Is their a fix in pro audio formats coming soon for the new mavic 4 pro 6k mode

The problem is not just the H.264/AVC Level 5.2 spec. The latest Mavic Pro 4 firmware uses Intra@6.2, but current hardware decoders cannot handle over 4096 pixels using H.264, only HEVC and formats like ProRes, ProRes RAW, etc. I believe that includes the latest versions of Apple Silicon media engines, Quick Sync, NVIDIA and NVDEC.

The previous issue on Mavic 3 Pro 5.1k material was HEVC, which can be handled by current hardware decoders.

It appears DJI made a profound error by encoding 6k 10-bit 4:2:2 using All-I H.264/AVC which no current hardware decoder can handle. It can encode 6k 10-bit 4:2:0 as HEVC, and current NLEs and hardware can probably handle that, since HEVC is specified for that resolution, bit depth, chroma subsampling and data rate.

However the *only* 4:2:2 encoding format the Mavic 4 Pro offers is All-I H.264 which is not a "legal" 6k format and which cannot be handled by any known hardware decoder, including Quick Sync, NVIDIA NVDEC or AMD VCN.

I currently don't think it's possible to fix this in the OS or device driver layer. It's not an FCP, Resolve or MacOS bug. If so, this is a bad situation for Mavic Pro 4 users. Their only option going forward is to record 6k 10-bit 4:2:0 in HEVC. For already-shot material, that will have to be software transcoded by a third-party utility to 6k ProRes or HEVC.

This raises the question, how did DJI even test this since it appears no machine and no NLE can properly decode that? Maybe they software transcoded it, or maybe they used a machine where it *appeared* to work. It sort of works on M1 Mac, but that is illusionary -- it produces a tremendous number of decoding errors in the system log. You have no idea what kind of issues the material might have, even if it looks like it plays.

I'll revise this if I get more information, but this appears to be the current situation.

Mikey, I just saw a report the Mavic Pro 4 All-I codec also has problems on DaVinci Resolve on Windows.

I found some 6k Mavic Pro 4 clips online and downloaded them, some 6k All-I, and some HEVC. There are lots of issues with them on the M4 CPU family on both FCP and Resolve. There are probably some issues on M1, just not as visible.

It's not just a single problematic codec from the Mavic 4 Pro, it's several different formats, although 6k is a common thread. So this is not unique to FCP or even to Mac.

We get used to buying a new camera with new codecs, and we expect that to immediately work on all NLEs. But technically, Apple states what camera formats (including drone cameras) they officially support: Cameras supported by Final Cut Pro - Apple Support

It's very likely that all Mavic 4 Pro codecs will eventually be supported, but this could take some time.

Mikey, I got your files and I can reproduce it on an M4 MacBook Air and M4 Pro Mac Mini. It does not visually happen on an M1 Ultra Mac Studio or M1 Max MacBook Pro 16. All are running Sequoia 15.5, Pro Video Formats 2.4.1 and FCP 11.1.1.

Studying the system logs using the terminal "log show" command and filtering that with BBEdit, the M4 machines are getting numerous decode errors. The M1 machines are getting lower severity decode errors related that 6k codec, but no black frames. See attached metadata for the files you sent.

I'll study this more tomorrow, file a bug using the MacOS Feedback Assistant app, and discuss with FCP support.

Further research indicates the Mavic Pro 6k All-Intra format may violate the H.264/AVC Level 5.2 encoding specification. DJI tags their 6k All-Intra file as level 5.2, but several of the DJI encoding values greatly exceed that spec.

E.g, the max allowable macroblocks per frame is 36,864 but the file contains 79,712 per frame. This is just one example, there are also other issues.

It's unclear this is a bug in MacOS, FCP or Resolve. It's quite possible DJI has produced an out-of-spec encoding format that may require a firmware update on their part. I'll study this more tomorrow.

Re the file being tagged incorrectly, the first 6k AVC/H264 All-I clips released by DJI were tagged incorrectly. I've recently got some newer ones that are tagged correctly using 'High 4:2:2 Intra@L6.2' in the metadata.

However those still don't work properly because the problem is broader than tagging. E.g, there is no hardware decode support for > 4k 10-bit 4:2:2 *H.264* on any decoder (inc'l Apple Silicon) except the new "Blackwell" NVIDIA 50-series (on Windows). It's possible any "fix" outside the 50-series case would simply be auto-detecting the codec and dropping back to software-only decoding. That would work, but it would be very sluggish to edit, especially at the extreme data rates used by 6k All-Intraframe H.264.

You also cannot tell whether it's working right by casually looking at the playback. In the severe cases, it causes black frames on FCP and red "missing media" frames on Resolve Studio (including version 20). But in other cases where it superficially looks OK, both FCP and Resolve on Apple Silicon are often throwing decode errors, which are visible in the MacOS system log. If it's throwing decode errors, the integrity of exported media is uncertain, and it could destabilize the NLE.

