Camera Video Inop

[Vic]

I flew my "H" up above the house to get a view of the new snowfall. I pushed the video record button & then rotated the drone, watching what the camera was seeing on the controller. After 360 deg. I pushed the button again to stop recording. When I downloaded the data, all I had was a snapshot of where I had originally pushed the button to start recording. The gimbal tilt control slider was full up, the tilt mode switch was centered, the pan mode switch was centered & the pan control was straight up. Did I miss something?

 

[AH-1G]

I flew my "H" up above the house to get a view of the new snowfall. I pushed the video record button & then rotated the drone, watching what the camera was seeing on the controller. After 360 deg. I pushed the button again to stop recording. When I downloaded the data, all I had was a snapshot of where I had originally pushed the button to start recording. The gimbal tilt control slider was full up, the tilt mode switch was centered, the pan mode switch was centered & the pan control was straight up. Did I miss something?

You might have thought you started recording. When you started recording was there a message at the very top center of your monitor stating you are "recording"?
Try this with your H on a table. (you do not need to start up the engine. Put a battery in the H, turn your monitor on, once it's all booted up, turn on your H, once that's booted up, hit record. The monitor will display the recording time. Stop the recording. Now watch it on your computer.

 

[Vic]

You might have thought you started recording. When you started recording was there a message at the very top center of your monitor stating you are "recording"?
Try this with your H on a table. (you do not need to start up the engine. Put a battery in the H, turn your monitor on, once it's all booted up, turn on your H, once that's booted up, hit record. The monitor will display the recording time. Stop the recording. Now watch it on your computer.

I just tried your idea! When I pushed the button, the monitor said "start recording". It didn't stay on---I believe it said "welcome, pilot". I rotated the camera with the pan control for about 30 seconds. I pushed the button & the monitor said "stop recording". I had a look at it on the computer & got the same results that I had outside. There was the snapshot of where I first pushed the recording button & nothing else. The bar at the bottom of the video goes across the bottom of the screen just as if I was watching a video.

Vic

 

[DoomMeister]

What SD card are you using in the CGO3+ camera?

Are you sure you are in video mode and not photo mode?

Does the ST-16 display the amount of memory left on the card in the upper right display?

I’m also attaching the most complete user manual for the Typhoon H.

 

[Mrgs1]

I just tried your idea! When I pushed the button, the monitor said "start recording". It didn't stay on---I believe it said "welcome, pilot". I rotated the camera with the pan control for about 30 seconds. I pushed the button & the monitor said "stop recording". I had a look at it on the computer & got the same results that I had outside. There was the snapshot of where I first pushed the recording button & nothing else. The bar at the bottom of the video goes across the bottom of the screen just as if I was watching a video.

Vic

So you are getting no timer on the screen when you press record?

 

[Vic]

Thanks for the manual. It's a big help! The SD card came with the drone. I'm in video mode. Memory is displayed in the upper right of the screen. When attempting to record a video, the timer runs at the center top of the screen. The video appears to be normal when playing it back on the controller. When I put the card into the computer it doesn't work. On my last try, the file showed a snapshot of when I started to record & another shot about half way through the one minute episode. Also, I cannot find the shutter button icon.

I want to add that I just took a video with my personal camera and inserted its SD card into the same slot in my computer that I use to insert the CGO3+ SD card. The video plays just fine.

Vic

 

[AH-1G]

As mentioned above what brand and type of video card is it?

 

[Brewer53]

What sort of computer are you using to play back the video? What you are describing is exactly what happens when I try to play a video on my Thinkpad T520 - it just doesn't have the horsepower to keep up. On the Thinkpad, I get 2 or 3 stills that display during playback of a 1 minute video. If I take the same card to a fast desktop machine, it plays back fine.

Is there another machine you might try to play back on? Maybe a friend's machine? Do you copy the file to the local hard drive on the PC before trying to play it? SD cards can be a good bit slower than hard drives. Anything you can do to speed up the machine or retrieval of the file should help.

