Video in 10 minute video files

[Charles Harris]

Ok, so I have had my phantom3p for over a month and have noticed that when I am recording video it always does it almost 10 minutes blocks of video. I hit the record button and turn it off after landing. But I have 2 video files.

Is this normal? I would like to have just one video file vs getting 10 minutes video files.

Thanks for responses in advance

Rchjr

 

[msinger]

This is normal. The video file will split once it hits about 4GB.

 

[tcope]

http://www.phantompilots.com/thread...limits-mine-splits-video-at-14-minutes.47843/

 

[jcknows0]

This is a result of FAT partitioning not being able to handle files larger than 4 GB although the practice has carried over to exFAT filesystems as well (GoPro cameras do this as well)

 

[Dome]

I prefer more files with less capacity. First they are more manageable, second if one get corrupted other will be readable anyway.
Same for sd card. I use 32gb but I bring with me 4-5 card. They can fail more often than you think.

 

[ctp]

DJI has chosen to limit video files to 4GB so that they are compatible with both FAT and exFAT formatted devices. This is done to maximize backwards compatibility and can not be turned off (unfortunately).

The camera processor (Ambarella A9) is capable of much greater performance and processing, but DJI seems to focus on flying and has done very little to maximize the performance of the camera firmware. If DJI put some good camera engineers to work on the firmware they could really blow away the competition.

 

[tcope]

DJI has chosen to limit video files to 4GB so that they are compatible with both FAT and exFAT formatted devices. This is done to maximize backwards compatibility and can not be turned off (unfortunately).

The camera processor (Ambarella A9) is capable of much greater performance and processing, but DJI seems to focus on flying and has done very little to maximize the performance of the camera firmware. If DJI put some good camera engineers to work on the firmware they could really blow away the competition.

More of the other way around. DJI is using FAT and FAT itself is the reason for the limitation.

 

[ctp]

More of the other way around. DJI is using FAT and FAT itself is the reason for the limitation.

The P3 will format 16 and 32GB cards as FAT, but will format 64GB cards as exFAT, which has a maximum file size of 64EiB (Exabytes). DJI limits the file size to 4GB so they don't have to check to see if the card is FAT or exFAT.

The more I dig into the camera at a low level, the more I suspect that the camera firmware is based off just basic sample code from the controller manufacturer (Ambarella A9). There is an opportunity here for a good coder to write software that really unlocks the capabilites of the chip and sell it.

It also would not be surprising if the firmware was never rewritten for the new chip, but that the legacy PV firmware was just extended to kludged to work on the P3.

I need to get some time with an Inspire and see if they did any better with the camera firmware.

 

[Charles Harris]

Thanks, I was beginning to wonder if I was doing something wrong.

 

[Dome]

The P3 will format 16 and 32GB cards as FAT, but will format 64GB cards as exFAT, which has a maximum file size of 64EiB (Exabytes). DJI limits the file size to 4GB so they don't have to check to see if the card is FAT or exFAT.

The more I dig into the camera at a low level, the more I suspect that the camera firmware is based off just basic sample code from the controller manufacturer (Ambarella A9). There is an opportunity here for a good coder to write software that really unlocks the capabilites of the chip and sell it.

It also would not be surprising if the firmware was never rewritten for the new chip, but that the legacy PV firmware was just extended to kludged to work on the P3.

I need to get some time with an Inspire and see if they did any better with the camera firmware.

That's not completely true. DJI had outsourced fw for ambarella as GoPro did it. The ambarella is really powerful FPGA but Ambarella itself is working on A9 bringing enhancements that DJI will port on P3. To approch the writing of this kind of software the skills needed are really high-cost and the you need tight-coupled development with Ambarella. At the moment the main developer for Ambarella is Express Logic on their ThreadX Rtos. Ambarella need to distribute SDK updates (mainly library) to DJI as DJI need to do for P3 app developers.
If you want to start over, you can buy Ambarella A9 concept board and fun yourself ...Ehm with lot of $$$$ of software

 

[ctp]

That's not completely true. DJI had outsourced fw for ambarella as GoPro did it. The ambarella is really powerful FPGA but Ambarella itself is working on A9 bringing enhancements that DJI will port on P3. To approch the writing of this kind of software the skills needed are really high-cost and the you need tight-coupled development with Ambarella. At the moment the main developer for Ambarella is Express Logic on their ThreadX Rtos. Ambarella need to distribute SDK updates (mainly library) to DJI as DJI need to do for P3 app developers.
If you want to start over, you can buy Ambarella A9 concept board and fun yourself ...Ehm with lot of $$$$ of software

That's good to hear, I hope your information is correct. That causes me to question if Ambarella is holding something back from the camera firmware because they are saving their best for GoPro.

 

[Dome]

PS: Ambarella A9 is mainly customized Xilinx Zinq-7xxx FPGA (http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/soc/zynq-7000.html).
Ambarella made an incredible work to customize it for the video processing porpouse and they are going to be big-boss in embedded video market. This means that great enhancements will appear soon to developers. I hope that Amba Libs will be updated in the DJI fw as well. It's a pity that P3 coudn't sport an Ambarella H1, but you never know .... new replacement cam may happen to be released in the near future!

That's good to hear, I hope your information is correct. That causes me to question if Ambarella is holding something back from the camera firmware because they are saving their best for GoPro.

I don't know the answer. May be GoPro has better engeneering department or may be DJI has the best or may be they found a way to cooperate ... we will see... GH4 has same chip, so if something can be done on one side it can be done also on P3 4K cam side. Few more advanced parameters need to be visible to user, like compression quality, settings for VBR or CBR, color spacing with standard LUTs, better management of the storage speed, file prefix setting (other than "DJI_"), and, really useful, snapshot during video capturing.
The hardware used in P3 (and Inspire1) can be long lasting due to good and updated technology. So we hope that DJI development will go further in flight control and video capturing and P4 will not steal DJI attention and resources too soon.