EVO II Pro corrupt video files?

Sean72 · Nov 6, 2021

Hi guys, new EVO 2 Pro owner. Camera has worked great for stills ad no issues with SD card on that either, but I took a couple of quick videos in H265 1080p 120Hz and they won't play back properly on anything I've tried. First used Win Media, no go, then MPC-HC, then VLC, nothing works. What I am seeing is different depending on the machine and the software used to play back. On Windows 7 using VLC I will see a clear image for a split second, then the whole screen goes to gray for the remainder of the clip. On Windows 10 using VLC I get a strange looking double image, the video is displayed in about 3 colors, black white and pink and it's got a mirror image of itself on the left and right sides of the screen.

Same thing on windows 10 with MPC-HC, but on Windows 7 with MPC HC the split screen video is made up of two colors, pink and white.

I thought maybe it was a hardware power issue so I tried it on my machine with AMD 5050x and RTX 3090, same exact issue so not a hardware problem I think.

Anyone have any ideas what's happening or experience anything similar? SD card is a U3 V90 Kingston: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08588JBN5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Like I said it's working fine with photos I shot a ton of RAW+Jpeg 5 shot brackets and all came out fine.

herein2021 · Nov 6, 2021

Sean72 said:
Hi guys, new EVO 2 Pro owner. Camera has worked great for stills ad no issues with SD card on that either, but I took a couple of quick videos in H265 1080p 120Hz and they won't play back properly on anything I've tried. First used Win Media, no go, then MPC-HC, then VLC, nothing works. What I am seeing is different depending on the machine and the software used to play back. On Windows 7 using VLC I will see a clear image for a split second, then the whole screen goes to gray for the remainder of the clip. On Windows 10 using VLC I get a strange looking double image, the video is displayed in about 3 colors, black white and pink and it's got a mirror image of itself on the left and right sides of the screen.

Same thing on windows 10 with MPC-HC, but on Windows 7 with MPC HC the split screen video is made up of two colors, pink and white.

I thought maybe it was a hardware power issue so I tried it on my machine with AMD 5050x and RTX 3090, same exact issue so not a hardware problem I think.

Anyone have any ideas what's happening or experience anything similar? SD card is a U3 V90 Kingston: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08588JBN5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Like I said it's working fine with photos I shot a ton of RAW+Jpeg 5 shot brackets and all came out fine.

They are not corrupt, you simply cannot play them back since they are H.265 and probably 6K. You will need to first import the files into your NLE of choice, probably create proxy files to edit the footage, then export to MP4 H.264. Personally don't shoot much 6K and mainly stick to 4K30FPS H.265 4:2:0 10bit but even these are difficult to playback until they have been edited end exported from my NLE (Davinci Resolve).

You will be better off shooting in 4K or I believe MP4 may use H.264 but I'm not sure since I've never shot with the MP4 format. VLC for me only plays up to 4K resolution, with the 6K footage the colors are way off and it plays the video in two windows at once; but the video itself is fine in my NLE.

Dave Pitman · Nov 6, 2021

Sean72 said:
Hi guys, new EVO 2 Pro owner. Camera has worked great for stills ad no issues with SD card on that either, but I took a couple of quick videos in H265 1080p 120Hz and they won't play back properly on anything I've tried

Please load up a sample to Dropbox and let's see what you have.

Dave Pitman · Nov 6, 2021

herein2021 said:
They are not corrupt, you simply cannot play them back since they are H.265 and probably 6K

Maybe a H.265 playback issue, but the OP said it is 1080 foortage, not 6k.

Sean72 · Nov 6, 2021

herein2021 said:
They are not corrupt, you simply cannot play them back since they are H.265 and probably 6K. You will need to first import the files into your NLE of choice, probably create proxy files to edit the footage, then export to MP4 H.264. Personally don't shoot much 6K and mainly stick to 4K30FPS H.265 4:2:0 10bit but even these are difficult to playback until they have been edited end exported from my NLE (Davinci Resolve).

