus Posted at 5-16 14:54
Sorry for venting but this is just the process I had to go through. I'm just tired of nothing ever working when it comes to technology (at least for me). The fact that I can't just record a 4k video and transfer it into one of the most well known movie editors without upset me. Technology is here to make things easy, not the other way around. Thanks for all the replies...

...at least a little expertise is useful if not necessary when dealing with high sophisticated HW (hardware )
And talking of photos, videos, different resolutions and all possible properties of them isn't a piece of cake at all. Double check your settings. Patience is the key and...read the fu..ing manuals! (no offense, mate)

It could have something to do with the codec. If you use 4k 60fps it uses H.265 codec and some video players do not support it. Try filming in 4k 30fps and changing the settings to H.264.

SD straight to computer

Windows/Android...   Never any problems!

djiuser_MzA6BUe3QF4z Posted at 5-17 05:45
It could have something to do with the codec. If you use 4k 60fps it uses H.265 codec and some video players do not support it. Try filming in 4k 30fps and changing the settings to H.264.

Praying for dji to support 4k60fps in h.264 codec!

Hi there, sorry for the late response, as other customers suggested, please try to export the footage from Micro SD card directly to your MacBook to see if the videos have the same issue, if yes, could you please upload a short original footage to Dropbox or Google Drive and post the link here for further analysis?

were you able to check h.265 vs h.264.   It will make a difference in all of the tools you may use.   

If you want the best quality, record in H.265 and then transcode to Prores if you're on a Mac that can't handle H.265 in realtime. It makes no sense to complain that the quality is poor and then use H.264 instead -- it isn't nearly as efficient and works with a lower bitrate to boot.

Hey I just got my Mavic air 2 model. I've got a question. Why the videos are whit better quality when downloaded on a laptop from when I download them on a phone?

When you download a 4K video to your phone it is down-scaled to the screen size and pixel density of the iPhone which is far lower than native 4K resolution.  Try download the files from the SD directly to a computer and see if that is the issue.  There is a misconception that the iPhone can play or edit true 4K and preserve quality.  This has been frequently discussed on YouTube forums relating to 4K uploads from mobile devices.

this is becasue you downloaded it to your phone so the quality of the videos was set to your phones

ryanesaurus Posted at 2020-5-16 14:54
Sorry for venting but this is just the process I had to go through. I'm just tired of nothing ever working when it comes to technology (at least for me). The fact that I can't just record a 4k video and transfer it into one of the most well known movie editors without upset me. Technology is here to make things easy, not the other way around. Thanks for all the replies...

I have run into the same issue.  iMovie is limited to 1080p60.  I have some great 4k footage from Greece that I still haven't gotten back to which I need to put on a pc to work out.  Yes, it sucks that it just doesn't work but live and learn.  There is a whole lot of processing power required to edit 4k video.

"I deleted the files from my SD card upon downloading. WTF!!!" - Live and learn, I validate media file copies from any device's card used before deleting or reformating it.


Is the "Shared Album" in iCloud? If so, here's a dated post about iCloud downsizing unless you overide - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8595019

Joe.Mavic.D.HH Posted at 2020-5-16 14:46
...how you ever made it to the moon?

Our people were much smarter back then. Today, in the land of "instant" everything. ( from oatmeal to Grams) We have come a long way down in patience, and tolerance. If it doesn't work right away, we crap ourselves. I'm no different.

JimDandy Posted at 2-9 02:00
Our people were much smarter back then. Today, in the land of "instant" everything. ( from oatmeal to Grams) We have come a long way down in patience, and tolerance. If it doesn't work right away, we crap ourselves. I'm no different.

I think that unfortunately applies to most of the so called 'industrialized' countries of the first generation. But actually one U.S.made problem seems to me, that education becomes more and more a matter of money and company investment. And therefor common sense and knowledge decreases.

Joe.Mavic.D.HH Posted at 2-9 06:58
I think that unfortunately applies to most of the so called 'industrialized' countries of the first generation. But actually one U.S.made problem seems to me, that education becomes more and more a matter of money and company investment. And therefor common sense and knowledge decreases.

Amen, That is why my wife and I decided to homeschool. Tired of the indoctrination to corporate America through public school. My daughter graduated with a 4.0, bachelors degree in psychology. My son in arts.  Should sum it all up for you there. Peace.

Skraeling Posted at 2020-5-16 14:11
I think this is his issue.  Go straight from sdcard to your pc

That's also what I do, remove the sd, plug it in my computer and.... it's not horrible bu not very impressive. It's not pixelated but it's grainy. There's some sort of grain moving all over the footage. Straight from the sd card to the computer without using any editing software or anything that would compress or affect the footage. It's really dissapointing.