Stuttering video when exporting DJI Mini 3 Pro drone footage

johnebaker wrote on 8/1/2022, 1:13 PM

Hi

The most likely cause of the juddering in the export is the drone video is Variable Framerate (VFR).

Download and install MediaInfo and analyse one of the drone clips, see this tutorial on how to setup MediaInfo and analyse a video clip for all the data required.

In the video section of the analysis, if you see this line:

Frame rate mode : Variable

then the video needs converting to Constant framerate (CFR) using a video converter such as Handbrake

If this does not fix the issue then we need more information:

Computer specification, Windows version and program version, see this topic for what is required and please quote processor and graphics card make/model in full, and also what monitor/screen resolution(s) your are working with if this is a laptop.

I would suggest you put this information in your profile signature so we do not have to keep asking for it.

Are the graphics card drivers up to date?

A screen shot of the Program settings, Device options tab would help.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

Meeeeeeeee wrote on 8/1/2022, 3:55 PM

Hi John

The Frame rate mode is saying "Constant" for the source file.

I'm using Movie Edit Pro Plus 2022 - v 21.0.2.138 (UDP3).

OS is Windows 10 version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1826)

Hardware is an HP Pavilion x360 Laptop - 14-dw0023na

Processor   Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz 1.50 GHz
Installed RAM   16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)
System type   64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

My source files are on an external USB 3 WD Passport drive.

My display res is 1920 x 1080

Monitor is connected to a Dell docking station.

CubeAce wrote on 8/1/2022, 4:38 PM

@Meeeeeeeee

Hi.

If possible could you upload an offending clip to Google drive for us to test?

Then we could tell if it is a video file problem or possibly a hardware problem somewhere.

It could save a lot of time going back and forth with questions. At present my guess would be you are exporting the file using a preset that is using less bits per second than the original. The additional compression that would cause may well be the problem on P and B frames.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 8/1/2022, 4:50 PM

@Meeeeeeeee

Hi

. . . . When I export as MPEG-4 . . .

Which preset are you using and did you make any changes to it?

I agree with @CubeAce that a sample video clip would help, if the original causing the issue is too long then a sample clip 20 to 30 secs long from the drone camera would help, it must be shot using the same settings for the drone and uploaded to a file sharing site such as Dropbox, Google drive, not to Youtube, Vimeo or even the forum as they will re-encode the video.

John EB

Meeeeeeeee wrote on 8/2/2022, 2:44 PM

I have tried something which might help in narrowing down the issue. I attempted to make a short video in Movie Edit Pro, using a small part of the drone footage, just as a test. When doing the MPEG-4 export, I selected MP4 Ultra HD 3840x2160 29.97p as the preset, and then didn't change anything else.

The exported MP4 did not suffer from the jitteryness.

(If I try and export again, the Presets drop-down has "User defined:" selected. Not sure if that is an issue but seems a bit weird).

Anyway, back to my original project in Movie Edit Pro. I attempted to export again, selecting MP4 Ultra HD 3840x2160 29.97p as the preset, and it still stutters, even though the test project doesn't, using the same source footage.

So not sure if getting the original drone footage to you would have helped?

johnebaker wrote on 8/2/2022, 3:06 PM

@Meeeeeeeee

Hi

In the original project are the export settings as shown below:

If not select a different export preset then select the MP4 UltraHD 3840x2160 29.97 preset and try exporting again

John EB

CubeAce wrote on 8/2/2022, 3:07 PM

@Meeeeeeeee

Hi.

Having a short problem clip helps in as much as we can either verify if it is a software or hardware problem.

The Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 inboard chip without the aid of a third part GPU is not renowned for handling video encoding well and your system may render the file much smoother turning off hardware acceleration and allowing the software to do the encoding which may be what you don't really want to hear as the export will take a lot longer to complete.

Running a clip on our systems where we can choose our rendering devices from CPU to Intel GPU to nvidia GPU can verify if this is the case or not.

Even if you decide to turn off hardware acceleration on your system and it works (or not) you would not know if another computer system could cope with your files better or not or whether it is the down to the software.

It's your choice and we won't push for you to supply something you would rather not. as This is just an offer of help to see if there is either a way for you to get a better quality file with your system or not. I personally never keep files once a topic is concluded. If you would rather not have file links on a public forum you can contact us individually through the internal messaging system with a link.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 8/3/2022, 3:10 AM

@CubeAce, @Meeeeeeeee

Hi

. . . . The Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 inboard chip without the aid of a third part GPU is not renowned for handling video encoding well . . . .

Ray - AFAICS there are no Intel bulletins or notes that there is an issue with video handling on this gpu, and I can find only one reference to issues and that does not relate to video editing.

