Video feed freezes

pault · Feb 16, 2014

A couple of times I have had the video feed on the phone freeze. It happened again today but the telemetry seemed to be working. I tried starting and stopping a video, took a photo but it was still stuck. The only way I could restore it was to back out of the camera part of the app and go back in again. Has anyone else had this problem ?

btw, the weather here in northern England was glorious. The skies were clear blue, a gentle breeze and even a touch of warmth in the sunshine. It was such a huge contrast to what we have been enduring recently. My sympathies go to those who are drought ridden on the west coast, snow bound in the mid & east or flooded here in the UK . Apparently we return to a week of **** weather tomorrow.

Edit: as a matter of interest, if you completely closed the app mid flight would it trigger a RTH ?

Seahorse · Feb 16, 2014

I happens to most of us, my first IA is to immediately put some height on (straight up) and see if it's an obstruction. The second benefit of this action is not hitting something tall if you end up using "Return to Home". As you have already pointed out, going in and out of the camera in the app can work as well, but I prefer the safety option first

Pull_Up · Feb 16, 2014

You can fly the aircraft without the app at all, only a loss of control signal initiates a return to home.

I get the freeze now and again. A quick back out of the app then reload sorts it out. It's pretty quick as the network between the Vision and range extender remains unaffected.

COtto1984 · Feb 16, 2014

Mine has frozen a couple times as well, but I had to restart the Vision to get it to come back.

Skipholiday · Feb 16, 2014

Pull_Up said:
You can fly the aircraft without the app at all, only a loss of control signal initiates a return to home.

I get the freeze now and again. A quick back out of the app then reload sorts it out. It's pretty quick as the network between the Vision and range extender remains unaffected.

same here. easy quick fix.

iDrone · Feb 16, 2014

The app receives multiple streams of data from Vision: GPS status, battery status, receiver status, camera status, SD card status, GPS position & altitude, and streaming camera video. The former are sent periodically in tiny packets less susceptible to interruption in signal as they're easily resent upon request by the app and take a minuscule amount of time to transmit. However video packets are much larger and sent almost continuously esp at 640x480 and require considerably more time to resend.

If signal is poor, the app continues to request resending lost video packets from where it left off until it exceeds the ability of the camera's wifi to buffer & resend. At this point most of us experience a freeze frame (stream failed to resume) or severely delayed video (stream resumed from last requested packet and is delayed from live video by several seconds with poor frame updating).

When you back out of Camera & go back in, you're terminating the requests to resend lost video packets and requesting reconnection to current video. You don't want to kill the app & restart it because it forces the app to abandon all links & attempt relink to iDevice, Extender, & Vision which leaves you at the mercy of each device to recognize loss of wifi, then reset & await a new connection which could take a minute or more.

A workaround for freeze frames and lost video is to reduce your Preview video quality & frame rate in the app. This makes the packets smaller (shorter) and more easily managed when they must be retransmitted.

I hope this helps some of you get a better "feel" for what's going on when experiencing freeze frames, lost video, or delayed video while still receiving telemetry.

iDrone :ugeek:

flyNfrank · Feb 16, 2014

iDrone said:
A workaround for freeze frames and lost video is to reduce your Preview video quality & frame rate in the app. This makes the packets smaller (shorter) and more easily managed when they must be retransmitted.

I hope this helps some of you get a better "feel" for what's going on when experiencing freeze frames, lost video, or delayed video while still receiving telemetry.

iDrone :ugeek:

What you suggested for a work around is something that the developer needs to update in the app to take place. At least make it an adjustable option. Just like youtube does, if your viewing setup can't keep up with viewing HD youtube auto adjust you to standard definition rather then letting you sit in a frozen state waiting to buffer. Yeah of coarse the video isn't as clear, but some video is better then no video! And in our case with the P2V in can be critical if and when video freezes.

Btw, doing the recent mod that helps extend reception might be something worth considering while waiting for a possible app update.

Skipholiday · Feb 16, 2014

How do you change the preview quality and frame rate without changing the recorded video quality?
Thank you for the information

iDrone said:
A workaround for freeze frames and lost video is to reduce your Preview video quality & frame rate in the app. This makes the packets smaller (shorter) and more easily managed when they must be retransmitted.

I hope this helps some of you get a better "feel" for what's going on when experiencing freeze frames, lost video, or delayed video while still receiving telemetry.

iDrone :ugeek:

Simon Manners · Feb 16, 2014

Same here on occasion. I just go back to DJI app main menu and click on "Camera" again. It has always come back ok.

iDrone · Feb 16, 2014

Skipholiday said:
How do you change the preview quality and frame rate without changing the recorded video quality?
Thank you for the information

Preview settings & Camera settings are separate and one does not affect the other. In your camera settings choose your favorite resolution and it gets faithfully recorded directly to your microSD card in the camera.