 

[Vic]

I get the impression that you think that drones may be sold with an SD card that will not record videos. All I can read on my card is PNY 32 GB. The fine print says something like Elite HC. I did not transfer videos from the card to my hard drive before attempting to view it. I'll try that & then look for a faster (newer) pc. Mine is a Toshiba Laptop P500-ST5801.

Vic

 

[Steve Carr]

Mine is a Toshiba Laptop P500-ST5801.

What resolution are you using to record video. If it is set to 4K that laptop will not play it. If you change the record resolution to the lowest setting it might (or might not) play it.

 

[Mrgs1]

I get the impression that you think that drones may be sold with an SD card that will not record videos. All I can read on my card is PNY 32 GB. The fine print says something like Elite HC. I did not transfer videos from the card to my hard drive before attempting to view it. I'll try that & then look for a faster (newer) pc. Mine is a Toshiba Laptop P500-ST5801.

Vic

Is it something like this? Personally I wouldn't use a card like that.
Or is it the Elite X?

 

[Brewer53]

I used the SD card that came with my Typhoon with no problems until it just flat died one day. The original card was slower that what I replaced it with but it did work at 4K - as long as I copied the file off the card before trying to watch it.

 

[Vic]

Is it something like this? Personally I wouldn't use a card like that.
Or is it the Elite X?

Here's my SD card. The controller is set on the lowest resolution.

Vic

 

[FlushVision]

Here's my SD card. The controller is set on the lowest resolution.

VicView attachment 18588

That card should work fine if recording at 1080 HD but in some circumstances may prove to be 'iffy' if recording at 4K. Ideally you need a card that shows a '3' in the U instead of a '1'.

If it isn't recording at 1080 properly then your card may be just buggered. Try another card.

People often overlook, though, the devices that video is played back on. For example, to play 4K video on a laptop that laptop needs to be quite a 'high end' machine...4K capable with screen to match. Indeed, some older laptops struggle even at 1080!

If your laptop isn't 4K capable (You will know if it is) and if it is struggling even at 1080 then a not too expensive way to speed it up a bit is to just add more memory and also transfer video files to the hard drive before playing...adding more memory and playing videos from the hard drive may be just enough to stop it from struggling at 1080. But the sure fire way of seeing 4K on a computer is to simply buy a 4K capable computer!

Here's my advice, for what it's worth:
1. Use a better card. A U3 is preferable;
2. If #1 doesn't work then look to your play back device. It may be just too slow to run video recorded from the TH. Remember that even at 1080, TH 1080 video files are more demanding than 1080 files from other recording devices (I kid you not).

 

[Mrgs1]

Just to add you should carry at least a couple more cards just in case, and format in the camera too. Personally I only use SanDisk extreme Pro, but other high end cards will do.

 

[Vic]

Some of the stuff you folks are telling me is over my head---such as, is my computer 4K compatible. I Googled that question and could not find one answer that I understood enough to figure it out. I do have the jist of your answers and am confident that I have enough info to fix my problem. Thanks for all of your help!

Vic

 

[DoomMeister]

@Vic,

@FlushVision is on the mark about your SD card. The U1 rating is okay for 1080p video, but you need a good U3 rated SD with a write capability at 90MB or better to record 4K UHD video.

 

[Mrgs1]

SanDisk Extreme® PRO microSDXC™ UHS-I CARD, Best Micro SD Card | Western Digital | Western Digital

Get extreme speeds for fast transfer, app performance, and 4K UHD.2 Ideal for your Android™ smartphone, action cameras or drones, this high-performance microSD card does 4K UHD video recording, Full HD video, and high-resolution photos. The super-fast SanDisk Extreme® PRO microSDXC™ memory card...

www.sandisk.com

These are my go to card, always good results, I still carry a couple just in case.

 

[Vic]

Transferring data from the SD card to my hard drive at a low resolution (1920 X 1080) works. Given that I can now watch videos taken with the drone on my computer, why is it that the UAV pilot simulator screen will not show a complete picture without being chopped up running at 640 X 480?

Vic