I have been wanting to try and play the native M2P HLG files on a big display for a long time and today I went into our local Harvey Norman store (Australian retailer) and did that with the Manager and a senior salesman.


We plugged the below videos into an LG 77"OLED 8K display  via a USB3 port on the side. The pictures were simply astonishing, both with the native files and the version I had color-graded in H265 via the FCPX timeline, mastering out via Apple prores 422HQ and then re-encoding via Handbrake at 10 bit H265/mp4 at a 40,000 kbps bit rate. The sales people literally have 40 X big screen TVs going all day long with the manufacturers "super-images" going on a loop, and I've been a Cinematographer for 25 years, but we all literally stood there breathless. Nothing to do with my particular images but just the sheer quality and color depth in front of us. I noticed later that the USB stick had an LG Folder on it with software so it obviously downloads to it to make it work? Another thing was when we played an HLG file, an HLG logo would come up briefly in the corner.


So if anyone says the Mavic 2 Pro isn't capable of world class images maybe it's not the drone but their delivery system at the other end!

Looks great!

thanks, but you should see it on an OLED!

Awesome footage

Hi, there. We really appreciate you for sharing your amazing video here. Well done and Fly safely. Cheers!

DJI Gamora Posted at 5-31 09:12
Hi, there. We really appreciate you for sharing your amazing video here. Well done and Fly safely. Cheers!

Thank you Gamora, still working out HLG but having fun doing it!

A J Posted at 5-31 08:30
Awesome footage

Thanks AJ, appreciated

christangey Posted at 5-31 17:29
Thanks AJ, appreciated

You're very welcome

Very nice. Thanks for sharing

Woe Posted at 6-1 05:52
Very nice. Thanks for sharing

thanks Woe

christangey Posted at 6-1 17:08
thanks Woe

You're welcome.

Great video but you need to do something about that watermark..

AntDX316 Posted at 6-1 23:58
Great video but you need to do something about that watermark..

Why is that Ant?

christangey Posted at 6-2 00:04
Why is that Ant?

You can create a nicer watermark with custom fonts as I did. https://www.dafont.com/

"mastering out via Apple prores 422HQ and then re-encoding via Handbrake at 10 bit H265/mp4 at a 40,000 kbps bit rate" = What does this mean?  Why re-encode via Handbrake at 10-bit 40K kbps for?  I've thought it's done after rendering?  Is that the "video player"?  Is the quality way higher if you playback with Handbrake at 10-bit 40K kbps than say using Windows Media, Quicktime, or VLC player?  I'm not entirely sure what the effort is for but you seem to know what you are doing so I've downloaded it.

Fantastic. Thanks

AntDX316 Posted at 6-2 00:07
You can create a nicer watermark with custom fonts as I did. https://www.dafont.com/

"mastering out via Apple prores 422HQ and then re-encoding via Handbrake at 10 bit H265/mp4 at a 40,000 kbps bit rate" = What does this mean?  Why re-encode via Handbrake at 10-bit 40K kbps for?  I've thought it's done after rendering?  Is that the "video player"?  Is the quality way higher if you playback with Handbrake at 10-bit 40K kbps than say using Windows Media, Quicktime, or VLC player?  I'm not entirely sure what the effort is for but you seem to know what you are doing so I've downloaded it.

Thanks Ant, I think a nice watermark is the least of my concerns, in fact in Australia we don't even need to put the copyright symbol on our work. It's more just a warning for those in other countries who might want to steal it. After my "fire tornado of 2012" I've had to become a bit of an international copyright lawyer so you get a bit tired of trying to warn people about these things year after year. In terms of the workflow that's how I keep the quality to the highest standard throughout, I'm sure there are lots of other ways people can choose to do so. Handbrake is an encoder not a player.

Absolutely fantastic work there Chris, it looked special on my 4k monitor which is not OLED, so I can only imagine how good it must have been on the LG display.

christangey Posted at 6-2 02:49
Thanks Ant, I think a nice watermark is the least of my concerns, in fact in Australia we don't even need to put the copyright symbol on our work. It's more just a warning for those in other countries who might want to steal it. After my "fire tornado of 2012" I've had to become a bit of an international copyright lawyer so you get a bit tired of trying to warn people about these things year after year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Yte03B3Lo In terms of the workflow that's how I keep the quality to the highest standard throughout, I'm sure there are lots of other ways people can choose to do so. Handbrake is an encoder not a player.

What does an "encoder" do?

Aardvark Posted at 6-2 03:04
Absolutely fantastic work there Chris, it looked special on my 4k monitor which is not OLED, so I can only imagine how good it must have been on the LG display.