The Mavic Pro 4 6016 x 3384 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 All-I codec is not listed as supported by FCP. The very reason Apple has such a list is because of cases like this: Cameras supported by Final Cut Pro - Apple Support

So this doesn't appear to be a "bug" in FCP or MacOS that Apple can fully fix. It is caused by DJI releasing a codec format that almost no hardware can support. I think 6k 10-bit 4:2:2 HEVC works OK, and more hardware decoders support this since the HEVC spec planned from the beginning to support > 4k 10-bit 4:2:2. So I don't understand why DJI didn't use that.

I'll investigate this further and file a bug with Apple, but I don't think you should expect this will be rapidly fixed. The workarounds are to shoot 4k 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 All-Intra, or 6k 10-bit 4:2:0 HEVC Long GOP. Those work OK.

If you have existing DJI 6k 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 All-Intra, that will require software transcoding to ProRes or some other format for now. That could probably be done by EditReady, Shutter Encoder or Handbrake.

I was having the same issue working with the M4P 6k h.264 L6.2 files on M4 Max. Tried DR Studio 20 and Compressor - no dice. Luckily it worked in DR Studio 20 on my Windows 11 machine via NVDEC (RTX 4090). Hopefully Apple will push a codec update soon.

@joema they are tagged correctly

There is a new Apple Pro Video Formats 2.4.1 released yesterday. You didn't say what version of FCP you are on, but the latest version is 11.1.1, so definitely try that.

If both FCP 11.1.1 and PVF 2.4.1 don't make any difference, please upload to a file sharing site short samples of any clip showing the problem, then post the link here. We will examine those on various hardware and software versions.

Mikey, thanks for the info. I visually see the problem happening in your video, but I can't run that under a debugger or do other technical investigation without a test clip that manifests the problem.

Can you please upload a short Mavic Pro 4 6k test clip that shows the problem? We had similar issues like this with some Mavic Pro 3 formats.

Ideally, the manufacturer of a new camera should proactively communicate with the various NLE vendors -- well in advance -- to ensure they have the info to incorporate new codecs into the software. Unfortunately this does not always happen. This situation is not unique to DJI but is a generic problem in the industry.

If you can upload a clip showing the problem I'll verify that, test it on various Macs and file a bug with Apple. The previous situation on the Mavic 3 Pro 5.1k material was only on certain formats, I think only 5.1k 10-bit 4:2:0 using D-Log.

If there are other Mavic 4 Pro codecs you might use, please test all those so we can file them all together. On the Mavic 3 Pro 5.1k issue, we didn't have all the codecs when that bug was first filed. This led to an unfortunate miscommunication that resulted in an approx. one year delay in getting that fixed.

It's not just FCP, DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1.4 shows only a red "missing media" page when playing the DJI Mavic Pro 4 6k material on an M4 MacBook Air (and I assume all M4 series machines).

Like FCP, the MacOS system log is full of AppleVideoDecoder errors. Unlike FCP, with DaVinci Resolve it's possible to disable hardware video acceleration. When that is done, the 6k clips play, but with laggy performance. This implies the root problem may be related to the hardware accelerator and the system-level software that manages it.

"This raises the question, how did DJI even test this ..."

Who says they ever thought about testing anything? LOL!

I've been a licensed commercial drone pilot ever since the FAA released the first tests. I've always used DJI drones. And from time to time this happens with their codecs. DJI codecs have always been problematic from time to time. It's a DJI thing, it's not new, and yes, they really need to seriously test their codecs before sending them out to us consumers. Or maybe auto-correct hit their internal memo and everyone thought they had to "text" the codec, not "test" it?

Although a similar issue happened last year with the Mavic 3 Pro 5.1k 10-bit 4:2:0 H.264 material, such things are not unique to DJI. This is an endemic problem in the industry. Camera manufacturers crank out a new codec, apparently without (or with insufficient) coordination with the downstream NLE software vendors. They then bring the product to market, and consumers buy it, assuming that all codecs just automatically work perfectly on all NLEs.

The codec formats are not universally standardized and they don't automatically "just work." There are probably thousands of permutations of H.264 parameters possible, and it's impossible to test them all. This is why professional productions stick with ProRes or long-established codec and container formats like Sony XAVC-I MXF.

OTOH, manufacturers of a new camera codec (DJI in this case) do not have infinite knowledge of undocumented issues with all the myriad downstream hardware/software platforms. They also cannot test all possible permutations of downstream hardware/software.

In this specific case, the Apple Silicon AVD decoder has an undocumented limitation whereby it does not accelerate 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 if over 4k resolution. The AVD-1 decoder used from M1 through M3 would fail back to software decoding in that case. It would be much slower, but it would still work. There was apparently a change to the AVD-2 decoder used starting with M4 whereby it returns "fail" for the > 4k 10-bit 4:2:2 case, which produces black frames in FCP and red "Missing Media" frames in Resolve.

DJI would not have known this Apple Silicon restriction when they designed the Mavic 4 Pro codec, because it is undocumented. I'm still studying the specifics and will file a bug when I additional details.

@joema - I'm curious where you're seeing the reports. Apple dev site or somewhere else?

One was on the Blackmagic Resolve forum and several were on a DJI Mavic forum. I was just doing various Google searches to see if anyone else had mentioned this, and a few had.