Ready to throw my P4P out the window....

Tom Helvey · Feb 16, 2017

I've read about all types of video/SD card issues, but nothing like what I'm now experiencing.

I've had my P4P for about two months, have flown about a dozen batteries worth of flights. I've had NO problem with video or recording. I've taking the 64GB Lexor SD card out that I was using, loaded it in a USB type adapter and downloaded about a dozen videos to my PC and edited them with NO problem.

Suddenly, everything went south. I took the drone up to the mountains, videoed some great mountain scenery and when I got home, did the normal SD removal and download to my PC and the video is awful. But it's not poor resolution or green lines running through the video. The video freezes momentarily and then goes again for a second or two and freezes for a second or two and repeats this through the entire video. It is unwatchable. The ONLY thing I changed from the previous flights was an update on my controller firmware (when I fired it up in the mountains). Both controller and AC are up to date with firmware, the SD card was reformatted in the AC after the bad video was downloaded, but that hasn't changed anything. So I thought maybe the SD card crapped out. Bought a new Sandisk 64mb extreme pro and no change. Tried numerous SD adapters to download it to my PC and nothing. Tried the original 16gb Panasonic SD card and same results. The videos in my cache on my ipad and iPhone are flawless when I pull them up in the app editor, which I assume means the camera is working fine. But for whatever reason, it's notsaving it to my SD smoothly.

I'm totally exhausted trying to figure out what went wrong. Does anybody have any idea what happened?

EPT160 · Feb 16, 2017

Try playing back the files on another (more powerful) computer. That should then at least help eliminate the replay device.

With The Birds · Feb 16, 2017

Are the vids the same Rea as the earlier ones that played fine? Try VLC player if you aren't using it already. It will only almost anything and smoothly, even in lower spec systems.

Traveler · Feb 16, 2017

Just a thought, but you could also try viewing some of your previously successful videos that I would assume you already have on you pc. If they are as poor of quality as the most recent, then it would support the possibility that the problem is with your pc and not the bird.

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Suhail78 · Feb 16, 2017

sounds like your PC is having issues playing a 4K video......i would lower the resolution from the bird to 1080P, take some videos and give it another go, it will probably work better.

Loz · Feb 16, 2017

And / or check you haven't changed the video recording parameters to something PC cannot handle well, I'd make sure all is same as it was before - double check this.

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Mier · Feb 16, 2017

Have a look at your settings and see if you recorded in H265

I've seen H265 give many players fits with stopping and starting. Quicktime on an Mac can't play it and VLC does the stop start thing.

Now on Windows 10 the Movies & TV app seems to play it smooth as butter.

Tom Helvey · Feb 16, 2017

You guys nailed it. I took the same SD cards and adapters to work and put them on my Surface 3 and they all played perfectly. My PC at home is the problem. Thanks for all the input guys. I feel like such an idiot not recognizing the issue sooner. Now to get the PC at home up to speed.....

PageSide · Feb 16, 2017

Tom Helvey said:
You guys nailed it. I took the same SD cards and adapters to work and put them on my Surface 3 and they all played perfectly. My PC at home is the problem. Thanks for all the input guys. I feel like such an idiot not recognizing the issue sooner. Now to get the PC at home up to speed.....

I was part of the same idiot club my friend.

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jeepacation · Feb 16, 2017

Good result!

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Travels with Yoly · Feb 18, 2017

I have one PC with Windows 7 Professional and another with Windows 10. The Windows 10 PC is a super powerful editing tool ... 32 Gb RAM, 3.9 Ghz processor (liquid cooled) and a 2Gb video card. Windows Media Player will not play 4K video on either PC. Is this status quo or am I missing something ?

Scubamaniac · Feb 19, 2017

Travels with Yoly said:
I have one PC with Windows 7 Professional and another with Windows 10. The Windows 10 PC is a super powerful editing tool ... 32 Gb RAM, 3.9 Ghz processor (liquid cooled) and a 2Gb video card. Windows Media Player will not play 4K video on either PC. Is this status quo or am I missing something ?

A few things, Are you recording in MP4 or .MOV? Also WMP is not great I would Download and install VLC.

Did you upgrade from Windows 8 to 10? If you did, Windows 8 media player will not play 4K, you need to download and install the latest player and you should be fine. If you like it then you are good ;-)

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Travels with Yoly · Feb 19, 2017

Scubamaniac said:
A few things, Are you recording in MP4 or .MOV? Also WMP is not great I would Download and install VLC.

Did you upgrade from Windows 8 to 10? If you did, Windows 8 media player will not play 4K, you need to download and install the latest player and you should be fine. If you like it then you are good ;-)

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Thanks for the heads up. I do use MP4 for everything. I've never had Windows 8 on anything. One PC still has Windows 7 Professional and the editing PC was upgraded from Windows 7 to 10. I actually purchased CyberLink in order to view 4K video on my editing PC. Media Player is the latest version for Windows 7 and it won't play 4K. Both systems play 2.7K on Media Player just fine. I'm not crazy about downloading "free" software as I've found very little in this world that is free with no strings attached