Thanks Aardvark, yes wish I was rolling in money and could go down the whole HDR route right now, but with prices of TVs and monitors it won't be possible for me. Part of my business is licensing 4K footage to people like BBC, Discovery etc. and since a mate of mine had a brief conversation with a head honcho from Netflix a few months back indicating they won't be accepting non-HDR footage in a couple of years, it focussed my mind. But even though I can't properly grade in HLG (HDR) right now it doesn't actually matter as I keep the raw files from the Mavic as  well, so it is then up to them to grade.

AntDX316 Posted at 6-2 11:09
What does an "encoder" do?

Well Ant, in simplest terms it's just a way of getting the format you need on the delivery end. For example HLG files won't play straight onto a normal TV (but will with some HDR TVs) nor will HLG files play straight onto youtube or vimeo. You have to change it to a format that they recognize which is usually .mp4.
Mp4 is a great choice as it works in lots of places, not only will it play online it will also go straight into your desktop, laptop or TV, via a USB stick for instance. For iphone and ipads however you need .m4v files, so encoders simply change one format to another to make them playable.

christangey Posted at 6-2 14:10
Well Ant, in simplest terms it's just a way of getting the format you need on the delivery end. For example HLG files won't play straight onto a normal TV (but will with some HDR TVs) nor will HLG files play straight onto youtube or vimeo. You have to change it to a format that they recognize which is usually .mp4.
Mp4 is a great choice as it works in lots of places, not only will it play online it will also go straight into your desktop, laptop or TV, via a USB stick for instance. For iphone and ipads however you need .m4v files, so encoders simply change one format to another to make them playable.

So it's like using PSD to view a GeoTIFF then exporting to PNG or JPG to view it in Photo viewer?

AntDX316 Posted at 6-2 15:03
So it's like using PSD to view a GeoTIFF then exporting to PNG or JPG to view it in Photo viewer?

Sort of yes.

Perfect!!!!

kykmavic Posted at 6-3 10:16
Perfect!!!!

Thanks Kyk!

christangey Posted at 5-31 16:23
Thank you Gamora, still working out HLG but having fun doing it!

You're very much welcome Christian! Happy flying always.

Stunning footage. I wish I could see those videos of yours on an OLED of those features...

If you shoot a clip in HLG and transfer it to a USB3 stick you should be able to play it right away if you can find a friendly TV showroom with a HLG compatible TV!

Stunning work, I noticed that you have add some new elements in the video. Very impressive. Thanks for sharing.

DJI Panda Posted at 6-14 03:38
Stunning work, I noticed that you have add some new elements in the video. Very impressive. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Panda, yes sometimes I make variations to improve the video

Thanks for sharing your findings! and great footage mate! Cheers!

christangey Posted at 6-2 02:49
Thanks Ant, I think a nice watermark is the least of my concerns, in fact in Australia we don't even need to put the copyright symbol on our work. It's more just a warning for those in other countries who might want to steal it. After my "fire tornado of 2012" I've had to become a bit of an international copyright lawyer so you get a bit tired of trying to warn people about these things year after year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Yte03B3Lo In terms of the workflow that's how I keep the quality to the highest standard throughout, I'm sure there are lots of other ways people can choose to do so. Handbrake is an encoder not a player.

WOW - Just WOW!!!

christangey Posted at 6-2 02:49
Thanks Ant, I think a nice watermark is the least of my concerns, in fact in Australia we don't even need to put the copyright symbol on our work. It's more just a warning for those in other countries who might want to steal it. After my "fire tornado of 2012" I've had to become a bit of an international copyright lawyer so you get a bit tired of trying to warn people about these things year after year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Yte03B3Lo In terms of the workflow that's how I keep the quality to the highest standard throughout, I'm sure there are lots of other ways people can choose to do so. Handbrake is an encoder not a player.

Wow - that is awesome!

FlyingFish82 Posted at 6-14 05:34
Thanks for sharing your findings! and great footage mate! Cheers!

No worries Captain!

DAFlys Posted at 6-14 05:58
WOW - Just WOW!!!

thank you Sir

christangey Posted at 6-14 06:07
thank you Sir

I'm heading to Tuscany next week I think I will need to very quickly need to learn HLG/D-LOG.

Main things to learn

DAFlys Posted at 6-14 06:13
I'm heading to Tuscany next week I think I will need to very quickly need to learn HLG/D-LOG.

Main things to learn are in post and I'm happy to help you with that on your return. NEVER overexpose in HLG, so use zebra. Also shoot at 1/50th at 25P and use filters to keep aperture around f4 for sharpness.


EDIT: I should explain this advise is for PAL countries like UK, Australia, NZ, in NTSC countries like USA/Canada it should read 1/60th@30P, but it only really matters now if you ever intend to broadcast your footage.

Amazing footage. Love the transitions. Cheers!

Wow, I really enjoyed this, thank you for sharing. Might have enjoyed that music a bit way too much too......

Jason_R_Photo Posted at 6-14 06:50
Amazing footage. Love the transitions. Cheers!

Thanks Jason