The superfine mode for 4K24/25 and 1080p/24/25/30 seems to involve denoising and does *not* result in increased bitrates.  In fact, the bitrates and file sizes for superfine are much LOWER in than for non-superfine.  Can anyone confirm? DJI, can you explain exactly what superfine is doing in the video procesing pipeline?

My take on this is that superfine is applying a denoising filter prior to compression, then applies a variable bit rate compression.   Non-superfine does not apply the denoise (more detail preservation but it "looks" much noisier especially in low light) and appears to preserve a close to 100Mbit/sec bitrate (though still VBR) for all 4K framerates.  In low light conditions I've seen the overall bitrate for superfine drop to as low as 11Mbit/sec for 4K and 2MBit/sec for 1080p. This makes sense if compression is *after* denoising, and for static, low light scenes (noise has been removed so codec compression very drastically reduces file size).  For anyone thinking that superfine vs non-superfine makes little impact, that may be true for bright light scenes, but there is a massive difference in the noise-detail tradeoff for low light (which I always shoot at 24 or 25fps for the longer 1/25 shutter times in both modes).

For instance, here's Daum Potplayer file info for a 4K24 normal color mode wihout superfine:
Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L5.1
Format settings                : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames      : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP           : M=1, N=30
Codec ID                       : avc1
Codec ID/Info                  : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                       : 6 s 6 ms
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Bit rate                       : 100.0 Mb/s
Width                          : 3 840 pixels
Height                         : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.503
Stream size                    : 71.8 MiB (100%)
Title                          : DJI.AVC
Language                       : English
Encoded date                   : UTC 2019-05-27 01:52:59
Tagged date                    : UTC 2019-05-27 01:52:59
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709
Codec configuration box        : avcC


and the same scene with superfine on:

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L5.1
Format settings                : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames      : 1 frame
Codec ID                       : avc1
Codec ID/Info                  : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                       : 4 s 421 ms
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Bit rate                       : 10.3 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate               : 100.0 Mb/s
Width                          : 3 840 pixels
Height                         : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.052
Stream size                    : 5.44 MiB (97%)
Title                          : DJI.AVC
Language                       : English
Encoded date                   : UTC 2019-05-27 01:53:13
Tagged date                    : UTC 2019-05-27 01:53:13
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709
Codec configuration box        : avcC



For D-Cine color mode the difference in bitrate for superfine vs non-superfine is less but still very apparent in the footatge (the superfine denoising tends to make the low light scense look very blotchy, some loss of detail):

For instance, the same scene as above without superfine and D-cine:  100 Mb/s  VBR
while with superfine and D-cine, the same scene was: Bit rate 67.3 Mb/s (overall)  / Max bit rate 100.0 Mb/s

There's a similar comparison for 1080p (unlike some comments I've seen, superfine does NOT increase the bit rate to 100Mbit in 1080p...rather, it appears to apply the same denoise-then compress pipeline resulitng in drastically smaller, less noisey, and less detailed videos.  At 1080p24 the bitrate is 33Mbit/s for non-sueprfine, and always *less* for superfine depending on the scene (since it depends on how well the denoise resulted in a lower variable bitrate required)

Something I wondered about too.

From your results, it seems a choice between low light quality vs detail ?

I actual presumed prior to reading this , superfine would be the higher bit rate, better quality larger files.

MKosmo Posted at 5-27 04:23
Something I wondered about too.

From your results, it seems a choice between low light quality vs detail ?

Depends what you consider quality......I'd say it's the same tradeoff as any digital denoise filter:  more noise but better fine detail versus a loss of detail but cleaner looking image (and smaller file size).   

The DJI denoise filter is a bit on the aggressive side for my liking: in some scenes I would say the quality is improved with superfine with the removal of the "film grain" look......but in other scenes the denoise is too aggressive and results in splotchy edges, almost as if an artistic effect filter had been used.

Since this is more of  "pro" feature, I'd much rather they just called it "Denoise" instead of "superfine" and then gave the user a few levels you could set (low/medium/high)!!!

While I'm at it I'll go off topic and say I wish DJI could also allow a MaxISO video setting (I'd set it to 1600) instead of just static ISOs (or full auto) in the exposure menu...that way filming, say, a marketplace where you transition from dark areas to bright areas would limit ISO for the dark and auto the rest....

Hey osmo_poc do you know what setting will result in max video quality? I’ve. Even shooting 4K/60 but I doubt that would give best quality as it’s still 100m bit rate? So maybe 4K/30?

osmo_pocket Posted at 2019-5-28 06:12
Depends what you consider quality......I'd say it's the same tradeoff as any digital denoise filter:  more noise but better fine detail versus a loss of detail but cleaner looking image (and smaller file size).   

The DJI denoise filter is a bit on the aggressive side for my liking: in some scenes I would say the quality is improved with superfine with the removal of the "film grain" look......but in other scenes the denoise is too aggressive and results in splotchy edges, almost as if an artistic effect filter had been used.

Thanks for all useful information.
I also agree with you.
There is NO way to control bitrate in DJI Osmo pocket and this is a BIG disadvantage for this unit.
They should give the user a few levels you could set the bitrate  (like low/medium/high)!!!

I have a background in signal/image processing, so I'll pitch in my understanding. We have to be a bit more 'clear' regarding what we exactly mean by 'High Image Quality'. It could be two things

1. Very high detail i.e., neighboring pixels could have different colors
2. 'Smooth' picture/tones, where neighboring pixel values are 'close', resulting in the 'smooth' transitions in the picture/video.

Now, the more detail, the more info in the mage, and the larger the file size (or bit rate). This is in a sense one of the main ideas behind compression of pictures with the DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform). I know I over simplified it, but my main point is 'High Picture Quality' is a bit loose of a description, and could mean different things to different people.

Removed - Duplicate Post