What Micro SD card speed is really optimum?

[parkgt]

With the E2s writing at up to 120MB/s are the standard micro sdxc 1 (U3) with a write speed maxing out at 100MB/s really the best choice? These have been good enough for all consumer drones up to this point; but are they fast enough for the E2s? And are the E2s cameras a UHS II device?

The next step up is the micro sdxc II (U3) with write speeds up to 150 MB/s. These are at least twice the price. Here is one example: Lexar® Professional 1800x microSDXC™ UHS-II Cards - Lexar

Is some of the stuttering evident in some videos the result of the capture cards not being fast enough?

 

[dronographer]

That is a good question. All the manual says is: "The EVO II supports SD card capacity up to 256 GB. If you plan to shoot HD video, werecommend using a Class 10 or UHS-3 micro SD card (such as the 32 GB SanDisk Extreme® or the 64 GB A2/V30/U3/Class 10 SanDisk Extreme Pro®)."

I do know my Parrot Anafi is flawless with the cheap Sandisk Ultra micro sd cards from Costco and the video is 100mps. Maybe the camera's buffering comes into play, not sure.

 

[Quad808]

You guys have started me on a quest...its Mbps vs MBps.
One guy writes:
Resolution doesn't matter it's the bitrate that your recording at that decides the card. (megabits per second(mbps vs megaBytes per second MBs)
MBps is the write rate of the cards
1 # is card write rate, 2nd number is camera video bitrate
Simple Example.
95MB/s for 100mbps (basically any decent V30 U3 card)
150MB/s for 200mbps (Entry level UHS-II cards)
300MB/s for 250–500mbps (higher end UHS-II cards)

Let me add more info:
100 Mbps = 12.5 MB/s sustained write rate of card
120 Mbps = 15 MB/s
150 Mbps = 18.75 MB/s
200 Mbps = 25 MB/s
And so on. You want/need a high sustained write rate, not burst rate of the card. Based on this, looks like you wnat a U3 or V30 card. What we need is the write speed of the drone itself, not the capture rate.

There are V30 (30MBps)(U3),V60 cards (60MBs), then V90 (90MBps). The link above is V90. Overkill I would think.

Good read: Fastest MicroSD Card Speed Tests

 

[parkgt]

You guys have started me on a quest...its Mbps vs MBps.
One guy writes:
Resolution doesn't matter it's the bitrate that your recording at that decides the card. (megabits per second(mbps vs megaBytes per second MBs)
MBps is the write rate of the cards
1 # is card write rate, 2nd number is camera video bitrate
Simple Example.
95MB/s for 100mbps (basically any decent V30 U3 card)
150MB/s for 200mbps (Entry level UHS-II cards)
300MB/s for 250–500mbps (higher end UHS-II cards)

Let me add more info:
100 Mbps = 12.5 MB/s sustained write rate of card
120 Mbps = 15 MB/s
150 Mbps = 18.75 MB/s
200 Mbps = 25 MB/s
And so on. You want/need a high sustained write rate, not burst rate of the card. Based on this, looks like you wnat a U3 or V30 card. What we need is the write speed of the drone itself, not the capture rate.

There are V30 (30MBps)(U3),V60 cards (60MBs), then V90 (90MBps). The link above is V90. Overkill I would think.

Good read: Fastest MicroSD Card Speed Tests

Well since the highest rate I have seen listed for a EVO2 file is listed as "Overall bit rate: 125Mb/s" not 125 Mbps how does your information align?

 

[Quad808]

Well since the highest rate I have seen listed for a EVO2 file is listed as "Overall bit rate: 125Mb/s" not 125 Mbps how does your information align?

V30 or U3 cards should be able to handle 30MBps or up to 200Mbps, sustained rate. In theory. I have a bunch of Samsung U3 128G and 256 U3 cards I will use in the Evo II pro. 125Mb/s is exactly the same as 125Mbps
The key is big "B" vs little "b". Card speeds are shown in megabyte per second, cameras are megabit per second.

 

[parkgt]

Thanks for the link

Good read: Fastest MicroSD Card Speed Tests

From the Article:

"V90. The V-class is a new designation created to designate cards that are designed to work with the speeds required for high-bitrate 4K, 6K, and 8K video. The SD Association added some lower numbers to make them backward compatible with the older class designations (e.g., Class 10 and Class 6), but the most important ones are V30 and above.

