First flight with P3A - some questions

[logbuilder]

I got my P3A a few days ago. I had some problems getting it setup with new firmware but that is all squared away. Everything calibrated and setup properly as far as I can tell.

Weather has been rainy so only today did it clear enough to fly.

I was a pretty good RC plane flier 20 years ago so I was hoping some of that experience would help. First flight was uneventful other than loosing video signal after about 12 minutes. It still flew just fine and I was well within line of sight so no problems. I think the RC background did help in that I didn't have any problems with reversed controls when it was facing me. I took it real slow.

I took some videos and stills to see how that worked. I really like how you can frame it realtime. We used to attach point and shoot cameras to our planes with a servo to take the picture. You never really new what you were getting until they were developed. That was pretty much before the days of commonly available digital cameras.

Video and stills came out really nice. Great resolution. I do need practice with the gimbal as well as orbiting an object to make them smooth.

My question - the video created a .mov file that is really large. Almost 4gb for 15 minutes. That's probably more resolution than I need at this point. Is there a setting to produce a compressed video (maybe MP4)? I was hoping to be able to email some of these to friends but they are way too large. I haven't messed with videos before so I don't know what tools might be used to compress them smaller.

I'm sure this is a simple newbie question for you experts. Ideas?

 

[logbuilder]

Just had second flight. No signal problems.

But a few more questions:

How do you guys get the telemetry at the bottom of the videos?

When I came back in and put the battery on the charger, the 4th light was blinking 3 times per second. Thanks to the Help Guide that Fantomas posted, I believe that means the battery was too warm to charge so I should let it cool down before charging. Do I have that right?

The saved videos start with DJI-001 for each flight from what I can tell. When I then load them onto my PC, I get naming conflicts. It would be nice to be able to have the time stamp be part of the name so that each is unique. How do you folks manage this?

It is a cloudy day and at height it was difficult to see and what orientation it was in. I'm going to put some stickers on the bottom of the two forward arms and hope that helps. Maybe I will get used to looking at the lights for orientation. But to be honest, I don't remember even noticing them. That might come with experience. I also can see some value in painting it black but no rush on that. My eyes are not the best these days.

 

[cnynctry]

MOV or MP4 will be about the same size file. The only way to r
Get a smaller fine is either reduce the video resolutio . Either in camera controls or post production. Uploading to YouTube and send them the link makes it easier to share.
There is a control option in setup that sets the photo and video name to just adding number in the name and not start at one each time.
Looking at the map on the screen the arrow will show the orientation of the P3. It is hard when you can't see the lights. I found the best time to fly is dusk and dawn. Makes it easier to see lights and the light makes for better shots.

 

[JohnK]

I use Premier Pro to render my 4K to Youtube 1080p, which upload easily. It's unlikely you will ever want to upload a video in its entirety (if so, you should move to Hollywood and become the world's best "one take" director since Hitchcock). For short uploads, you can use the app "Director" which will send short bits up pretty easily.

 

[JoeyJoe]

Just had second flight. No signal problems.

But a few more questions:

How do you guys get the telemetry at the bottom of the videos?

When I came back in and put the battery on the charger, the 4th light was blinking 3 times per second. Thanks to the Help Guide that Fantomas posted, I believe that means the battery was too warm to charge so I should let it cool down before charging. Do I have that right?

The saved videos start with DJI-001 for each flight from what I can tell. When I then load them onto my PC, I get naming conflicts. It would be nice to be able to have the time stamp be part of the name so that each is unique. How do you folks manage this?

It is a cloudy day and at height it was difficult to see and what orientation it was in. I'm going to put some stickers on the bottom of the two forward arms and hope that helps. Maybe I will get used to looking at the lights for orientation. But to be honest, I don't remember even noticing them. That might come with experience. I also can see some value in painting it black but no rush on that. My eyes are not the best these days.

The saved videos naming is an easy change. See the screen capture below. You would want to select the radio button for continuous.

As for the orientation being difficult sometimes, I have the same issue with the Phantom.
That is one the things I love about the Inspire 1, it is much easier to determine orientation by site.

Congrats on your Phantom. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine.

 

[JohnK]

Telemetry info is stored in .srt files which are saved along with the .mp4 on your sd card, which is displayed automatically if you view your video using the VLC video player ... easily found with The Google.

 

[logbuilder]

Telemetry info is stored in .srt files which are saved along with the .mp4 on your sd card, which is displayed automatically if you view your video using the VLC video player ... easily found with The Google.

I don't see any .srt files on the sd. That may be because I have not figured out how to change from .mov to .mp4. I'm using DJI Go app. I did find the file index toggle.

Thanks.

 

[SouthernPhantom]

You don' have to shoot in 4K if you're not planning to reduce it in post. Press the "Menu" option above the "movie or still" icon on the right. (I'm saying this from memory. It's something like that.) You still might have to render it further for Vimeo or YouTube, but at least the native file sizes will be smaller on the chip. Most folks here agree that 4K is great if you're planning to grab still shots or crop the videos with a program like Premiere Pro.

 

[JohnK]

You have to enable subtitles in the app, then the .srt files will appear on the card. You can view the video file (I use .mp4) with VLC and the .srt data will appear automatically.

As far as not shooting in 4K ... not sure why you would buy the P3 Professional and not shoot in 4K. It survives the edits with amazing resolution. If you buy a 4K monitor (eventually), you can do some serious editing and viewing of truly spectacular video. Who cares how big the files are on the card? Get a 32 GB or 64 GB card. I have one card for each battery and run my video continuously apart from interruptions for photo opps, and that has turned out to be overkill.

 

[logbuilder]

You don' have to shoot in 4K if you're not planning to reduce it in post. Press the "Menu" option above the "movie or still" icon on the right. (I'm saying this from memory. It's something like that.) You still might have to render it further for Vimeo or YouTube, but at least the native file sizes will be smaller on the chip. Most folks here agree that 4K is great if you're planning to grab still shots or crop the videos with a program like Premiere Pro.

I don't have 4k. I bought the Advanced rather than the Professional.

 

[logbuilder]

Thanks!

I got the .srt and also now a .mp4 rather than .mov.

When I play in VLC, I do see the telemetry, as text, kind of messy. Are there better ways to format it? Seems like I've seen some where there were small gauges at the bottom.

 

[JohnK]

I don't know about that. I look at it for kicks, but I'm not sure how useful it is. If it were to record on the app it would be great to help locate "lost" aircraft. If it does record on the app (phone or ipad), I'm not aware of it, so if someone knows, please chime in.

 

[SouthernPhantom]

You have to enable subtitles in the app, then the .srt files will appear on the card. You can view the video file (I use .mp4) with VLC and the .srt data will appear automatically.

As far as not shooting in 4K ... not sure why you would buy the P3 Professional and not shoot in 4K. It survives the edits with amazing resolution. If you buy a 4K monitor (eventually), you can do some serious editing and viewing of truly spectacular video. Who cares how big the files are on the card? Get a 32 GB or 64 GB card. I have one card for each battery and run my video continuously apart from interruptions for photo opps, and that has turned out to be overkill.

I agree with you. I didn't realize he had the Advanced model. So I was just making the point that, in certain circumstances, we can shoot at a lower resolution to save file space if warranted. I always shoot in 4K so I can crop the video, if necessary. And, of course, it provides all that wonderful additional resolution, as you mention!

 

[phantom13flyer]

To get the telemetry on the videos you need to upload your video to dashware and sync it with the flight log but you'll need to convert to file to a csv. file using flylitchi.com. There's some good how to videos on YouTube to do all this. I hope that helps a little.