Uh Oh........Im getting def. less range than the mavic pro.

cr6 · Dec 3, 2016

As long as I have solid connection within VLOS, I could care less if it goes the advertised 4+ miles. I can always take the ArgTek range extender out of my P3P controller & put it in the P4P, problem solved.

S5 tap'n

Starman1224 · Jan 26, 2017

John Locke said:
I've done 18,000' with my P3P using Windsurfer. It's beyond explanation why DJI keeps detuning their controllers when we all know what they are capable of. It kinda feels like a communist plot to keep people under control. Oh....yeah.....It's China! [emoji12]

So disappointing. I'll have to hope P5 will use OCU-sync.

Yes it does drop from full bars to 0 in no time.

Wrice4 · Jan 26, 2017

hidaven said:
Yes John, A few friends confirmed my initial thoughts. Nowhere near the performance level as the mavic. 5.8ghz is not meant for distance, its meant for hi bandwidth within 300M. Confirmed that with the DJI rep. Think wifi in your home. 2.4ghz goes further. Why DJI would choose to put a lesser quality trans. signal in the P series and now the Inspire series is beyond me. My guess is that they were concentrating on quality of transmission signal geared towards filming which takes place within 300 meters 95% of the time. But make no mistake, this range is 100% less than the Mavic for sure. As it should be, DJI touted that new Occusync as a major improvement and rightfully so. Lastly, the Mavic will lose signal slowly dropping bars one at a time. The P4P is a "now you have it, now you don't" scenario. Not sure I'm keeping my P4P due to the much less than described range. Sure if your on a beach or desert you might get more but the point is that the occusync was able to cut through interference that the 2.4/ 5.8 cant do nearly as well..........Major disappointment as the camera and new H.265 codec is amazing on this new camera. id be more P.Oed if I just spent 3k on the new Inspire with this 5.8mhz nonsense.

Actually the 5.8 range can go for miles as long as the reception is good. I've taken 5.8 out 3 miles before on a custom build quad, with a 600mw transmitter.

There has to be interference somewhere. As I have gotten the same reception with my p4p as i did with my mavic.

F3honda4me · Jan 26, 2017

This old thread though... It's been long since proven the P4P can go 4 miles on both 2.4 and 5.8ghz, it depends on line of sight and interference.

The mavic uses a modified lightbridge (called ocusync) that allows it to drop frames and lose details in order to keep the image going, which is fine on the mavic, but not something you really want on a nice camera platform like the P4P.

Starman1224 · Jan 26, 2017

I'm lucky if I get one mile on P4P with windsurfer at 400 ft altitude.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Jeffdj · Jan 26, 2017

Just finished testing the Phantom 4 Pro plus and the Mavic Pro.Same location and conditions, a deserted beach, nearest cell phone tower 5km away, no buildings. Used 5.8 and 2.4 on the Phantom, separate flight but same location and time. Results 2.4 km range 3.6km before break up, some signal break up on way out but kept going, then I triggered rth. 5.8 range 2.6km before it triggered rth.
Mavic Pro, range 3.7km no signal break up until last 100m, I triggered rth.
Obviously the new occusynch is the way to go. I am in Australia so have lower powered transmission, pity.
A further investigation of the 4K video taken on these flights, in VLC and accessing the SRT files the video tends to hiccup in a minor way. If you switch off SRT video plays smoothly, this is using the Mavic 4K video.
With the Phantom 4 Pro Plus the data files are embedded in the 4K video file so you cannot see them unles you switch on subtitles in VLC, they dont show on my Samsung 4K video or Windows media player, however in VLC you get the hiccup when playing and even if you switch off subtitles it still plays roughly. DJI please go back to separate SRT files in the Phantom 4 Pro series.

smiller · Jan 26, 2017

Jeffdj said:
With the Phantom 4 Pro Plus the data files are embedded in the 4K video file so you cannot see them unles you switch on subtitles in VLC,

When I view a file in VLC there are no subtitles available. Is there something I'm missing or does the data embed feature need to be turned on somewhere?

F3honda4me · Jan 26, 2017

I don't want ocysync. I want my image to be as detailed as possible.

Jeffdj said:
Obviously the new occusynch is the way to go.

Jeffdj · Jan 26, 2017

smiller said:
When I view a file in VLC there are no subtitles available. Is there something I'm missing or does the data embed feature need to be turned on somewhere?

Yes you need to go into the VLC menu and enable subtitles.

Jeffdj · Jan 26, 2017

F3honda4me said:
I don't want ocysync. I want my image to be as detailed as possible.

Err not quite sure what you mean, occusynch doesnt change the resolution of the recorded video, still 4K.

smiller · Jan 26, 2017

Jeffdj said:
Yes you need to go into the VLC menu and enable subtitles.

'Sub Track' under subtitles menu is grayed out, and I don't see any other way to enable them(?)

Scubamaniac · Jan 26, 2017

hidaven said:
tried auto and manual. Looks like its defaulting to 5.8ghz when it gets further away......Odd as tech support said that the 2.4ghz was better for distance. Even odder is that 5.8ghz has 30 channels as opposed to the 7 or so for 2.4ghz. Either way the Mavics transmission (for me) is a stronger link. Wondering what they did for one and not for the other?

Hard set the P4P to 2.4ghz (you can) only and as you fly check your channels to see which have interference. Then hard set it to a clear channel and go fly it. As a newbie it's interesting that folks want to go miles out. I guess once I'm experienced I might not be so nervous to go that far away, but I can always drive anywhere and then fly 1-2 miles to get shots. That's a heck of a long way way. If you want to go 4-5 miles, time to get your pilots license and go fly a Cessna ;-)

Jeffdj · Jan 27, 2017

smiller said:
'Sub Track' under subtitles menu is grayed out, and I don't see any other way to enable them(?)

I assume you are using a Phantom 4 pro and that you have switched on video captions in the DJIGo app? If you then play the file in VLC the subtitle option is accessible with english.

Jeffdj · Jan 27, 2017

Scubamaniac said:
Hard set the P4P to 2.4ghz (you can) only and as you fly check your channels to see which have interference. Then hard set it to a clear channel and go fly it. As a newbie it's interesting that folks want to go miles out. I guess once I'm experienced I might not be so nervous to go that far away, but I can always drive anywhere and then fly 1-2 miles to get shots. That's a heck of a long way way. If you want to go 4-5 miles, time to get your pilots license and go fly a Cessna ;-)

Sometimes it is hard to get close to the scenery you want to video or photograph, the extra range is then useful but you still have limited time because of the battery life. I only fly these distances in remote areas, my max distance at this stage is 3.7km or 12 300 feet. At this distance you have about 3-4minutes shooting time, just make sure you dont have a headwind on the way back!!

smiller · Jan 27, 2017

Jeffdj said:
I assume you are using a Phantom 4 pro and that you have switched on video captions in the DJIGo app? If you then play the file in VLC the subtitle option is accessible with english.

Ah, I don't think I had video captions turned on in the app. That's most likely my problem, thanks.