So I recorded a lot of video on many flights. Each flight I start  recording before takeoff and stop recording after landing. As you can  see, there is a lot of fluff and only a small segment of each flight  video is useable. I want to create one long video that is a combination  and compilation of slices and segments from the many videos that I had  recorded using the Mavic.

I recorded them all in 4k using the 24fps, no editing or post processing or anything whatsoever yet.


Is there a simple way of using a software or tool that can just allow me  to slice and combine without having to spend time to convert/ process  /etc?

The reason I'm asking is because I noticed that whenever I do use Adobe  software to do such a compilation the end result is NEVER anywhere near  as sharp as the original 4k MP4 that the Mavic spits out on my microsd  card.

So in theory why can't it be possible to use a tool just to tell it to  slice at this time index for each video and then combine them without  having to spend hours of "rendering" or processing or whatever, and most  importantly without having to reduce imagine/video quality. I mean  isn't there a completely lossless way of doing this?

I'm not even doing anything complicated like adding music, speeding up  or slowing down time, transitions or any other effects etc, since they  are ALL recorded from the same Mavic at the same 4k 24fps in the same  format MP4 unto the same microsd card there should be an easier way to  do what I'm trying to do, not to mention it could be completely lossless  rather than suffering an image degredation

any tip?                                                

If you're just looking to cut and splice, use the editor in the dji go app.  You can download the original with that tap of a button to your phone, and stitch them together there.  That would keep it super simple.  Keep in mind that you'd have way less control over the video than imovie, or FCP.

It really depends on how "good" you want your footage to be? I use Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro. Although very expensive software you will get the best results out of post by using software such as that.  It allows you infinite freedom to make the footage the way you want it to look. If you are not interested in that then I suggest iMovie (if using a Mac) or even GoPro's editing software since it's free and does a decent job of cutting and splicing footage. Certainly not the best but useable. I'm sure there are other programs out there that accomplish the same task but I myself am not interested in them. Having over $10k worth of photo / video equipment I want the best that I can get for my footage. You bought a nice drone... I'd assume you would want the same. You'll have to spend a little to make your footage look presentable.

I had a difficult time getting my edited movies to look good on export in Premiere until I discovered I had to create a custom sequence that used the proper res and format for my source video. Do a search for Premiere and 4K on the forum, there are lots of threads about this.

As for easiest, I agree with Hybrid33, just use the DJI editor -- but make sure you download the full-res video first or it will use the low-res cached versions.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-2-21 14:34
I had a difficult time getting my edited movies to look good on export in Premiere until I discovered I had to create a custom sequence that used the proper res and format for my source video. Do a search for Premiere and 4K on the forum, there are lots of threads about this.

As for easiest, I agree with Hybrid33, just use the DJI editor -- but make sure you download the full-res video first or it will use the low-res cached versions.

Can you please share your settings for exporting in Primiere. I have been using a YouTube 1080p.mp4

I agree with Ex Machina, it's just finding the right export settings.  I don't believe there is any reason the export from Premiere Pro can't look the same as the original.  I just upgraded to CC and it has a 4K Youtube preset that I think looks as good as you can get on Youtube.  It sets things to 3840x2160 (1.0) 29.97fps, Progressive, VBR, 1 pass, Target 40Mbps, Max 40Mbps.  I think a low Bitrate is what kills the quality.

Craig540 Posted at 2017-2-22 13:34
Can you please share your settings for exporting in Primiere. I have been using a YouTube 1080p.mp4

First I had to create a custom sequence preset that contained the proper video dimensions and frame rate for my source 2.7K video, then I added my source files to that sequence for editing.

These are my settings for 2.7K/30fps source. For 4K you'd update the width/height and change the target/max bitrates in the export dialog to 60mbps. Hope this helps.

Machina has the best way. For 4k you want 60 target, 80 max, 2 pass. I check the render and depth boxes.

It used to be free and easy to do what you want. Back when avi was popular you could use a freeware program called virtual dub. Allowed you to open any format, edit it, append, and then save it back using direct stream copy of the originals. I still have it on disk somewhere if you wanted it. They did have a ff plugin developed that allowed you to edit any format, but you still have the same problem when you go to save, it has to be avi. So no direct stream copy is allowed in other formats, even append won't work with h.264

Maybe they have a fix for it now days that will let you direct stream save in mp4 or mov format. Not sure haven't used it in years. I would look it up though, it used to be a nice program to slap together camera video without encoding anything.

thehippoz Posted at 2017-2-22 17:29
Machina has the best way. For 4k you want 60 target, 80 max, 2 pass. I check the render and depth boxes.

It used to be free and easy to do what you want. Back when avi was popular you could use a freeware program called virtual dub. Allowed you to open any format, edit it, append, and then save it back using direct stream copy of the originals. I still have it on disk somewhere if you wanted it. They did have a ff plugin developed that allowed you to edit any format, but you still have the same problem when you go to save, it has to be avi. So no direct stream copy is allowed in other formats, even append won't work with h.264

That's pretty depthy

DRONE-flies-YOU Posted at 2017-2-22 17:37
That's pretty depthy

i7 6800 overclocked gets it done np For youtube

I know handbrake will encode for free, but premiere still the best imo. 3dmax, premiere, and after effects. You have everything you need except skill to make a transformers movie! I wish they would make another pacific rim movie

U are right at the first place. Adobe premiere pro can not produce a good quality H.264 file no matter what kind of setting u are ( e.g. : render at maximum quality, give the highest bitrate, etc) . Because their crappy codec. There is quite a few review to show the quality is better generated by FCX THAN IN premiere pro on YouTube. If u really wanna do it in premiere pro, please get a third party codec like x.264 instead. But it takes more time for export.

fansae69260e Posted at 2017-2-22 19:19
U are right at the first place. Adobe premiere pro can not produce a good quality H.264 file no matter what kind of setting u are ( e.g. : render at maximum quality, give the highest bitrate, etc) . Because their crappy codec. There is quite a few review to show the quality is better generated by FCX THAN IN premiere pro on YouTube. If u really wanna do it in premiere pro, please get a third party codec like x.264 instead. But it takes more time for export.

Interesting.. I'll give it a shot. I'm not losing quality in premiere exports far as I can see. Compare to the source and it's good. You could use h.265 if you want to change codecs, don't see a reason to when it comes to Youtube.

Youtube is one of those things you have to export a certain way or all the lower res rips look really like bad.

bochen7:

VirtualDub was the way to do what you want but may not work well today (and wasn't particularly user friendly). I think today you would use ffmpeg instead. It is (also) a free tool. Here's an article I found that may work for you: http://superuser.com/questions/1 ... -without-reencoding

For video editing I use BlackMagic Resolve 12.5 (which is also free). I gives you a grading tool if you need to do some color correction.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-2-22 16:19
First I had to create a custom sequence preset that contained the proper video dimensions and frame rate for my source 2.7K video, then I added my source files to that sequence for editing.

These are my settings for 2.7K/30fps source. For 4K you'd update the width/height and change the target/max bitrates in the export dialog to 60mbps. Hope this helps.

I have been looking for exactly this info, thanks!

As others have said, the reason you're not seeing as good of quality when you export is probably a problem with your video export settings, not a fault of an Adobe editing product.

Here is DJI Mavic 4K to Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer best workflow. Read it you may get some hints.

As for me, I usually use Joyoshare Media Cutter to cut videos, remove unwanted parts and join the rest together losslessly and fast. This video cutter is very good at trimming videos and audios without damaging the original quality. I'm happy with it till now.

Any video converting tool will do. Like Wondershare UniConverter. I have chosen this program because it is lightweight and has a very fast conversion speed.