I just got my P4 Standard for Christmas, along with lord knows how many other people lol. Took it out for a maiden flight at the beach, everything working perfectly. Got some great dusk footage.

I ended up shooting I believe a 2.7k MOV, 16:9, 30fps. Left everything else on default. So I get home and load the footage up on my mac to bring into after effects, and it looks a little pixelated, almost like it’s too sharp. Not too great looking, and Im certain this is a settings issue.

I’m not a pro cinematographer or anything, so I guess Im just looking for some very basic tips, general settings I need to change to get some better quality footage and Ill be good to go from there.

I did read that settings sharpness, saturation and contrast all to -2 is helpful, but I havent tried it yet.

Was that the video from the SD card you were looking at ?

Reason I ask is that the video stored on your display device (and available to its editor) is the cache of the 720P 'Live Stream' video.

p.s.  it's just a &apos4', the 'other' one is the &apos4 Pro'

It depends on what resolution your monitor is. If you have a 1080p monitor and you are playing 2.7k on it, it will be slightly sharper as the computer is trying to shove more pixels into the image than the monitor will allow.

Aardvark Posted at 2016-12-27 00:50
Was that the video from the SD card you were looking at ?

Reason I ask is that the video stored on your display device (and available to its editor) is the cache of the 720P 'Live Stream' video.

It was saved from my sd card to my imac. Pretty noisy looking video.

MrPinaColada Posted at 2016-12-27 02:36
It depends on what resolution your monitor is. If you have a 1080p monitor and you are playing 2.7k on it, it will be slightly sharper as the computer is trying to shove more pixels into the image than the monitor will allow.

I was just viewing it on my imac, 1920x1080. Basically what im just trying to figure out is how to get these to look great on youtube.

I havent rendered it out of after effects yet, so I guess its possible that once I do and upload it to YT, it will look fine. Not sure yet. Just wasnt sure why it looked messy just playing the MOV on my imac.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-26 19:10
It was saved from my sd card to my imac. Pretty noisy looking video.

Can you upload an original unedited copy of the file to drop-box and post a link here for us to see ?

Aardvark Posted at 2016-12-27 03:17
Can you upload an original unedited copy of the file to drop-box and post a link here for us to see ?

Sure, I will when I can.

My suggestion:  look at Tom's Tech Time on YouTube for some video settings.  I am still playing around with them--I changed mine, but was not happy with the result.

fansd857abd9 Posted at 2016-12-26 22:11
My suggestion:  look at Tom's Tech Time on YouTube for some video settings.  I am still playing around with them--I changed mine, but was not happy with the result.

4k @ 30 fps, 1/60th second shutter, Colour D-Cinelike, Auto White Balance, ND8 filter for typically overcast day, ND16 for typically Sunny day, or whatever is needed to get EV value close to 0 for 'correct' exposure. Smooth out Pans & tilts. Render to 4k @ 30 fps or 1080 @ 30 fps. Produces some nice video.

Edit:- ISO 100, or 200 at a push

When you say "dusk" how dark was it ? and what ISO was the camera using ? My top tip would be don't use any setting that has the word "Auto" in it. Auto gives the camera remit to change the setting mid video which is generally something you don't want.

birdingbilly Posted at 2016-12-27 09:44
When you say "dusk" how dark was it ? and what ISO was the camera using ? My top tip would be don't use any setting that has the word "Auto" in it. Auto gives the camera remit to change the setting mid video which is generally something you don't want.

Yes, and it is particularly true with regard to auto white balance, as it can have an unfortunate habit of 'pumping' while in flight.

Well I threw this up on youtube as a test. No post production on this so this is right out of the camera. I think this was actually recorded at the size right below 4k at 30fps. It looks really noisey on youtube until you pull it up full screen where it looks a little better. So idk what Im doing wrong.

I saw someone say that recording at 2.7k and lowering the sharpness 1 or 2 notches helps.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-27 12:37
Well I threw this up on youtube as a test. No post production on this so this is right out of the camera. I think this was actually recorded at the size right below 4k at 30fps. It looks really noisey on youtube until you pull it up full screen where it looks a little better. So idk what Im doing wrong.