You will be better off shooting in 4K or I believe MP4 may use H.264 but I'm not sure since I've never shot with the MP4 format. VLC for me only plays up to 4K resolution, with the 6K footage the colors are way off and it plays the video in two windows at once; but the video itself is fine in my NLE.

None of them were 6K, they were as mentioned 1080p 120 H265 and I also took a few at 4K 60 and 4K 30 H265 with the same result. I also shot some H264 MP4 and everything played back fine, all except 6k which was also playing back with dual screen pink and white.

You are right, it's not the files are corrupted but something is up with the H265 implementation in this drone. My EVO 1 shot 4K 60 MP4 H265 with no problem playing the files back on anything, but the 4K 60 MP4 H265 files from the EVO 2 Pro do not play back correctly on my same machines and same software that the EVO 1 videos were playing on. It shouldn't be that way. I have reached out to Autel for comment, maybe I just need a new piece of software to play back these files. but I don't always want to re-export them through another editor so they can play back on more common setups. I should be able to at least get 4K 60 H265 MP4 to come off the drone without issues. I would expect that at least since the EVO 1 did it with the same (supposed to be) CODEC.

Dave Pitman · Nov 6, 2021

Sean72 said:
something is up with the H265 implementation in this drone.

For reference, I can playback h.265 4k/60 and 1080/120 from my E2E (evo2 enterprise) on any of WMP, VLC or any of the few other apps I have on my win10 laptop.

Like I said, post an example and let others check if it's the file or a local problem to you. Autel will want the same thing.

Sean72 · Nov 6, 2021

Dave Pitman said:
For reference, I can playback h.265 4k/60 and 1080/120 from my E2E (evo2 enterprise) on any of WMP, VLC or any of the few other apps I have on my win10 laptop.

Like I said, post an example and let others check if it's the file or a local problem to you. Autel will want the same thing.

I will have to post tomorrow, on my way out the door. Thank you!

herein2021 · Nov 6, 2021

Sean72 said:
None of them were 6K, they were as mentioned 1080p 120 H265 and I also took a few at 4K 60 and 4K 30 H265 with the same result. I also shot some H264 MP4 and everything played back fine, all except 6k which was also playing back with dual screen pink and white.

You are right, it's not the files are corrupted but something is up with the H265 implementation in this drone. My EVO 1 shot 4K 60 MP4 H265 with no problem playing the files back on anything, but the 4K 60 MP4 H265 files from the EVO 2 Pro do not play back correctly on my same machines and same software that the EVO 1 videos were playing on. It shouldn't be that way. I have reached out to Autel for comment, maybe I just need a new piece of software to play back these files. but I don't always want to re-export them through another editor so they can play back on more common setups. I should be able to at least get 4K 60 H265 MP4 to come off the drone without issues. I would expect that at least since the EVO 1 did it with the same (supposed to be) CODEC.

The EVO 1 was probably H.265 4:2:0 8bit or it might even have been H.264 if you selected MP4 whereas the EVO II shoots in H.265 10 bit when you select MOV. I can't find a detailed camera spec sheet for the EVO 1 but I remember the EVO 2 advertised 10bit as an important new feature and even that wasn't working until a few firmware revisions later so I would almost be willing to bet that the EVO 1's video output is only 8bit.

I mentioned 6K because the problem you described with the dual pink displays only happens in VLC on my editing workstation when I shoot 6K, so I wasn't sure if all of the symptoms you described occurred at 1080P as well; but my problem with VLC is that it only supports up to 4K from the testing I have performed. You could try 5K Player, but if your GPU or your GPU's driver does not support H.265 4:2:0 10bit acceleration then no software player will fix your problem. You will either need a new video card, need to upgrade your drivers, need to convert the files using an NLE or conversion software, or you will need to shoot in H.264 instead which is 8bit.