Memory cards in the V90 class are rated to support a minimum sequential write speed of 90MB/sec. Their primary market is for cameras that shoot 8K video. For now, cameras that can shoot 8K are pretty rare, but the rating class provides room to grow.

V60 is applied to cards that support a minimum sequential write speed of 60MB/sec. They’re aimed primarily at cameras that record 4K video.

V30 is applied to cards that support a minimum sequential write speed of 30MB/sec. These are designed to support at least full HD video and some 4K video cameras that record 4K at lower bitrates."

I will stay with this one until I see a problem.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MicroSDXC-Adapter-MB-ME128GA-AM/dp/B06XWZWYVP/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&tag=autelxpilots-20

 

[Quad808]

Same here. I have never had a Samsung micro sd card fail on me, yet.

 

[Tufargon]

Same here. I have never had a Samsung micro sd card fail on me, yet.

When they do though most of the time, all solid state drives are usually fixable by the end user.

 

[Rubik3x]

You guys have started me on a quest...its Mbps vs MBps.
One guy writes:
Resolution doesn't matter it's the bitrate that your recording at that decides the card. (megabits per second(mbps vs megaBytes per second MBs)
MBps is the write rate of the cards
1 # is card write rate, 2nd number is camera video bitrate
Simple Example.
95MB/s for 100mbps (basically any decent V30 U3 card)
150MB/s for 200mbps (Entry level UHS-II cards)
300MB/s for 250–500mbps (higher end UHS-II cards)

Let me add more info:
100 Mbps = 12.5 MB/s sustained write rate of card
120 Mbps = 15 MB/s
150 Mbps = 18.75 MB/s
200 Mbps = 25 MB/s
And so on. You want/need a high sustained write rate, not burst rate of the card. Based on this, looks like you wnat a U3 or V30 card. What we need is the write speed of the drone itself, not the capture rate.

There are V30 (30MBps)(U3),V60 cards (60MBs), then V90 (90MBps). The link above is V90. Overkill I would think.

Good read: Fastest MicroSD Card Speed Tests

Great reference article. I understand your "more info" table, it's just the bit rate divided by 8 (bits per Byte). But I don't understand your "Simple Example". Why would a camera that shoots 100 Mbps need a card that writes 95 MBps (95x8=760 Mbps)?

 

[Quad808]

I copied and pasted from another post. Bottom line is this stuff is confusing at best. You want sustained write rate, so no burst rate which some cards could be counting as maximum write rate.
From what I have seen and my experience, the Samsung U3/V30 cards are a win. Once I get my Evo II, will do some testing...doesn't make much sense for any of us to spend $$ on a nice drone, and cheap out on the memory cards. But, that also means you don't need to splurge for the most expensive memory cards either!

 

[Ansia]

 

[Rubik3x]

View attachment 7184

Well that makes it pretty clear. Since the EVO II's maximum bit rate is 120 Mbps or 15 MBps (15 MB/sec), the minimum card spec should be U3 or V30. Thanks Ansia for posting this. I made a copy and stuck it in my Cameras folder.

 

[Seated_Perspectives]

I have tried the v30 and v90 speeds of cards, just got the v90 in yesterday. Even with a v90 card I am getting slow memory card write errors at 6k and there is some noticeable frame skipping in the recorded video, silicone power brand from amazon, authentic. I had solved this with the v30 card by only shooting in 2.7k, I wasn't even able to get fluid 4k, same cards I was using in my mavic pro 2 without issue. Well the V90 sill occasionally gets slow write errors flashing on the screen as well as providing somewhat choppy and pretty much unusable footage in 6k, dropping frames every 6 seconds or so. 4k is OK on the v90 but I can not get perfect buttery smooth 6k recorded on anything, not even the V90. I honestly don't know what to think here, head scratcher and using the internal memory isn't a viable option because I can not even get perfectly fluid 4k recorded on that, frame drops are noticeable in the recorded footage and its commercially useless.

 

[Ansia]

I have tried the v30 and v90 speeds of cards, just got the v90 in yesterday. Even with a v90 card I am getting slow memory card write errors at 6k and there is some noticeable frame skipping in the recorded video, silicone power brand from amazon, authentic. I had solved this with the v30 card by only shooting in 2.7k, I wasn't even able to get fluid 4k, same cards I was using in my mavic pro 2 without issue. Well the V90 sill occasionally gets slow write errors flashing on the screen as well as providing somewhat choppy and pretty much unusable footage in 6k, dropping frames every 6 seconds or so. 4k is OK on the v90 but I can not get perfect buttery smooth 6k recorded on anything, not even the V90. I honestly don't know what to think here, head scratcher and using the internal memory isn't a viable option because I can not even get perfectly fluid 4k recorded on that, frame drops are noticeable in the recorded footage and its commercially useless.

