Hi, can anyone tell me if it is really possible to change video compression settings? In the manual they say "You can record video in either MOV h.264 or MP4 formats."  Where can I change it?
Thank you in advance.
Daniele

MOV and MP4 are just container formats. I don't think that the compression can be changed.

Actually, the video format for Spark is only MP4 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264), there is no other option to change. And thank you for your feedback, we are aware of the description of the user manual, and will have someone to fix it soon.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-8 20:40
Actually, the video format for Spark is only MP4 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264), there is no other option to change. And thank you for your feedback, we are aware of the description of the user manual, and will have someone to fix it soon.

So rewrite the manual instead of rewriting firmware?  .MOV is useful for macs to quickly export.  That’s a shame..

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-8-8 21:03
So rewrite the manual instead of rewriting firmware?  .MOV is useful for macs to quickly export.  That’s a shame..

Sorry to tell it doesn't support .MOV format. We will correct the manual.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-8-10 00:33
Sorry to tell it doesn't support .MOV format. We will correct the manual.

why not add it instead...?    so is the spark for PC only now?

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-8-10 00:47
why not add it instead...?    so is the spark for PC only now?

It mainly dues to the hardware of the drone. But I'll transfer this requirement and let R&D department aware of this.

MP4 and MOV are almost identical container formats. The reason for that is that Apple "donated" it to MPEG for standardization. So from that I would even say that MP4 container format is from the Mac world than PC. Also AFAIK everything that supports h264 video codec (on macOS) also should support MP4. Considering all this I don't even know why bother with MOV at all... I would be much happier if they worked on something much more relevant (like more FPS options for video). And also if you really need h264 in MOV, you can losslessly and fast convert it from MP4.

I don't care for *.mov - don't even think of adding it ;)
Give us RAW and dlog

You can easily rename the .mp4 extension to .mov on the files if nessesary. It works just fine.

LeChuck71 Posted at 2017-8-10 06:21
I don't care for *.mov - don't even think of adding it ;)
Give us RAW and dlog

This. Plus increase  the video resolution to at least 1440p QHD and well be happy as we can ever be

quikee Posted at 2017-8-10 05:05
MP4 and MOV are almost identical container formats. The reason for that is that Apple "donated" it to MPEG for standardization. So from that I would even say that MP4 container format is from the Mac world than PC. Also AFAIK everything that supports h264 video codec (on macOS) also should support MP4. Considering all this I don't even know why bother with MOV at all... I would be much happier if they worked on something much more relevant (like more FPS options for video). And also if you really need h264 in MOV, you can losslessly and fast convert it from MP4.

for mac fans, if you ever use FCP on mac, you know it is extremely fast as importing and exporting .MOV, but with .MP4 it has slightly bit of extra overhead is added in FCP which doesn't add too much time but its still annoying.  also.. like you said, very very similar so why not just do it..

also im all for 1440P/cinelike/dlog     

Thanks for your replay DJI Thor. It is a pity. Anyway I hope for some update about camera settings, for example frame rate (25fps could be useful).
Thank you.

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-8-10 10:22
for mac fans, if you ever use FCP on mac, you know it is extremely fast as importing and exporting .MOV, but with .MP4 it has slightly bit of extra overhead is added in FCP which doesn't add too much time but its still annoying.  also.. like you said, very very similar so why not just do it..

also im all for 1440P/cinelike/dlog

Sounds like a problem with Apple/FCP. As has been said, MOV or MP4 are just extensions, the actual file is h.264 either way. It should be handled equally.

Try different software? iMovie? Premiere?

Fwiw: no issues running either file on my Win10 system and Premiere Pro.

Just change the extension to .mov and you'll be fine with fast import in FCP

OneMatt Posted at 2017-8-15 04:44
Sounds like a problem with Apple/FCP. As has been said, MOV or MP4 are just extensions, the actual file is h.264 either way. It should be handled equally.

Try different software? iMovie? Premiere?

FCP on a MacBook Pro using .MOV vs a high end PC using adobe premier using .MP4 ... like for like same video just exporting test.. MacBook Pro will win in how fast it will exports natively.   However using Adobe premier with .mov or .mp4 will always be slower.  

Sigh.... This wasn't a Mac VS windows debate. Still got the fanboy answer.

OneMatt Posted at 2017-8-15 05:08
Sigh.... This wasn't a Mac VS windows debate. Still got the fanboy answer.

I don’t have a Mac LOL.  I’m just not anti apple.  I have a hugely overkill PC with  8 core 16 thread broadwell-e Xeon (before Ryzen launched) and relatively recently got myself a 1080Ti .. but even so my friends stupid MacBook Pro from 2016 beat my rig with FCP vs me with Premier Pro.. 4K 30GB file..  and yes my SSDs are faster as well..  

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-8-15 04:49
FCP on a MacBook Pro using .MOV vs a high end PC using adobe premier using .MP4 ... like for like same video just exporting test.. MacBook Pro will win in how fast it will exports natively.   However using Adobe premier with .mov or .mp4 will always be slower.

I also own a DJI Spark. And indeed, due to the the hardware I think it's limited to only record compressed MP4 (H.264).
I use Filmora (Windows) to edit the videos and I noticed the picture quality wasn't going smooth.
I solved this converting the MP4 video with FFMPEG to MPEG2 codec.

For those who are interested, here is the command for it:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -codec:v mpeg2video -qscale:v 2 -b:v 16384k -bufsize 4096k -maxrate 30000k -r 29.97 output.mpg

DanDirector Posted at 2017-8-15 02:59
Thanks for your replay DJI Thor. It is a pity. Anyway I hope for some update about camera settings, for example frame rate (25fps could be useful).
Thank you.

True indeed!