Recording/Playback Requirements for 4k Video

Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Messages
295
Reaction score
60
Location
Chicago, IL
I have a P3S and never ran into issues of hardware performance (computer) regarding watching the video (2.7k). My PC is not the latest but it has decent performance. Few days ago however, I got an Osmo camera, and while trying to play back the 4k Video, I get very 'poor quality' video, whether it's 'stuttering' being 'choppy', or colors not rendering properly. Hence, the 'motivation behind this thread.

I realize/understand that there are several aspects/variables that affect how well video is both recorded and played back, and hopefully there are some knowledgeable community members out there who can chime in. The immediate questions that come to mind are:

1. What are the requirements of the micro SD card to enable fast enough write speeds, to record 4k video.
2. While playing back video directly from the SD card, does the computer interface (card reader) have enough speed/bandwidth or one is better off copying the video to a local HDD/SSD first?
3. What are the minimum/desired computer requirements for smooth 4k video playback
4. What playback softwares/apps are better suited? e.g. VLC vs Windows Media player, vs QuickTime ... etc.

Any other questions/thoughts?
 
So, no replies whatsoever? It is hard to believe that no one on here has answers to any of the questions raised :(
 
1. to be safe, an SD card should be U3 rated, anything less and the video might be choppy, just be safe and get the fastest, all my SD cards are UHS3 rated and it record and play back flawlessly. but i dont do any 4k (i explain more below)

2. the reader has to be able to read the card, MOST card readers built in and cheapo amazon ones will not read fast enough to play 4K sufficiently, but this leads into the next point, its safer just to copy them to your local drives first, thats what i do before any editing even for 1080.

3 (and 4). this is sort of a misnomer because unless you have a display that can display 4K, your not getting 4K even if you record it. For example, my big 23" Dell monitor only does 1440/900, thats not even 1080, so in all reality the answer to question 3 and 4 is if you have a computer that can drive a 4k or higher monitor like a new mac pro (5K display), it will play 4K video smoothly with built in tools.
 
I may not be able to fully answer your questions but here is a try. I have both a Mavic and a P4P+. I use the following cards with out problems Sandisk Ultra, Extreme Plus, and Extreme Pro. 64mb limit on the Mavic and 128 on the P4P+. I have many editing programs on my computer and one of the smooth's out the video without me having to do anything.
My computer is a Dell XPS with a 960 video card. I also play the videos on my 4K Samsung TV.
 
Thank you guys, lots of useful info on here. Whenever I try to play the recordings on my pc, the display spans across multiple screens (I have 3 monitors connected to the same video card). As such, I think 'globally', my video is capable of displaying the full 4K. Whether the video card can handle the bandwidth is another story. I also tried to play back the recordings on an OSMC based system (Raspberry Pi 3A) and it too tends to struggle. There, I know I'm into unknown territory as there are several differing 'opinions' about the RPI vs 4K.
We might be facing several 'bottlenecks' and my goal is to 'unravel' the most critical. Let's keep this discussion going and see what we'll all learn. Cheers.
 
Three monitors put together does not necessarily equal 4K . The resolution is rated as vertical not horizontal. So if you have 3 x 1440/900 monitors, your resolution is 4320/900, still not 4K, since 4K requires 2160 vertical resolution. 4K just requires a lot of horsepower.
 
I watch and edit 4K video using this machine:

Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz
8 GB Ram
64 Bit
Intel SSDSC2CW120A3
NVidia GTX 650
Sony 52" 4K LED

I use CyberLink PowerDirector 14 for editing video and VLC for watching video.
 
×
Three monitors put together does not necessarily equal 4K . The resolution is rated as vertical not horizontal. So if you have 3 x 1440/900 monitors, your resolution is 4320/900, still not 4K, since 4K requires 2160 vertical resolution. 4K just requires a lot of horsepower.

True, your math is correct. What I meant to say is that when I play VLC (or quicktime) it spans over multiple monitors (and gets cropped up/down). I never said the viewer windows fits up-down. I understand fully the resolutions and all that entails. I have 3× Samsung 27" (S27D360) running each at 1920×1080 ... That's an overall screen size of 5760 columns and only 1080 lines. Granted, 4k is 3840×2160 and the viewer gets cropped. We're forgetting one thing here ... A PC video card has always a built-in 'scaler' ... that either scales picture up or down, depending on whether the image/video size is smaller/larger than the number of pixels on the monitor.

Still, when the video size (4k) is larger than the number of available pixels, the graphics card 'engine' must do some 'downsampling' to fit the stream into whatever area is available ... Such process takes some number crunching and it is one 'aspect' about how should the hardware specs be, to playback a 4K movie ... whether it's an MOV, MP4, ... or else.
 
I watch and edit 4K video using this machine:

Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz
8 GB Ram
64 Bit
Intel SSDSC2CW120A3
NVidia GTX 650
Sony 52" 4K LED

I use CyberLink PowerDirector 14 for editing video and VLC for watching video.

Thank you. My configuration is below:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz
6 GB Ram
64 Bit Windows & Home Premium
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G - Operating System and Program Files
1 TB Raid 1 array WD - for Media and other data files
AMD Radeon HD 5700
Samsung S27D360 (3×) - All running off the AMD card

I use primarily VLC on the computer, but also put my media on a network storage that feeds an raspberry pi 3 to a Samsung 65" 4K

Some movies play ok on the PC and not on the TV ... and the root-causes are multiple. I need to figure all that out and bring myself up-to-speed. It seems some hardware upgrades are in order, but before doing that, I need to figure out the minimum/desired configuration.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,054
Messages
1,467,297
Members
104,919
Latest member
BobDan