H.265 GPU acceleration support is very hit or miss at the moment no matter how much you pay for your GPU. I have a RTX2080Ti and it can play the EVO II video files with no problem, but even it can only accelerate H.265 4:2:0 up to 10 bit, but it cannot accelerate H.265 4:2:2 10bit. The system with the RTX3090 should be able to playback the files with no problem as per this compatibility matrix. On the RTX system I recommend that you verify that you have the latest NVIDIA Studio drivers and not the Windows drivers, and that you have H.265 GPU acceleration enabled. If your CPU pegs at 100% during playback then your GPU is probably not accelerating the playback at which point you need to check your GPU acceleration settings.

You could also try dropping down your FPS for the 1080P footage to 30FPS or 60FPS, 120FPS H.265 10bit 4:2:0 footage is going to be very difficult for any video player to play; most of them have problems with anything over 30FPS. 120FPS of any footage is an editing framerate not a delivery framerate and is really meant to be post processed through an NLE prior to final delivery.

Dave Pitman said:
Maybe a H.265 playback issue, but the OP said it is 1080 foortage, not 6k.

I agree, but the dual pink screen issue in VLC only happens with footage higher than 4K resolution that's why I mentioned maybe at least some of it was 6K.

Sean72 · Nov 7, 2021

herein2021 said:
The EVO 1 was probably H.265 4:2:0 8bit or it might even have been H.264 if you selected MP4 whereas the EVO II shoots in H.265 10 bit when you select MOV. I can't find a detailed camera spec sheet for the EVO 1 but I remember the EVO 2 advertised 10bit as an important new feature and even that wasn't working until a few firmware revisions later so I would almost be willing to bet that the EVO 1's video output is only 8bit.

I mentioned 6K because the problem you described with the dual pink displays only happens in VLC on my editing workstation when I shoot 6K, so I wasn't sure if all of the symptoms you described occurred at 1080P as well; but my problem with VLC is that it only supports up to 4K from the testing I have performed. You could try 5K Player, but if your GPU or your GPU's driver does not support H.265 4:2:0 10bit acceleration then no software player will fix your problem. You will either need a new video card, need to upgrade your drivers, need to convert the files using an NLE or conversion software, or you will need to shoot in H.264 instead which is 8bit.

H.265 GPU acceleration support is very hit or miss at the moment no matter how much you pay for your GPU. I have a RTX2080Ti and it can play the EVO II video files with no problem, but even it can only accelerate H.265 4:2:0 up to 10 bit, but it cannot accelerate H.265 4:2:2 10bit. The system with the RTX3090 should be able to playback the files with no problem as per this compatibility matrix. On the RTX system I recommend that you verify that you have the latest NVIDIA Studio drivers and not the Windows drivers, and that you have H.265 GPU acceleration enabled. If your CPU pegs at 100% during playback then your GPU is probably not accelerating the playback at which point you need to check your GPU acceleration settings.

You could also try dropping down your FPS for the 1080P footage to 30FPS or 60FPS, 120FPS H.265 10bit 4:2:0 footage is going to be very difficult for any video player to play; most of them have problems with anything over 30FPS. 120FPS of any footage is an editing framerate not a delivery framerate and is really meant to be post processed through an NLE prior to final delivery.

Great info, thank you for taking the time to explain. I'll look into this more and report back.

Sean72 · Nov 7, 2021

OK another update. I just went through and took 5 second clips of just about every possible combo available from the drone.

Let me back up a bit and also mention this is a V2 version of the drone and V2 version of the smart controller, not sure if that will matter but it might. I also just updated the NVIDIA drivers to the latest version for my RTX 3090.

I'm getting the same issue whether in MOV or MP4 container. When using H265 and playing back with the latest version of VLC player all of my H265 clips give me split screen with white green pink (looks like an old school 3D movie color scheme). That includes 1080p24, 1080p30, 1080p60, 1080p120, 4K24, 4K30, 4K60, and 6K.

Switching the Codec to H264 everything plays back fine except the 6K which continues to show the split screen 3D movie colors.

