DJI OSMO Rendering with Pixellation

Hello and thanks in advance for any input,

I've got a 1080p / 59.94p project using a mix of 29.97 fps clips and some drone footage shot at 1080p / 59.96 fps mixed in, along with some DJI Osmo footage shot at 1080p / 29.97 fps. When rendering all looks as expected, EXCEPT the DJI Osmo footage, which is rendering with a noticeable amount of pixelation that DOES NOT show during playback in FCP 10.3.1, whatsoever.

So far, I've tried pulling the footage into its own project with auto settings to detect first clip. Again, all looks fine with playback inside the project. When rendered, the pixelation is not as pronounced as when rendered with the entire project and mixed media, but it still exists to a point of unacceptable. My hope was that by rendering it in its own project, it could be placed inside the master project and work without issue, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The Osmo footage in question shows an Inspector codecs of AAC, Dji AVC encoder.

I greatly appreciate any input, solutions / remedies others may have on this. Thanks.

I've edited a lot of 4k Osmo content in FCPX and haven't seen this. On some past DJI 1080p drone content I have seen a propensity for macro blocking on certain detailed images and gradient banding on blue skies. Some of them (esp. the Phantom Vision 2) had significant exposure stepping. However we've only shot 4k the past two years so it's been a while.

In general I recommend using 4k on the Osmo and any DJI drone that supports it because the image quality looks better after down scaling to 1080.

Can you take a screen capture during playback of the exported content and post that? Also try to play it in both VLC and Quicktime and see if there is any difference.

Is there any possibility you are using proxy mode and not setting the viewer back to optimized/original before exporting? That will export in proxy resolution and won't look good.

In general I suggest exporting with these options: Export>Master File>Settings
Format: Computer
Video Codec: H.264 Better Quality
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

You can also try exporting to ProRes. That is a good diagnostic step to see if the problem is happening during encoding, since it is less compressed than H264. However the preset Apple uses for H264 is fairly high bit rate and usually looks pretty good unless something else degraded the image before export.

The Osmo is a daily workhorse for our locally produced shows. We shoot 720, 1080, 4K and never have any issues at all. But we shoot .mov files. We use a Phantom 4 and a pair of Inspire drones, too. Never had any issues.

We shoot fastest frame rates that particular camera will do, as it usually gives us the most clear image, the fewest amount of problems.

We did have an Osmo give us issues, DJI tech support admitted it was a defective camera and replaced it quickly. It was pixelation, but blanking in and out. Our P4 is in route to be replaced under warranty by DJI due to white dots and blue squares in the video.

Open the clip in QT Player, what does it look like there? If you still see it there, I'd contact DJI tech support.

Hello and thanks for the reply. We hired this OSMO with crew on a project. We opened files in QT, as you suggested. Other than motion blur, looks acceptable. We've attached two raw screenshots. One in and one rendered as a Master File H.264 - see image titles. The pixelation isn't as noticeable as when watching the clip, but you can still get an idea of it from screen shots. Does look fine inside the project (a little over exposed) but pixelation is the issue when rendered. I did make sure we weren't rendering any proxy media to rule that out. Thanks again - much appreciated.

Hello and thanks for the reply. We hired this OSMO with crew on a project. We opened files in QT, as you suggested. Other than motion blur, looks acceptable. Will also try VLC to check there. We've attached two raw screenshots. One in and one rendered as a Master File H.264 - see image titles. The pixelation isn't as noticeable as when watching the clip, but you can still get an idea of it from screen shots. Does look fine inside the project (a little over exposed) but pixelation is the issue when rendered. I did make sure we weren't rendering any proxy media to rule that out. Settings on export are as you suggested, but will also try the ProRes option. If you get a chance, let me know what you think of the screen shots. Thanks again - much appreciated.