Hi guys,

I know there are plenty of posts related to video stuttering. I've read a bunch of them and sincerely still think I have some issue on my Mavic.

I'm uploading an example where I definitely move too fast, but still... the image looks pretty crappy. I was recording at 2.7k, 24fps with 1/50~1/160 Shutter speed. I was also using a Samsung EVO 64G with 60MB/s writing speed, which should be fine.

Do you think I need to recalibrate the camera?

Follows the vid: https://we.tl/t-wl48mWap6L

Thanks for feedback!

Wow, that's unwatchable ... I'm afraid it is the sd card, I've had the same, it reads pretty fast, but write is much slower and that is what matters. To test this, try recording to internal storage of drone, that should be without the stutter.

As I've said i'm using using a Samsung EVO 64G with 60MB/s writing speed. I don't see why this speed wouldn't be enough...After all Mavic captures 100mbps which is 12,5 MB/s.
I've tried recording to the internal storage in another situations but it seems that it is the same...

i had a card similar to yours, rated for 50-60MB/Sec and i got even worse stutter, however my internal storage doesn't exhibit this issue, however it woukldnt surprise me if someone's did stutter because the storage is eMMC and eMMC is pretty slow and crap.     

wasn't until i switched to samsung 128GB Evo card with 80MB/Sec rating that my issue cleared up with SD cards.   i'm not sure of the math/logic behind it because you are right 100mb/sec is is 12.5MB/Sec   my only guess is the lower end samsung 60MB/sec evo cards are unable to sustain enough bandwidth, and 60MB/Sec is peak only or that encoding then writing process somehow very I/O intensive and those 60MB/Sec evo cards dont have enough IOPs to keep up?

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-23 16:07
i had a card similar to yours, rated for 50-60MB/Sec and i got even worse stutter, however my internal storage doesn't exhibit this issue, however it woukldnt surprise me if someone's did stutter because the storage is eMMC and eMMC is pretty slow and crap.     

wasn't until i switched to samsung 128GB Evo card with 80MB/Sec rating that my issue cleared up with SD cards.   i'm not sure of the math/logic behind it because you are right 100mb/sec is is 12.5MB/Sec   my only guess is the lower end samsung 60MB/sec evo cards are unable to sustain enough bandwidth, and 60MB/Sec is peak only or that encoding then writing process somehow very I/O intensive and those 60MB/Sec evo cards dont have enough IOPs to keep up?

Yeah internal storage is eMMC but I reeaaally doubt that they made an internal storage that is not able to properly write footage in the definition the camera has...

Anyways, I'm definitely gonna record only on the internal memory for now one, and monitor for a while if I see any of this stuttering again

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-23 16:07
i had a card similar to yours, rated for 50-60MB/Sec and i got even worse stutter, however my internal storage doesn't exhibit this issue, however it woukldnt surprise me if someone's did stutter because the storage is eMMC and eMMC is pretty slow and crap.     

wasn't until i switched to samsung 128GB Evo card with 80MB/Sec rating that my issue cleared up with SD cards.   i'm not sure of the math/logic behind it because you are right 100mb/sec is is 12.5MB/Sec   my only guess is the lower end samsung 60MB/sec evo cards are unable to sustain enough bandwidth, and 60MB/Sec is peak only or that encoding then writing process somehow very I/O intensive and those 60MB/Sec evo cards dont have enough IOPs to keep up?

Btw, I don't think that 60MB/s is the peak value.... I've done a test with the card on my pc and it was consistently writing at a  61~63 MB/s rate.

TiagoUA Posted at 1-24 02:02
Btw, I don't think that 60MB/s is the peak value.... I've done a test with the card on my pc and it was consistently writing at a  61~63 MB/s rate.

The. I’m not really sure why it would be struggling.. maybe you should refresh the drone’s firmware a few times maybe the encoder is struggling and needs a refresh(?).  You can do this by starting up drone and controller with the app as if you are going to fly, then on camera screen tap on DJI logo in upper left corner to go back to drone selection page, then upper right corner is 3 bars, press and hold this for about 5 seconds and should get a firmware page to update/rollback/refresh.  

Only theory I have left is based on an old Lexar card I had that does 50MB/sec continuously but kept getting errors for slow SD card and stutters.  Only thing I can think of that doesn’t make any sense is real-time recording then writing of 4K 100mb/sec has a high IOPs demand.. but that old Lexar card I tossed I think and I didn’t test it’s IOPs to compare,  I chalked it up to being old and worn out..