I should be able to play back any of these without breaking a sweat on this hardware, but something about this H265 my systems do not like 9and something about that 6K H264 too). I'm looking around the control panel here on the forum and do not see a way to upload the raw video clips. I only see an option to link to outside video streaming services which won't do me any good. Is there a way to upload the files directly?

Dave Pitman · Nov 7, 2021

Sean72 said:
OK another update. I just went through and took 5 second clips of just about every possible combo available from the drone.

Let me back up a bit and also mention this is a V2 version of the drone and V2 version of the smart controller, not sure if that will matter but it might. I also just updated the NVIDIA drivers to the latest version for my RTX 3090.

I'm getting the same issue whether in MOV or MP4 container. When using H265 and playing back with the latest version of VLC player all of my H265 clips give me split screen with white green pink (looks like an old school 3D movie color scheme). That includes 1080p24, 1080p30, 1080p60, 1080p120, 4K24, 4K30, 4K60, and 6K.

Switching the Codec to H264 everything plays back fine except the 6K which continues to show the split screen 3D movie colors.

I should be able to play back any of these without breaking a sweat on this hardware, but something about this H265 my systems do not like 9and something about that 6K H264 too). I'm looking around the control panel here on the forum and do not see a way to upload the raw video clips. I only see an option to link to outside video streaming services which won't do me any good. Is there a way to upload the files directly?

you need to use a file sharing service, dropbox, google drive, micorsoft one, etc.

herein2021 · Nov 7, 2021

Sean72 said:
OK another update. I just went through and took 5 second clips of just about every possible combo available from the drone.

Let me back up a bit and also mention this is a V2 version of the drone and V2 version of the smart controller, not sure if that will matter but it might. I also just updated the NVIDIA drivers to the latest version for my RTX 3090.

I'm getting the same issue whether in MOV or MP4 container. When using H265 and playing back with the latest version of VLC player all of my H265 clips give me split screen with white green pink (looks like an old school 3D movie color scheme). That includes 1080p24, 1080p30, 1080p60, 1080p120, 4K24, 4K30, 4K60, and 6K.

Switching the Codec to H264 everything plays back fine except the 6K which continues to show the split screen 3D movie colors.

I should be able to play back any of these without breaking a sweat on this hardware, but something about this H265 my systems do not like 9and something about that 6K H264 too). I'm looking around the control panel here on the forum and do not see a way to upload the raw video clips. I only see an option to link to outside video streaming services which won't do me any good. Is there a way to upload the files directly?

Do you have more than one GPU in the RTX system? Also, is the CPU QuickSync capable, if the CPU is QS capable you may need to disable QS in the BIOS because it may be the default GPU for HW acceleration.

If you have Gmail you can use your Google Drive to upload the video files then share the link. I wouldn't leave the link active more than a few days though, Google Drive has a bandwidth limit on files and once you exceed it they block downloads.

GeoDrone SRL · Nov 10, 2021

Hi,
I have seen lately same problem at my H265 also...cannot be played in VLC and other players (just shows me a fraction of second and the image is freezed or black screen), is working only in the native Media Player from Windows ...I have reinstalled the video card drivers, the VLC, BSPlayer, the codecs...nothing.
The problem I believe is from a FFMPEG download I have made and asked me to upgrade the codecs...which I did...silly me.
In standard Media Player is forced the default codec, which goes smooth....also in DaVinci and Premiere there is no problem with the video file.
I will search for a solving (will try to uninstall codecs and install older ones), as last ones seems to be corrupted or not working properly...if you installed some updates for VLC, BS Player or PotPlayer, they have downloaded the last codecs and put it in...
Try to uninstall them, then install MPC-HC, is using old decoding methods and at me works fine.
Also format your card inside the drone.

Hope this helps.