Then the problem is the processor on your drone. It cannot keep up. Since I do not own an Evo II, I cannot test if it's normal or your drone is having issues. I suggest you contact Autel about it.

 

[Rubik3x]

I have tried the v30 and v90 speeds of cards, just got the v90 in yesterday. Even with a v90 card I am getting slow memory card write errors at 6k and there is some noticeable frame skipping in the recorded video, silicone power brand from amazon, authentic. I had solved this with the v30 card by only shooting in 2.7k, I wasn't even able to get fluid 4k, same cards I was using in my mavic pro 2 without issue. Well the V90 sill occasionally gets slow write errors flashing on the screen as well as providing somewhat choppy and pretty much unusable footage in 6k, dropping frames every 6 seconds or so. 4k is OK on the v90 but I can not get perfect buttery smooth 6k recorded on anything, not even the V90. I honestly don't know what to think here, head scratcher and using the internal memory isn't a viable option because I can not even get perfectly fluid 4k recorded on that, frame drops are noticeable in the recorded footage and its commercially useless.

That's serious. I wonder if it is specific to certain E2P units. I've been watching every E2P 4K video I can find and some are smooth and some not. Some have have other image errors that are hard to explain with such a high quality camera. I've been chalking up the differences to settings, editing software and hardware deficiencies. Please keep us posted on anything that you learn about this.

 

[Seated_Perspectives]

That's serious. I wonder if it is specific to certain E2P units. I've been watching every E2P 4K video I can find and some are smooth and some not. Some have have other image errors that are hard to explain with such a high quality camera. I've been chalking up the differences to settings, editing software and hardware deficiencies. Please keep us posted on anything that you learn about this.

So this is gonna sound wild......but its the Android APP, it is absolutely the Android APP working the drones processor to the max, we reproduced it with two drones this morning, gonna fire off a support ticket to autel with videos and logs but there is just no way they are not aware of this APP issue, I have had issues with that APPS live view becoming a slide show after about three minutes of flight since day one on every android device we tried, brand new Galaxy S20 ultra even, the frame rates drop so bad at times it makes getting flowing smooth footage a battle, not transmission related, liveview on controller is always buttery smooth. All video shot through the app has frame drops, every single video, even some of the 2.7k when we went through em with a fine tooth comb. Shoot video without the app using just the controller and its buttery smooth, perfect, every resolution.

 

[Rubik3x]

So this is gonna sound wild......but its the Android APP, it is absolutely the Android APP working the drones processor to the max, we reproduced it with two drones this morning, gonna fire off a support ticket to autel with videos and logs but there is just no way they are not aware of this APP issue, I have had issues with that APPS live view becoming a slide show after about three minutes of flight since day one on every android device we tried, brand new Galaxy S20 ultra even, the frame rates drop so bad at times it makes getting flowing smooth footage a battle, not transmission related, liveview on controller is always buttery smooth. All video shot through the app has frame drops, every single video, even some of the 2.7k when we went through em with a fine tooth comb. Shoot video without the app using just the controller and its buttery smooth, perfect, every resolution.

Are you saying that the Android APP also effects the video recorded on the drone's microSD card?

 

[Seated_Perspectives]

Are you saying that the Android APP also effects the video recorded on the drone's microSD card?

Yes, that is correct. It appears it start seriously losing frames when any other mode than manual flight gets enabled and then you need to power cycle the drone to get back to being able to record smooth footage without the app just using the controller, but there's still small frame loss even in manual when using the app, just not as bad as when enabling other modes. Something about the app and engaging flight modes is hammering the drones processor. Same result, two drones, both pros, freshly reinstalled firmware and formatted V90 card.

 

[Ansia]

Are you able to try with an iOS device to see if the same happens or you get different results? I am intrigued about this, but I can't test things out.

 

[Seated_Perspectives]

Are you able to try with an iOS device to see if the same happens or you get different results? I am intrigued about this, but I can't test things out.

Unforutunaly I don't have one available today. I am planning to give that a shot Monday to see if it still happens.