For FPV quality, in your iDevice go to: SETTINGS / PREVIEW QUALITY and select one of the lower settings if you're having trouble with freeze frames, loss of video, or delayed video:

If you continue to have problems, you may be flying out of range and may want to consider modding your range extender with directional antennas to add gain.

iDrone

Skipholiday · Feb 16, 2014

iDrone said:
iDrone

iDrone, you sir Rock. :geek:

Thanks so much

If there was a Like button I would triple click it.

pault · Feb 17, 2014

Pull_Up said:
You can fly the aircraft without the app at all, only a loss of control signal initiates a return to home.

.....

Yes, I really will have to start to engage brain before posting in future !

@iDrone, thank you for the detailed explanation

. I can understand the issue starts with a buffering problem but as I stopped the immediate feed by starting & stopping a video and taking a photo it sort of feels like the app video feed has crashed/timed out. You would think that by stopping the feed in this way it would initiate a restart without having to back out of 'camera'.

It happens so rarely that I do not feel the need to change the preview quality - I will just live with having to stop 'camera' momentarily.

iDrone · Feb 17, 2014

pault said:
@iDrone, thank you for the detailed explanation . I can understand the issue starts with a buffering problem but as I stopped the immediate feed by starting & stopping a video and taking a photo it sort of feels like the app video feed has crashed/timed out. You would think that by stopping the feed in this way it would initiate a restart without having to back out of 'camera'.

It happens so rarely that I do not feel the need to change the preview quality - I will just live with having to stop 'camera' momentarily.

It gets even more annoying... Occasionally I'd find my iPad mini had lost its connection to the extender during longer signal dropouts with Vision and would reconnect with my home wifi & stay there. I used to back out of Camera to restart the link & double-check to make sure it still showed I was connected to Phanom_1/6xxxxx else have to go to WiFi Settings and reselect Phantom_1/6xxxxx then launch the app again.

Now I just delete (Forget this network) all networks except for Phantom_1/6xxxxx so the mini has no choice but to reconnect to the extender when it eventually reappears. Ever since I did that the video usually reappears when the signal returns and I don't have to worry about what network it's connected to.

And yes I agree, this all needs to be improved.

iDrone

pault · Feb 17, 2014

I have never lost the wifi connection completely - I think I would have freaked out if that happened

So I am glad I have read your post as I will be more relaxed if it happens. I have to drive it into my brain that it is the tx that is in control all the time !

Pull_Up · Feb 17, 2014

Take it out for a little low-level hover about in the garden but don't switch the app on at all. Or the range extender. In fact switch the camera to the "off" position. After a couple of minutes that should get you more comfortable about controlling the aircraft without the fpv feed, telemetry, etc., and ram home that fact that it's all (lovely) bells and whistles, not fundamental to actually flying the thing. Don't forget you've got the green battery level bars, LED status flashes and you can see what the aircraft's doing... that's all you need to fly!

pault · Feb 17, 2014

Just tried the garden once so far but panicked as we are surrounded by the enemy (trees ! ) but that was in the early days so will give it another go. Actually, when I think about it the early days were only a month ago !

Pull_Up · Feb 17, 2014

Yeah, just hover. Small movements. Keep her nose-out so you can see the battery lights. Eyes on the aircraft. Old school!

It will make you realise the app, whilst very cool, doesn't affect the actual flying performance one bit... that's all your fault! :lol:

propeyes · Feb 17, 2014

In my opinion :idea: , If you loose video and you cannot determine orientation, the best course of action is to click the compass on the app which triggers the radar popup and determine the direction of your craft and face the front back to your home and start flying back to your home position and land to sort video issues.

pault · Feb 17, 2014

propeyes said:
In my opinion :idea: , If you loose video and you cannot determine orientation, the best course of action is to click the compass on the app which triggers the radar popup and determine the direction of your craft and face the front back to your home and start flying back to your home position and land to sort video issues.

Yes, I have done that. Setting home lock kind of feels like cheating - I will keep that in reserve !

nhoover · Feb 19, 2014

My video also freezes once in a while - when doing range testing usually. Often backing out of the app and restarting works fine, but occasionally, nothing works short of landing and power cycling the p2v. Annoying but not that common. And yes you can fly fine without the pretty picture. I don't think I've ever had a case where the telemetry dies except for when I manage to get out of wifi range completely.