Brock Inspector · Nov 12, 2021

Are you saving as MP4 or MOV? As another check, do you have an Android device like a smart phone or tablet that's 4K 60 fps? It will likely have a current working h265 codec. I've got a couple such Android devices and my AE2P 6K works in 4K 60 with them. (Provided I format the card in the PHONE, not the drone, I can see the card and play files across Android tab & phone, Windows 10 Thinkpad, and AE2P). I've not tried recording and saving as .mov because Autels are intrinsically Android.
Also noted is that you're trying to use a V90 card in the AE2P; it doesn't have the 2nd lane of pins to facilitate V90 write speeds, so no advantage there. Not sure even V30 speeds can always be achieved with certain V90 cards--they may underperform in V30 slots? Second order of business, I'd suggest trying another MicroSD card. I've had good luck with the included 32GB and a couple of 128GB V30 SanDisk Extremes picked up for <$25 each from reputable sources (B&H, Adorama). I recommend never buying cards off random Amazon sites. Counterfeit/Fake V90 cards are ubiquitous. (And I will say it again for emphasis: even the lowliest genuine article V30 has twice the sustained minimum write speed that the Evo II can write with it's 120Mbps bus speed)

GeoDrone SRL · Nov 13, 2021

Brock Inspector said:
Are you saving as MP4 or MOV? As another check, do you have an Android device like a smart phone or tablet that's 4K 60 fps? It will likely have a current working h265 codec. I've got a couple such Android devices and my AE2P 6K works in 4K 60 with them. (Provided I format the card in the PHONE, not the drone, I can see the card and play files across Android tab & phone, Windows 10 Thinkpad, and AE2P). I've not tried recording and saving as .mov because Autels are intrinsically Android.
Also noted is that you're trying to use a V90 card in the AE2P; it doesn't have the 2nd lane of pins to facilitate V90 write speeds, so no advantage there. Not sure even V30 speeds can always be achieved with certain V90 cards--they may underperform in V30 slots? Second order of business, I'd suggest trying another MicroSD card. I've had good luck with the included 32GB and a couple of 128GB V30 SanDisk Extremes picked up for <$25 each from reputable sources (B&H, Adorama). I recommend never buying cards off random Amazon sites. Counterfeit/Fake V90 cards are ubiquitous. (And I will say it again for emphasis: even the lowliest genuine article V30 has twice the sustained minimum write speed that the Evo II can write with it's 120Mbps bus speed)

I always use V90 cards for faster reading in computer, none had problems.
Is about computer here.

ocpbuitendijk · Apr 9, 2024

Sean72 said:
Hallo jongens, nieuwe EVO 2 Pro-eigenaar. Camera heeft prima gewerkt voor foto's en geen problemen met de SD-kaart daarop, maar ik heb een paar snelle video's gemaakt in H265 1080p 120Hz en ze zullen niet goed afspelen op alles wat ik heb geprobeerd. Eerst Win Media gebruikt, no go, dan MPC-HC, dan VLC, niets werkt. Wat ik zie is anders, afhankelijk van de machine en de software die wordt gebruikt om af te spelen. Op Windows 7 met VLC zie ik een fractie van een seconde een duidelijk beeld, daarna wordt het hele scherm grijs voor de rest van de clip. Op Windows 10 met VLC krijg ik een vreemd uitziend dubbel beeld, de video wordt weergegeven in ongeveer 3 kleuren, zwart, wit en roze en het heeft een spiegelbeeld van zichzelf aan de linker- en rechterkant van het scherm.

Hetzelfde op Windows 10 met MPC-HC, maar op Windows 7 met MPC HC bestaat de video met gesplitst scherm uit twee kleuren, roze en wit.

Ik dacht dat het misschien een hardwareprobleem was, dus ik probeerde het op mijn machine met AMD 5050x en RTX 3090, exact hetzelfde probleem, dus geen hardwareprobleem denk ik.

Iemand enig idee wat er gebeurt of iets soortgelijks meemaakt? SD-kaart is een U3 V90 Kingston: Amazon.com

Zoals ik al zei, het werkt prima met foto's, ik schoot een ton van RAW + Jpeg 5 shot brackets en alles kwam goed.