I saw someone say that recording at 2.7k and lowering the sharpness 1 or 2 notches helps.

Unfortunately the video is set to private and can't see it, can you please set it to public?

Damn sorry about that.

So it looks like now that everything has processed on YT, things are looking better than they were. Still some weird noise in the water, around the trees, so this could be a sharpness issue. If I drop that down a point or 2 it may fix it.
I think the problem I was having must have been trying to fiew a 4k vid native out of the camera on a 1920x1080 imac screen.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-27 12:10
So it looks like now that everything has processed on YT, things are looking better than they were. Still some weird noise in the water, around the trees, so this could be a sharpness issue. If I drop that down a point or 2 it may fix it.
I think the problem I was having must have been trying to fiew a 4k vid native out of the camera on a 1920x1080 imac screen.

I've just played that back from YT in 4k and viewed on my 4k monitor and couldn't see much wrong in terms of noise. You could do with locking exposure (and possibly WB), and I would avoid landing on sand and stones that may lead to problems of grit in motors and/or gimbal/ filters getting damaged. Get a piece of 2'x2' hardboard to land on.  I normally just hand catch, but that is up to each individual to assess the risks.
You will lose some quality in YT, and depending on the iMac spec' it may have struggled to playback the 4k smoothly. Even allowing for the fact that it was scaling to to fit the 1080P screen.

Yeah i realized how dumb it was taking off on a beach after I did it. Hasnt effected anything though. I flew it twice after this and it worked fine. Unfortunately its going to be pretty windy here for the next 2 days so I cant practice more.

looks fine to me - your flypast at 7.53, obstacle avoidance turned off ? - if not I am surprised it didn't react  

birdingbilly Posted at 2016-12-28 07:16
looks fine to me - your flypast at 7.53, obstacle avoidance turned off ? - if not I am surprised it didn't react

I was actually surprised too. I'm pretty sure it's turned on. Something weird that I noticed though, you know those radar indicators in the go app? Even when I just have it sitting in my living room and walk right up to it, they never go more than 3 levels deep. Ive seen vids where people test it and those bars hit like 6 levels deep. Mine doesnt do that. No idea why.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-27 23:35
I was actually surprised too. I'm pretty sure it's turned on. Something weird that I noticed though, you know those radar indicators in the go app? Even when I just have it sitting in my living room and walk right up to it, they never go more than 3 levels deep. Ive seen vids where people test it and those bars hit like 6 levels deep. Mine doesnt do that. No idea why.

that doesn't sound correct - a gentle test of obstacle avoidance might be in order

trenken Posted at 2016-12-28 07:35
I was actually surprised too. I'm pretty sure it's turned on. Something weird that I noticed though, you know those radar indicators in the go app? Even when I just have it sitting in my living room and walk right up to it, they never go more than 3 levels deep. Ive seen vids where people test it and those bars hit like 6 levels deep. Mine doesnt do that. No idea why.

Based on the video, it may had been too dark for the sensors to really activate obstacle avoidance. When you test at home, is the room well lit and you provide plenty of contrast from the background? You can try calibrating the sensors in the Assistant 2 software if you feel that it's off.

@trenken, Aardvark mentioned in a thread of mine turn off 3d noise reduction, i had massive amount of noise in my camera, infact my camera was pants from the start i tried everything, final fix was i RESET the whole camera and turned off 3d noise.

my settings are
Dcinelike
iso 100
wb 5600
4k 30 fps
shutter 60
-1 0 0

also remember when recording at 4k go SLOW and STEADY this helps capture all that detail as best as possible, to help smooth out pans etc try these settings here http://forum.dji.com/thread-48578-2-1.html post 46 helped me fly smoother.

also check out this guys YT he talks through the settings and he must be doing something rite as his vids are crisp clear.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDTjS-qvuwCKMeI0hgPFBDw

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-12-28 13:16
Based on the video, it may had been too dark for the sensors to really activate obstacle avoidance. When you test at home, is the room well lit and you provide plenty of contrast from the background? You can try calibrating the sensors in the Assistant 2 software if you feel that it's off.