Assuming the Intel iGPU drivers are up to date - the latest version is 31.0.101.3222 avaialble here. the Iris 655 does support hardware acceleration of h.264/AVC and h.265/HEVC 8 and 10 bit.

As Ray has commented, the offer is there for us to try on different systems with a sample video clip from the drone and probably a little longer than I suggested previously eg 2 - 3 mins.

John EB

Meeeeeeeee wrote on 8/4/2022, 4:07 PM

Hi John & Ray

Well, I've dusted off my old desktop which hasn't been used since pre pandemic days! After downloading 2 years worth of Windows updates, I've tried exporting the offending project, and am getting similar stuttering results as my laptop generated.

John, yes the settings were the same as your snapshot, other than I don't have "multiple gpu" option. I have tried both GPU and CPU as well as "off" (off took 30 mins to produce less than 6 mins video, and my PC fan was on overdrive!)

I could get a copy of the source files to you but it's about 10GB worth in total. I can share a OneDrive folder but would prefer to only share to specific account(s) - could you message me an email address?

Thanks

Mark

Former user wrote on 8/4/2022, 5:36 PM

@Meeeeeeeee

Hi, you can go to your icon at the top of this page, click it - My Profile,
& fill in your Signature with this information, it will then show at the bottom of the comments,

Movie Edit Pro Plus 2022
Windows 10
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU
16.0 GB RAM
do you have a GPU (graphics card) on your pc/laptop?

Also MediaInfo has been asked for, the tool/app is called MediaInfo,
download it, it's quick & free
After downloading, right click on the media in your Windows folder, open MediaInfo,
choose Text from the View option, select all, copy & paste in a comment here,

johnebaker wrote on 8/7/2022, 2:13 PM

@Meeeeeeeee

Hi Mark

@CubeAce has relayed information to the me which may pertinent.

If you start a new project and add the DJI video file to the timeline then export as before is the juddering present?

If it is then try the following with the original project loaded into MEP:

Select File, Manage project, Export movie file, Magix movie file (*.mvd) and save the MVD file with an appropriate name.
Restart MEP and start a new project.
Select File, Manage project, Import movie file, Magix movie file (*.mvd), browse to the location you saved the mvd file in step 1 and load it.
Save the project with a new name and the export again.

If the juddering is still there, then repeats steps 2 - 4 again, however in step 2 also reset the program to its default settings - File, Settings, Reset program settings to default. - note this will undo any custom settings you have made eg different folder paths.

HTH

John EB

CubeAce wrote on 8/7/2022, 3:32 PM

@Meeeeeeeee @johnebaker

Hi Boys.

I've just PM'ed you both with a working solution. It really turns out that MEP (MMS) really doesn't like working at 29.970 fps. Change both project setting and export to 30fps and most of the juddering goes away. (99.9% at least) Upping the bit rate doesn't do any harm either.

Mark.

I have sent you my working settings to try for yourself.

Ray.

Meeeeeeeee wrote on 8/7/2022, 4:14 PM

That does appear to be much better using 30 fps... the mp4 files coming from the drone are definitely 29.97, so not sure what's going on. And as I've said I'd created a smaller project with just a few seconds of the juddery video, and that exported ok at 29.97.

But... 30 works so I'm going with that!

Thanks very much for your time and effort Ray (and John!), much appreciated! 🙂

CubeAce wrote on 8/7/2022, 5:21 PM

@Meeeeeeeee @johnebaker @Former user

Hi Mark.

It was me reading through this topic by Clement5 that got me wondering if any of the latest Magix video editing packages were not reading the frame rate data accurately and me then subsequently trying to round up the frame rate and see if it reduced the stuttering. Also when I tried to re-arrange some of your clips within your project I was seeing partial frames on the timeline and being warned of gaps when I tried to export a re-arranged version of the project. Also making a project with just one short section of a clip rather than using several sections of the same clip was not causing as much problems. That to me meant something was wrong, as normally a clip can be split up and used within a project with no ill after effects.

Even in the Editing monitor within both MEP (MMS) and VPX, the stuttering could be clearly seen before exporting. This was not happening just playing a source file with any video player.

Changing the project frame rate to 30fps gave much smoother playback in the editing monitor so I also changed the export to 30fps. The partial frames showing in the timeline disappeared.

This solution has still not given a completely error free export. I counted five incidents of what I would describe as 'micro judders' within the exported render. Not at regular intervals and each less visually noticeable and lasting less than 1/25s each. It has also lengthened the export by about another second or so but I felt that was less important to you than the original juddering.

Either way, I'm glad we have a better result for you but feel this should be looked by Magix at as none of this happens when dealing with video recorded at solid frame rates.

I also feel it has a bearing on Clement5's problem.

Ray.