Upgraded my Advanced gimbal/cam to Pro...WOW!!!

[Vertigo]

BUT OMG THE LIGHTBRIDGE IS LOCATED IN THE PROPELLORS AND ITS EXACTLY THE SAME AND NOTHING IS DIFFERENT!!!!! AND SD CARD VIDEO!!! THERE IS NO HARDWARE LIMITATION!!!!

Sorry, just had to

What are you, 6? The bitrate charts already proved beyond doubt the P3P firmware has better FPV image quality at short range. But if all you care about is FPV flying around your house and ducking wires and trees, you bought the wrong bird. A zero latency, analog FPV system would likely suit your needs a lot better.

So the question that is still open is how P3P compares at ranges of 500, 1500 and more meters. The P3A bitrate and image quality stays constant on my bird, regardless of distance and to the point where I lose control link first (which is weird IMO, but thats what it is).

If you want to inform rather than gloat, then I really would be quite interested in seeing some P3P cached video at long range, to see if on a P3P image quality degrades with distance, or what distance you can achieve with the 10Mbps link.

 

[SolarLittleHelper]

2 Tasty:

Sorry. This proves nothing. They are different videos recorded in different light and with different pan speed.

And even less: it is comparison between p3p and p3a, not a comparison between p3a and a p3a with upgraded gimbal/cam.

You push it too hard. Maybe you sell those?

 

[BayouBill]

FYI in case you're interested here is link to comparison videos from back when the big difference in FPV (downlink bitrate) quality first became widely known:
RC Groups - View Single Post - Blurry Pixelation in outdoor settings with Phantom 3 Advanced
.

This is the link that explained why I was shocked when I displayed a cached video from P3A on a large screen TV. I was shocked because the P3A 720P video was nowhere near as sharp as videos made with my 5.8G analog SD systems. The primary reason I purchased a P3A was because of the promise of a nice, sharp 720P Lightbridge downlink display. But now I'm hooked on P3 because they fly so nicely and there are good apps to display maps and telemetry. So Monday a new P3P will arrive on my doorstep and the first thing I will do is display a cached video on the TV. Will It be a lot better? Stay tuned.

 

[theTastyCat]

Sorry Vertigo, you caused all of this my friend

So you upgraded and there was a huge difference. Cool, maybe I'll do it too.

So you bought a new camera, instead of adjusting this setting at the bottom:

Which is available on both P3A and P3P.

Congrats I guess?

Solar, my sample videos were shot in crap light with very fast pans. So you post a comparable P3A video and we'll all evaluate it objectively.

Aaaaand just for you, Vertigo, here's a video from yesterday - 1.43 miles. You tell me what you think of the feed quality.

JBZM9900.mov

 

[BayouBill]

@theTastyCat - thanks for this vid. I displayed it on a large screen TV and it is a major improvement over what I saw with P3A. I did see a little evidence of artifacts when doing a close, critical examination. What was the bitrate setting when you made this flight?

 

[theTastyCat]

My pleasure, Bill. Yeah, the artifacts are really visible on my PC monitor, but I honestly don't notice them at all on my tablet and barely at all when using my phone in VR goggles.

I just keep it on Auto - I've never had any problems with it like that and I'm happy to let it choose the best channel and adjust accordingly if need be. When I did switch it to Custom, the slider started at 6...no idea if that means anything!

 

[Oso]

This thread is all over the place and I am having trouble understanding what the debate is about.

Is it whether or not a stock P3P has a better FPV (more downlink bitrate) than a stock P3A?
If so, it was long ago determined that the P3P has better FPV (max 10Mb/s) due to the hardware differences in the gimbal board. One difference is that the P3P has a TI DMSoC chip in part for more efficient compression. The P3A gimbal board does not have this chip, among other differences, and the P3A has an average downlink bitrate in the 2Mb/s range. Here's a photo of the two gimbal boards from another thread on this topic. The lower P3A bitrate is much more noticeable when using HDMI goggles, when using a larger screened tablet, or when feeding the HDMI to a TV screen. On the flip side, it is much less noticeable when using a smaller screened phone or when viewing less complex scenes with no grass or trees for example.