I tired to use that software. Doesnt work on my mac or pc. On my mac it gets into the calibration process, but those boxes that are supposed to come up, never do. And on the pc it cant even get into calibration process, it just gets caught in a loop of telling me to reboot the aircraft. Gave up on it.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-28 21:30
I tired to use that software. Doesnt work on my mac or pc. On my mac it gets into the calibration process, but those boxes that are supposed to come up, never do. And on the pc it cant even get into calibration process, it just gets caught in a loop of telling me to reboot the aircraft. Gave up on it.

Are the two computers you used laptops or desktops? If it's the latter, are they dual or single monitor set ups? Just to clarify, are you not able to get to the screen at 0:51 or at the 1:00 mark of the video below?

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-12-29 01:23
Are the two computers you used laptops or desktops? If it's the latter, are they dual or single monitor set ups? Just to clarify, are you not able to get to the screen at 0:51 or at the 1:00 mark of the video below?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ... CztUE9JaFK8&index=7

PC is a laptop, imac is a desktop. Single monitors. The software doesnt work right on either. On the mac when I get into that big square that you are supposed to see things in, its just blank white permanently for me. On the PC I cant even get that far. It just constantly asks to reboot the aircraft.

is there anyway to prevent the blur when the camera turns left and right

trenken Posted at 2016-12-29 02:08
PC is a laptop, imac is a desktop. Single monitors. The software doesnt work right on either. On the mac when I get into that big square that you are supposed to see things in, its just blank white permanently for me. On the PC I cant even get that far. It just constantly asks to reboot the aircraft.

Are both the Mac and PC on relately new OS and specs? Could you happen to provide some screenshots of what you're experiencing?

i will try to upload some video to show you.  But its almost like when you look left and write it cant process the motion fast enough...    Im also trying to figure out how to hover and then just control the video camera... can move just the video camera and look around.. if so, how do you do it

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-12-29 03:31
Are both the Mac and PC on relately new OS and specs? Could you happen to provide some screenshots of what you're experiencing?

Sure, I will do it tomorrow. Both are pretty new machines, within the last 2 years.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-29 11:30
Sure, I will do it tomorrow. Both are pretty new machines, within the last 2 years.

Whenever you have a chance would be great.

Here is the mac version. Nothing happens on this screen at all. Stuck here permanently until I exit out. Doing the PC version now.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-12-28 21:22
Whenever you have a chance would be great.

Just posted the mac version. Here is the PC. Keeps telling me to reboot and it does this on both of my pc laptops.

Just tried it on my gf's PC. When you get to the screen where youre supposed to click start calibration, its greyed out with a loading icon to the right of it, doesnt even tell me to reboot the aircraft. And at this point the software is totally locked up. Cant X out of it. Have to control alt delete it. So Ive tried it on 4 different machines. Doesnt work on any of them.

trenken Posted at 2016-12-29 11:06
Just posted the mac version. Here is the PC. Keeps telling me to reboot and it does this on both of my pc laptops.

[view_image]

Could you happen to repost the image, it didn't seem to come through.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-12-29 11:37
Could you happen to repost the image, it didn't seem to come through.

mac version

I use custom settings in style menu -2 -2 -2 to get rid of the pixeled over detailed effect in the video. You can get the sharpness back in post.

I was just outside flying, and switched the camera over to manual mode, and the image was completely blown out. I saw that the EV was +2, but couldnt adjust it. ISO was at 100 so Im guessing it must be because of that EV, but there is no way to adjust it in the app in manual mode.

trenken Posted at 2017-1-1 12:56
I was just outside flying, and switched the camera over to manual mode, and the image was completely blown out. I saw that the EV was +2, but couldnt adjust it. ISO was at 100 so Im guessing it must be because of that EV, but there is no way to adjust it in the app in manual mode.

You adjust exposure using the right hand control wheel on the RC unit.