Pretty much everything with this hardware Is great, I would say (some may disagree, and that’s OK). But the one thing that keeps me disappointed every time I look at the footage is the H264 compression. First of all DJI needto enable and I frame recording and push the bitrate as much as they can. Looking at my footage it’s obvious that the compression artifacts are smoothing small details everywhere in the image, looking like wax. The GOP sequence also limits you fromdoing any fast pans or tilts without major compression problems. H264 compression will actually look great, as long as you have the bitrate supporting the resolution, and right now they are not in sync. I haven’t tried the 1080p mode yet but I suspect that the bitrate will be lower. There is no need for variable bitrate really, a higher constant bitrate mode would generate better quality and save computational power.

I guess they will be releasing a Pro camera modell, featuring ProresHQ 4K, in the near future. Then ill have to buy that one also

Please, DJI. To get the most out of H264 recording please optimize settings :
Intra frame mode
Higher bitrate(constant mode, even better!!) 120Mbps(15mb/sec) would be a good start for 4K/UHD footage.

regards
Mike



Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=8
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 60.0 Mbps
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels

Sure thing,


I totally agree. Especially for the I-frame encoding and bit-rate. I think due to the sharpness of the image.

When I set sharpness to -1 it looks to soft, but the artifacts are reduced drastically. When set to 0. little to sharp.
The jumping off the key-framing is very annoying.


I also noticed that 1920x1080 30 the bit-rate is only 25mbps.


Build in an option to choose you mbps setting. So you can choose between 20 and 120 mbps.

That would be really nice.

Good suggestions.
But high bitrate does not equal to high quality. It can also lead to high redundancy. Actually the GOP size used by Inspire 1 has already been a small value. Further reducing it will cause high bit-rate but no more improvements of details (high redundancy). A direct improvement is to reduce qp. But it also pulls down the memory efficiency, because the encoder is not the only core in the SoC.

Bit rates are quite disappointing. I would support a variable bit rate option. Adjustable bit rates of up to 50Mbs for 1080p25, 100 Mbs for 1080p50 increasing to something in the order of 200Mbs for 4k25 would be ideal imho.

I'm just so frustrated since I know this gear could really be so awesome and now limited. The image quality is so poor just because of totally unnecessary compression artifacts.  Please DJI, there are no excuses for having such a low setting on the bitrate.  40mbps for HD and 60mbps for UHD/4K, that's just completely destroys the image detail. And it just makes me so disappointed. I flew through some low clouds today and the image looked so beautiful in the monitor. But when I got it into my computer I could see those awful macroblocks dancing around making it all look like some stopmotion thing.

The H264 compression will look fantastic if you feed it with the proper bitrate! Let us see this implemented into the next firmware. As of now I can't really use it in a professional production just because of that and it's so extremely annoying knowing it's "probably just" a parameter in the camera that needs to be changed. Prores on the other hand, that's a different ballpark.



Regards
Mike

is there a possibility to mount a GoPro4 on the Inspire to get rid of the bad artefacts in the image?

Interesting question, not at the moment but since the gimbal is interchangeable there could be an opening for third party cameras. But I doubt it will happen. Im looking forward to an updated camera with some more pro features.

Inspire 1 gimbal 2.0:
4K Prores422Global shutter
120fps in 1080p


Awesome!


/m

Mike is 100% right with this.

This is DJI's own forum - why are you not replying?

I completely agree. It's heartbreaking to have beautiful 4K shots ruined by compression artifacts. This is supposed to be a prosumer drone meant for film making. You can get cleaner looking shots with a GoPro 4 on a Phantom II with a 3 axis gimbal.  

DJI-CAO Posted at 2015-3-11 14:51
Good suggestions.
But high bitrate does not equal to high quality. It can also lead to high redundan ...

The problem with the current compression settings is visible pulsing in the image.  This is due to the compression rate being so high that noticeable deterioration occurs between keyframes.  This cannot be remedied later in the pipeline.  Consequently, many of us have been informed by various clients (whether broadcasters or high-end corporate entities) that footage from the Inspire camera is not acceptable for their use.  These are clients who would accept H.264 footage that used higher bit rates and less compression.

