New EVO pilot here. So far I’ve been really impressed with the drone and especially the camera. I was planning on using H.265 but honestly the H.264 looks so good right off the SD card I’m not sure it’s really worth it even though I have a Mac Pro. My question is does using Mov over MP4 really do anything even on a Mac? I know it’s just a wrapper but does it allow for longer than 4GB files or anything? Still exploring all the settings on this thing. It’s really impressive all the stuff they cram into these things. There’s not much out there that can even do 4K60fps...
As you already surmised, MOV vs MP4 is just a container. I personally have all of my cameras set to record in the MOV format because it is kind of universally accepted amongst camera vendors that if they offer a more easily editable bitrate/codec/format vs. some other option then they will use the MOV container vs. the MP4 container. I do have some cameras that I own that only offer for example 10bit footage if it is stored in an MOV container; this has nothing to do with the file format itself, it's just the way that the industry has evolved.
In regards to H.264 vs H.265....I have yet to see a comprehensive codec chart from Autel for the
EVO II and it's different cameras; not saying one doesn't exist, but I have yet to find it. But kind of like MOV vs MP4, most current camera vendors only offer their best bitrates, bit depth (i.e. 10bit vs 8bit), and sometimes camera resolution (i.e. 6K vs 4K) only when you use the H.265 codec.
You did not mention what camera you have (the 8K or 6K) and I don't have the time to do comprehensive testing and format analysis but I'd be willing to guess that with the 6K 1" sensor you can only shoot 6K with H.265 and possibly only achieve a 10bit bit depth with H.265 but I could be wrong. A lot of vendors are only offering 8bit for H.264 due to the file sizes and processing power needed.
Thanks for the info. I was more interested in finding out if Autel treated the Mov file differently. I was using MP4 at first and hate the 4GB limitation, especially when a nice sequence gets cut right in half but found it edits seamlessly between the clips so it’s no biggie but would be better if it just kept it in one file for me. As far as I can tell Mov files are treated the same way unless I’m missing something. I realize the file system limitations but shake my head that in 2019 we are still bound by so many limitations created decades ago. It would be cool if using the Mov setting it just made a container with all the sub clips organized as one.
As others have mentioned, the container has nothing to do with the file size, all of the drone vendors cut off the file at a certain size and start a new one to protect the footage that you have recorded so far. Drones are probably the most likely platform out of all of them to corrupt a video file due to the micro vibrations from the motors while in the air. All it would take is for the microSD card to lose contact with the drone for a micro second to corrupt a video file that it was writing, so this is a footage safety feature.
If you are using proper recording technique you will almost never if not never encounter the split file problem. My drone clips on average are around 30s or less. If you first think about the shot, compose the shot, set your exposure and white balance, decide on your camera movement, then press record and leave yourself buffer space of 3-5s on each side of the movement your file sizes will never average more than 200-300MB and you will have much higher quality useable footage vs just quantity. In the final video each scene on average should not last longer the 5-8s without a change or you will lose the viewer's interest.
The only time I record longer clips is for scenes like car following scenes, boat chase scenes, or action events like car races where you are not sure exactly where the best part of the action will happen. Even then, when editing in post I look for only the best 8s out of the clip and use that in the final project. All other times my clips are rarely longer than 30s.