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
MikeBowen
New Contributor

William, I am running the same ESRI software but with the Phantom 3. I may be able to help a little, FMV doesn't currently support .mov files but should work with .mp4. I have added .mp4 files from my phantom 3 and the video manager picked them up And they were not MISB. To get the .srt file on mine I open the DJI Go app and go into the flight (camera) mode. Then click menu then the wrench (settings), then turn Video Caption on. That will record the metadata to the .srt file. I hope that gets you closer.

Will
by
Occasional Contributor II

Thanks Mike!

That was one of the next things I was going to try. I’ll report back after I do..

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DouglasRidenour
New Contributor III

Like Mike says as long as it is a MP4 you should be able to open and view it as an archived video. If there is no MISB standard metadata in the video it will still play but you won't see it on your map. If you are able to access the .srt file I'd be interested in looking to see how it might be used with the multiplexer to generate a MISB dataset.

Will
by
Occasional Contributor II

Thanks.  In the “Add An Archived Video File” – “Add Video” dialog, none of the MP4 files created with my Phantom 4 show up to be selected.  They do not have .srt files, but I will try turning the video caption option on and create some videos this weekend to see if that generates the .srt files… although from what it sounds like you’re indicating, the MP4 videos should show up as being selectable whether they have accompanying .srt files or not?  Is that correct?

Note that I’m running ArcGIS for Personal Use license, with a 60 day free trial of FMV 1.3.1 (I was given an authorization number).  Note that I have not yet paid the ~$20.00 license fee yet as I assumed I didn’t have to while it was a free trial, could that make a difference?

Thanks for any continued help.

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JeffLiedtke
Esri Contributor

I believe the reason you don't see the mp4 videos to be selected when you go to add an archived video file is because video file types are not native to Esri.  You need to close ArcMap and explicitly add them to ArcCatolog.  This process is outlined, step-by-step, in the user's guide/help which should be included in your trial version.  If not, go to the FMV catagory on GeoNet

GeoNet: https://community.esri.com/search.jspa?q=fmv

Add video file types in ArcCatalog

The ArcGIS Full Motion Video 1.3.1 Add-In is now ready for use. The first step is to add the recognized video file formats.

Steps:

  1. Open ArcCatalog.

  1. To see what video file types are currently supported open the Customize menu and click ArcCatalog Options.

  1. Navigate to the File Type tab.

The File Types tab lists supported file types and allows the user to specify new file types that will be shown in Catalog.

  1. Click the New Type button.

  1. In the File Type dialog box type the file extension, as well as a description of the file type.

Note: in this example an MPEG-2 Transport Stream, which has a '.ts' file extension, is being added.

  1. Click OK.

The file type is added and will now be visible in ArcCatalog.

  1. Click the Apply.

  1. Add any other video file types that need to be displayed in ArcMap using steps 4 - 7.

The following is a comprehensive list of the supported file types:

Description Extension

  1. H.264 Video File H264

MPEG File MPG

MPEG File MPEG

MPEG-2 File MP2

MPEG-2 File MPG2

MPEG-2 File MPEG2

MPEG-4 File MP4

MPEG-4 File MPG4

MPEG-4 File MPEG4

MPEG-2 Program Stream PS

MPEG-2 Transport Stream TS

ESD File VOB

  1. Click OK to close the ArcCatalog Options dialog box.

  

Regards,

Jeff

AaronWoods
New Contributor III

I'm having trouble getting videos from an Inspire 1 to work as well.  I have the .SRT files (which seem to be missing a lot of metadata that seems like it is captured as the orientation and camera direction are reflected in the DJI Go Ap when flights are replayed).  I'm not sure how to properly map the .SRT file (converted to csv) to the MISB standard.  Advice on this is greatly appreciated.

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JeffLiedtke
Esri Contributor

We are currently working with DJI on a streamlined workflow to directly generate a metadata file suitable for input into the video multiplexer tool that combines the metadata with the video data to create a single MISB-compliant video file.  Certainly some of the required metadata is contained in the .srt file, but not all that is required.

As Doug mentioned previously, If you can access your .srt file and can provide it to us as a txt or csv file, we would be interested in looking into how it may be used with the video multiplexer tool.

MichalBrach
New Contributor

Dear Jeff Liedtke

I think that compatibility with DJI Phantom 4 would be great because it looks like this device (you can of course like it or not) create a standards in drone technology and of course it is the most popular on the world. So I keep my finger crosses for your succeed.

Anyway the point is if Esri is going to create some tools to make orthomosaic from DJI drones. This could be incredibly big step forward because nowadays the software which can do this (eg. Pix4D) is horribly expensive. Are there any plans to make orthomosaic form jpeg with EXIF data?

all the best

Michal Brach

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DouglasRidenour
New Contributor III

Michal,

    The Esri application for creating an orthomosaics from JPEGs with included EXIF info is Drone2Map (Drone2Map for ArcGIS). It works well with the DJI Phantom 4 out of the box. The Full Motion Video (FMV) tool is for bringing dynamic imagery into your GIS. This has been a difficult problem with consumer level platforms because it depends on a rich metadata layer being embeded in the video stream.  This metadata has to follow the industry standard set by the Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB: Motion Imagery Standards Board ).  The work that Jeff is describing is working with consumer drone makers to output simple text files that can be processed into the Video post flight using the software multiplexer tool included in the ArcGIS Desktop Add-in. We've had great success working this with 3DR and would like to replicate that with DJI.

Doug

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