This one was recorded at FHD 60fps. PAN is fast but still with a smooth image

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-24 02:13
The. I’m not really sure why it would be struggling.. maybe you should refresh the drone’s firmware a few times maybe the encoder is struggling and needs a refresh(?).  You can do this by starting up drone and controller with the app as if you are going to fly, then on camera screen tap on DJI logo in upper left corner to go back to drone selection page, then upper right corner is 3 bars, press and hold this for about 5 seconds and should get a firmware page to update/rollback/refresh.  

Only theory I have left is based on an old Lexar card I had that does 50MB/sec continuously but kept getting errors for slow SD card and stutters.  Only thing I can think of that doesn’t make any sense is real-time recording then writing of 4K 100mb/sec has a high IOPs demand.. but that old Lexar card I tossed I think and I didn’t test it’s IOPs to compare,  I chalked it up to being old and worn out..

I see...I will have to buy another SD Card eventually.. and then I'll try it out. In any case, as you can see in my the previous video, for faster frame rates the stuttering is no visible, which makes me thinks it was just  me  moving the gimbal too fast considering the 25 fps ???

FHD 30 FPS, no filter this time. In the last yawing to the right you can notice a small stuttering... Although in Vimeo is not as noticeable as the original

Thank you for this post

As per what I've read (https://forum.dji.com/thread-165683-1-1.html), its uniquely related to fps vs yawing/gimbal movement speed. In any case, I'm gonna try out a 90MB/s writing speed SD card and let you know the results.

It seems the issue is with the camera settings.  if you have shot this in auto mode, there are reasons the ISO can be taken way higher on its own. The video will be more blurry when ISO is set high. Make sure that you put the camera in auto mode and set the ISO to 100 (anything above that will be blurry) as with there is no aperture to control in Mavic air you can first take off the flight about 10 feet height and set the shutter speed. People often say shutter speed is to be double with the frame rate. As there is no aperture if you set it double the video will be bleached out. You can play around with the shutter speed and check out various possibilities.

Astro Sapphire Posted at 1-27 22:22
It seems the issue is with the camera settings.  if you have shot this in auto mode, there are reasons the ISO can be taken way higher on its own. The video will be more blurry when ISO is set high. Make sure that you put the camera in auto mode and set the ISO to 100 (anything above that will be blurry) as with there is no aperture to control in Mavic air you can first take off the flight about 10 feet height and set the shutter speed. People often say shutter speed is to be double with the frame rate. As there is no aperture if you set it double the video will be bleached out. You can play around with the shutter speed and check out various possibilities.

not the case

Basically it turns out that the problem is uniquely related to fps/yaw speed. To record on 24/25 fps the movements have to be like ultra slow, but at 30fps everything runs smooth unless you speed up the movements too much, but this time I can move reasonably fast. At 60fps, it's butter smooth all the way. Hope it helps someone.

Maybe check if your SD card is genuine Fake SD Cards.
There are a few online tests such as this one Fake SD Card Tests

If your SD card is much cheaper than usual then best of luck

I think your problem is probably the card. Best to buy a card that is 4K rated and has a write speed of at least 100MB/s. Good luck

I've already explained what is the problem. If you guys would at least read the discussion... Your advices dont make sense, with all the respect, and I've already explained why. Please don't share misinformation among users. A 60MB's quality SD card will have no issue for 4K recording, ever.

TiagoUA Posted at 2-20 04:10
I've already explained what is the problem. If you guys would at least read the discussion... Your advices dont make sense, with all the respect, and I've already explained why. Please don't share misinformation among users. A 60MB's quality SD card will have no issue for 4K recording, ever.

Hi, While I'm not entirely sure about which model of the evo card you actually have, the 60MB/s is a max rating, not a minimal guaranteed/sustained rating. An U1 card 'only' has a 10MB/s minimal write rating, and I have had such a samsung evo card (orange/yellow-ish) and it gave me nothing but pain in the MA - works fine, just too slow. The red 128/256 GB version (U3, 30MB/s write minimum) works like a charm.
I've also had another look at your video, and I do appreciate that there is an interaction between shutter speed and the frame rate, but there are a lot of dropped/duplicate frames in the beginning where the video stutters. The 'effective' frame rate appears much lower than the 24 fps 'we' are expecting, hence the stuttering. However, unless the shutter speed dropped significantly below 1/30, the fast movements/fps need not be the only explanation.