FMV 1.3.1 with DJI Phantom 4

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07-28-2016 11:35 PM
Will
by
Occasional Contributor II

I need help figuring out how to use FMV 1.3.1 with ArcMap 10.4.1 and a DJI Phantom 4 drone.  The .mp4 and .mov video files I've created from the drone aren't recognized by the "Add an Archived Video" option.  Could this be because they are not MISB compliant and don't contain the required metadata?  If so, I'm also having trouble locating the necessary metadata information to use with the Mutiplexer tool.  I've read about .srt files with the Phantom 3 that contain such metadata, but I can't find any such files with the Phantom 4 video files.   Anyone have insight on this process?  Thanks.

34 Replies
GIS-Cambria
Occasional Contributor II

For all the users with .mov files:

the video format is h264 so just change the file extension to .h264 and bingo! FMV will see and play it.

JeffLiedtke
Esri Contributor

Steve,

Thank you for your helpful post. Video data in .MOV format is not uncommon, and users need to know how to convert .MOV video files into a format supported by FMV.

 

Just a little general background for our users:

A codec is a compression standard that compresses raw video when encoding and decompresses the data upon playback. Examples of codecs are H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

 

A format is a file container that holds one or more codecs. Examples of container formats include .MOV, MP2 and MP4.

 

Thus, .MOV is a container format, while H.264 is a codec.

 

The recommendation to change the video file extension from .MOV to .H264 is generally true for new sensors since Apple adopted the H.264 codec for the .MOV file format. A simple solution that will work in many cases - users should try this first and see if the video works in FMV.  However, older .MOV files or older sensors may utilize a codec different from H.264 and may not work in the FMV application.

 

In the latter case, and as a general practice, we recommend that users explicitly convert their .MOV, etc. files into any of the 12 common file types supported by FMV.  The supported file types include .ps, .ts, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp2, .mpg2, .mpeg2, .mp4, .mpg4, .mpeg4, .h264, .vob, or .m2ts. For best video quality-to-file size ratio, we suggest MP4 using the h264 codec. VLC is an excellent open source, free, multimedia player that converts between different formats (i.e., encapsulation) and codecs.

Note: the VLC media player does not recognize MISB-compliant metadata, so if your video has MISB data encoded, it will be stripped away in the conversion process.  I'm not aware of any sensors that produce MISB-compliant video data in .MOV format, but if in doubt, change the file extension first to see if this works.

Jeff

RenatoSalvaleon
Occasional Contributor III

This is a great thread on FMV, SRT, DJI and Drone2Map(in general). Thanks to @JeffLiendtke and @CodyBenkelman for keeping up with responses and questions and to the others who shared their knowledge..

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manojwilliams
New Contributor

Dear William,

Hope this response helps you.

The necessary flight information should be in a .dat file produced from the UAV. Here is a forum discussion about the .dat files: http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/gui-version-of-datconverter.66872/page-5#post-719374

 

Once they have the .dat file they can follow the directions below:

 

IsWhere 3.2.0.2(or higher) will be available on the Red Hen Systems website in the near future, but here is an alternative download link you can get it from:

 

https://mega.nz/#!IcFwHRZI!I6hzVAO7xWtU4wxsFVr-MaLLT0p53HZFFjVFJWmHLVo

 

This version can work with csv files produced from the DJI Inspire DAT Converter.

 

A download of the converter and instructions are here:

 

https://mega.nz/#!QUs2QKDJ!NPGInrVpD3k2suN6cr9raDBPNcPnORU00AqzdYpegQY

 

“RHS Instruction for IsWhere.PNG” shows what to configure in the converter.

 

Just keep the dat and csv files in the same directory as the original video and they need to have the same file name as the video.

 

Once you have the csv file generated from the converter you only need to import the video into IsWhere 3.2.0.2.

 

IsWhere will then produce a companion xml file. Once this xml file exists with the video file the user can begin the steps for converting the video for Full Motion Video playback.

 

They can import the video (xml needs to be in same directory as video) into GEM2MISB and start the process. If there are errors occurring they just need to follow the RHS tutorial video for GEM2MISB https://www.redhensystems.com/tutorial-videos for correcting their respective error.

Thank you.

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CodyBenkelman
Esri Regular Contributor

 

Please see this blog post for current information, and check back for updates:  http://esriurl.com/DJIFMVblog


Cody B.

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