The easiest solution is to make the compression settings user-configurable.  There is no reason for them to be hard-coded in firmware.

Most likely the reason for such low bitrate is processor heat issues. Encoding a higher bit rates for an extended period of time will overheat the encoder CPU circuit, lifespan will be greatly reduced with a risk of frying the camera electronics.  

I have a suggestion - please DJI take a note!

• Please make a High-Bitrate mode that runs for a limited period of time (15-30 sec) with a cooldown period. Have the cooling fan run at max while shooting and a dosen seconds after done. This will minimize the risk of running the electronics at high temps.
  

This mode will let us film final "production print" quality files as opposed to regular shots without the need for upgrading hardware. Current Inspire camera should be able to handle short bursts of high bitrate shots without issues. DJI should seriously consider giving Inspire owners options like this since this product is falling into a more high-end margin of the currently available product lines.

ge0se Posted at 2015-5-11 09:14
Most likely the reason for such low bitrate is processor heat issues. Encoding a higher bit rates fo ...

i certainly hope you're wrong.  If you are not, it would render our investment valueless to us.  15-20 second bursts of adequate-quality video are of no use to us.

Still awaiting commentary from DJI on this..,

ge0se Posted at 2015-5-11 09:14
Most likely the reason for such low bitrate is processor heat issues. Encoding a higher bit rates fo ...

I don't think this is the issue here, GoPro manages to get it "right" with the HERO4, If we do an unscientific comparison side by side. But Im still hoping for DJI R&D department to wrap their heads around this. We will see I guess, firmware, firmware , firmware......

Any news on this DJI? Forum members, please be quiet so we can hear If they whisper anything.

I also have compression problem on my Phantom 3 4K footage. Sort of flashes each 8 GOP on certain kind of shot... Because of bad codec and too low bitrate. The only solution I'm forced to use is this plugins http://www.digitalanarchy.com/Flicker/main.html

DJI ? 100Mbps experimental mode ?.........

DJI  - Just produce another camera made for the job. The inspire can easily carry one 50% larger if needed (probably twice the size) and if you can cram an APSC sensor in there that would be nice.

PeteGould Posted at 2015-5-11 21:43
i certainly hope you're wrong.  If you are not, it would render our investment valueless to us.  1 ...

I am afraid he is correct about the "heat issue" ...
Processing high resolution at high bit rate is "stressing" the electronics and this could probably be the reason to why they limit this in the Inspire 1 camera.

However the sollution suggested might not need to be as drastic as a 15-30sec limit.
Could be alot longer before there is a heat issue (as the camera do have a fan).

But maybe the camera has no heat scensor and would burn instead of turning it self off if over heated ...

Please sign this petition - https://www.change.org/p/dji-100 ... ntom-3-professional

Hi, i shared and support the petition.

Another option would be 1080p with a higher bitrate, why is the bitrate only 40Mbps at 1080p? Reducing the resolution should enable a higher bitrate, without any heat problems.
A 1080p/100Mbps video mode would be another option, perhaps you can add this to your petition.

Totally Agree I love the I1 hardware but this codec limitation is for me the reason not buying the X5

Bit rate needs to be at least 480 Mbps (60 MB/s) to be on par with Pro 4k cameras (Blackmagic, Red etc)

Minimum I would say 220 Mbps (same as 1080p in Pro cameras in ProRes HQ)

X3 is just about as good as the X5.  Just no reason to upgrade at this time.

As DJI more listen to their bank account in place of the customers, with regrets I think to leave them and look for a Yuneec Tornado with a GH4, at least I will be sure about my footage, flying time, and super customer service. Perhaps DJI will start a new Spreading Wings set ? For sure the X5 is money in the wastebasket.

The bit rate is terrible on the X5.

It was the biggest problem with the X3 and now it goes unchanged for the X5.