Phantom 3 Advanced Lightbridge not the same as Pro

[Cactus]

After allot of hassle and research on this, it has come to light that there is another difference between the Pro and Advanced model besides the normally advertised charger rate and the camera resolution. It's been discovered by a few of use that purchased HDMI upgrade boards and Headplay HD googles. The lightbridge is stated as 720P 30fps live HD view in both product descriptions, but what is not shown is DJI has hobbled the transmission rate of the Advanced to 2mbps which results in massive areas of compression artifacts and blurry pixels on most surfaces and is most apparent outdoors looking at trees and grass.

Under the Video Downlink section on this page there was a change that I have not seen before when I compared products and picked the Advanced mainly to just fly FPV.

Compare the Phantom Series | DJI

The Pro lists 10mbps which would allow for a much higher quality signal in the same circumstances as an Advanced.

So, I feel DJI mis-represented the live HD view capabilities of the Advanced model and its just now coming to light as folks are getting HDMI boards and monitors to use with their Phantom 3.

SO DON'T BUY THE ADVANCED MODEL IF YOU WANT TO USE THE HDMI OUT AS IT LOOKS LIKE CRAP!

 

[43k]

What bit rate did you set in the DJI Go app?

 

[Cactus]

Every one possible. Even maxed out, there is no visual difference that I can see. Range has always been excellent and I have never had a cut-out or loss of control. Just the visual quality of the live view shown on anything larger than an iPad mini looks horrible.

 

[Pablo1981]

If you select "Custom" you can set it back to 10Mbps in the settings.

 

[Cactus]

If you select "Custom" you can set it back to 10Mbps in the settings.

Already tried that many times. No camera setting, Application setting, etc. makes it look good.

 

[43k]

The live view is a preview, so do not expect full video quality over the radio.

Just so we are talking about the same thing:
On the HD page in the GO app, you have the setting "Image Transmission Quality".
What values have you tried there?

Also, can you show us a screen shot so we know what you mean by "crap"?

 

[Cactus]

The live view is a preview, so do not expect full video quality over the radio.

Just so we are talking about the same thing:
On the HD page in the GO app, you have the setting "Image Transmission Quality".
What values have you tried there?

I have seen everything from 4 to 10 based on other settings on the page. And yes I have used the custom 32 channel config too. Changing the transmission rate here should result in a visual change, but it does not which may indicate the advanced model does not even use that setting and is maxed out a 2mbps based on the compare page I linked to.

 

[43k]

oh ok, now I see. That sucks.

That's pretty crappy by DJI.

I did not know of this. I thought they used the same hardware.
Is DJI this evil? (to throttle the lightbridge on the Advanced model on purpose)

 

[Cactus]

So far it appears that is the case. Sucks for me as I purchased it, HDMI board and HeadPlays so I could FPV in 720p HD. You can imagine my disappointment.

 

[penguin90]

Need to follow this. This is new information for me to. Was looking forward to order som FPV glasses and use them with my Advanced. Now it seems like I just have to use the iPad all the time.

 

[Cactus]

Need to follow this. This is new information for me to. Was looking forward to order som FPV glasses and use them with my Advanced. Now it seems like I just have to use the iPad all the time.

Glad I could warn you before so you are informed. Not sure if I am going to keep my Advanced and just fly it with the iPad Air 2 or sell it and try and upgrade to a pro. Not looking forward to dropping more money when DJI should have made the difference more apparent.

 

[bbfpv]

Keep us posted if there is any official word on this. @Tahoe Ed , any info on this?

 

[Luap]

I have a P3P but what is being said here is that even the live preview on a P3A tablet is considerably worse than on a P3P?
I just wonder why no one has noticed this before unless the change in the live preview bitrate was done after the 2.7k firmware update?

To Cactus. Have you checked the bit rates of the cached videos if you enabled them in the Pilot App?
I don't use this feature but would be interesting to check the max bit rates depending on the bps settings you chose.

 

[Cactus]

That sounds like a good experiment to me. I'll try that.

 

[ianwood]

Can anyone else corroborate this finding? A side to side comparison of Pro and Adv would obviously be best.

 

[Cactus]

Can anyone else corroborate this finding? A side to side comparison of Pro and Adv would obviously be best.

Here is my research thread that is ongoing about this issue.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2507207

 

[D4T_PoM]

Had the P3 Advanced and now the P3 Pro and both are the same to me.

 

[Shammyh]

This might have been introduced in a more recent firmware update. Take that into consideration as well when testing.

I have a P3P, but would be interested in knowing more about this as well.

 

[Mordor]

300A versus 300B? A maybe here?

 

[Oso]

300A versus 300B? A maybe here?

I was researching that earlier today and found that both versions are in use with the P3A and the P3P, but all examples of P3P FPV looked better than P3A FPV. Could be too small of a sample size.

For me, my FPV quality changes as I switch from camera to video. It looks much better for me when switched to video, even when not recording. Either way is good enough for me however.

I can imagine that someone using goggles with the screen right in front of their eyes would need the highest quality.