4k video rendering

[Squiddley]

just had a question, Ive been doing most of my recording with the phantom in 1080p, would my video be clearer if I record in 4k then render down to 1080p or will it be the same quality if I just record it in 1080p? I dont have anything at the moment that will play 4k video so thats why ive been recording in 1080p but if its clearer by recording in 4k then rendering down I would start in 4k...anyone know?

 

[Reed L]

Yes it makes it crisper. I did it once and then rendered everything in 4K from then on because it is far better to see even on a 1080p screen if you keep it in 4K. Try the different settings, you will see a huge difference.

 

[4wd]

Any difference is rather subtle, you could also try the 2.7K option which has been shown to be the camera's sweet spot, however I prefer 4K provided your computer can render at reasonable speed.
A secondary advantage to recording at 4K s you can get pretty decent screengrabs that are about 8MB.
Not as good as working from RAW but a lot of detail there, more than enough for web use.

 

[rockydog]

Another big advantage of using 4k footage on a 1080 timeline, is that you can zoom in to an area and still retain good detail. Also useful for correcting sloping horizons.

 

[Squiddley]

okay thanks for the help and the tips gonna try in 4k next flight see if my computer can handle the rendering or not

 

[matti]

IMHO there is only a subtle and subjective difference between shooting 4K vs HD and outputting to HD.

I recently did one test with my P3P (video shot while she was on the ground) and had to look for the difference on still captures at 100-400% or video on 6MB monitors *.

* Shooting 4K, then output to HD produced smoother (and blurrier) borders compared to HD. On the other hand, shooting HD produced more contrast to the borders. I didn't really know which one I preferred, though.

Editing 4K is more resource-hungry.

Watching 4K is also resource-hungry. I compared 4K and HD output on a 6MP monitor, a speedy Windows 7 PC and VLC player. Yes, 4K was crispier with more detail. But even then I had to look for the difference and ignore the real video content... And even on that speedy PC, the 4K playback was slightly but disturbingly stuttery while HD playback was smooth. I haven't tested if there are better players than VLC.

That said, I still shoot 4K (3840 x 2160 4K UHD because it is 16:9 unlike 4096 x 2160 4K DCI which needs 107% zoom-in for HD output with no black borders) because it allows to straighten the horizon the usual ~1° with more headroom for the output (I haven't yet tested if this really counts, though).

If/when my P3P breaks, I will re-consider if 4K camera is worth the price then.

 

[Reed L]

the 4K playback was slightly but disturbingly stuttery while HD playback was smooth. I haven't tested if there are better players than VLC.

If it plays stuttery then either the pc isn't handling it or could be win7. I upgraded from win7 basically because the laptop gave up and it just wasn't doing the job smooth enough. So I doubled the ram to 8gigs, now on win10... Not that I love win10 but it runs smooth most of the time on vlc. But there are times when vlc doesn't handle the 4k and the new built in win10 movie player plays them all smooth. It can be skipping on vlc and windows media player but the best player on my pc is the win10 basic player for viewing pics and videos

 

[Darmie]

Check this out,
Online Video Cutter
If you can upload to here, you can do some good cropping and download trimmed files It's like zooming in.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

If it plays stuttery then either the pc isn't handling it or could be win7. I upgraded from win7 basically because the laptop gave up and it just wasn't doing the job smooth enough. So I doubled the ram to 8gigs, now on win10... Not that I love win10 but it runs smooth most of the time on vlc. But there are times when vlc doesn't handle the 4k and the new built in win10 movie player plays them all smooth. It can be skipping on vlc and windows media player but the best player on my pc is the win10 basic player for viewing pics and videos

Windows hasn't updated their main kernel in years, meaning that Win10 with the same video card/drivers and hard drives isn't going to show much of a difference, if any.

Doubling the memory, on the other hand, was probably what did it for you. Even if you stayed on Win7, you probably would have seen the improvements.

Swapping to SSD drives will also make a huge difference.

Chris