Is it about whether or not the P3P maintains its higher downlink bitrate at a distance?
It has also been discussed and determined that a lower FPV bitrate will help to maintain the FPV feed at greater distance. Because of this, pilots who like to fly BVLOS and set distance records will routinely set to lower bitrates. This means that if you use your P3 primarily for long distance flying, it doesn't matter too much if you have a P3A or a P3P. Pilots outside of the U.S. set their devices to U.S. to enable the custom settings. The setting (slider) has been shown to have a much greater impact on P3Ps than P3As because the P3A FPV is already hardware and software limited. For example, setting a P3A to 10Mb/s (or 8 or 6) on the slider does not increase its bitrate beyond its max average 2Mb/s (+ or -) limits.

Is it about whether or not putting a P3P camera/gimbal combo on a P3A will give you (effectively) a P3P?
Again, it was long ago determined that it will once you've also switched to the P3P firmware to make use of the hardware differences in the gimbal. Actually, simply swapping the gimbal board and the FW will do the trick as has been noted numerous times by such experts as @Ted4797 and @hunch, but most people who make the switch replace the camera/gimbal combo as a unit since it is so easy to do. Many sell their P3A camera/gimbal to fund much of the cost of a P3P camera/gimbal.

Is it about something else?

 

[theTastyCat]

Oso, your confusion is well warranted! The purpose of this thread was for me to share my personal experience upgrading my gimbal/cam for FPV quality reasons and to highly recommend it to anyone who's unsatisfied with their P3A live feed. This thread became a wild goose chase! Even though all you listed was indeed proven long ago by people who know far more than me, it needed to be reproven *sigh*. At least now we have some fresh videos to prove the difference.

On the advice of people here, I did just that - swapped out my undamaged Advanced gimbal/camera plus $200 to Hunch, who sent me a brand new Pro gimbal/camera. Was very easy to put the new one on. I'll never forget the first flight with it on! Though every time I'm still absolutely amazed how clear the FPV is. Seriously, whether it's P3A/P3P/even P3S, these are incredible machines. It's a great age to be alive!

 

[BayouBill]

This thread is all over the place and I am having trouble understanding what the debate is about.

IMO it is all about warning prospective P3A buyers that the 720P Lightbridge video is not what you would expect. Quoting from the DJI P3A Q&A:
The biggest difference between the Phantom 3 Professional and the Phantom 3 Advanced is in the camera. The Phantom 3 Professional is capable of shooting spectacular 4K video at up to 30 frames per second, and the Phantom 3 Advanced is capable of shooting at resolutions up to 2.7K. Both models shoot 12 megapixel photos.
I read everything on the DJI site before ordering a P3A. I was under the impression that the only important difference is that the P3P recorded video is superior. I should have checked here on PhantomPilots also. The video that @theTastyCat posted above is what I was looking for in downlink video. Not concerned about quality over great distances. I only fly line-of-sight.

But the reason this thread is so long and all over the place is that there are those who deny there is any difference.

 

[theTastyCat]

Absolutely, Bill. And honestly the upgrade is so cheap - why not. Get the best downlink possible. The Advanced still shoots beautiful video (heck, everything I put on YouTube is 1080p anyway!), and I don't own any 4k-capable devices, but $200 for clear FPV, and the ability to shoot 4k for when it becomes more widespread, is a pretty great tradeoff.

 

[Vertigo]

Sorry Vertigo, you caused all of this my friend

I acknowledged the difference about 6 pages ago, so I caused at most 1 page of this. But I maintained and still maintain its almost certainly not a hardware, but a soft/firmware limitation of the P3A, just like its alledged inabilty to record 60Mbit video.

Aaaaand just for you, Vertigo, here's a video from yesterday - 1.43 miles. You tell me what you think of the feed quality.

No need for opinions when you have numbers:

Seems like it mostly maintains its bitrate, which is pretty impressive. Is that manually selecting the bitrate, or using the "auto" setting?

 

[BayouBill]

I'm eager to see how well the P3P can maintain 10 Mbps. Going to test this Monday when my P3P arrives.

 

[theTastyCat]

WTG Bill! Looking forward.

I just keep mine on Auto all the time - I'd rather it have the freedom to change channels. For fun I did a flight on custom with the slider on 10 and the bitrate stayed around 6 - FPV was clear with small artifacts as usual.