ANAFI Ai (and 4K) live-streaming

[Vaakefjell]

Hello,

I just made a little mistake, I thought I was looking at a previous post about the Ai and live-streaming video, but it turned out it was a super old post about the ANAFI 4K… in any case, I just tested both (as well as a little HDMI video capturing device for gamers). Anyways, ju in case someone else is interested, I will repost the thread here so it’s easier to find:

I just tested, you can connect to the rtsp stream directly from the USB C port on the Skycontroller 4 using a USB C to Ethernet adapter. Address is 192.168.53.1/live if connecting directly on a dedicated NIC, if you go through your LAN you have to identify the IP address first.

For VLC it connects directly to the main camera. Remember to disable Hardware Decoding in Preferences / Inputs/Codecs, and enable “Repeat All” in the Playback menu (otherwise you lose connection when changing camera modes in Freeflight 7).

I could access all four cameras (main, both stereo cameras, and the bottom) as well as the disparity map through PDrAW. Interestingly there was also a “Front camera (no IR)” option that looked exactly like the ordinary front camera. Perhaps there is a version with IR coming in the future?

I could also add the standard PDrAW HUD that displays battery, attitude, signal strength, height, distance etc. on all six available streams.

I could do the same using a USB C to A converter and USB A to Ethernet adapter as well. But when I connect through my USB hub, Freeflight 7 won’t connect.. I will test with a different USB hub later.

I also got a cheap HDMI streaming box for gamers (15€ on sale), and it seems to do the trick as well, using the micro HDMI port. It is only active in video mode though, and no HUD.

Nikabe V5 - Stream Adapter 4K - Streaming-tilbehør

Gjør strømmingen enklere og spiller samtidig inn direkte på datamaskinen. Med mange tilkoblingsmuligheter er den velegnet for gaming og opplæringsmateriale. Har to HDMI-porter for tilkobling til datamaskin, konsoll eller kamera samt til en ekstern skjerm.

www.kjell.com

Update:
I just plugged a USB C to Ethernet adapter into the bottom US C port, and connected to PDRAW / VLC directly to my old MacBook Pro with no issues. I was actually able to connect to both PDRAW and VLC simultaneously with PDRAW displaying all 6 streams and VLC only the main stream, and FreeFlight7 running on the big iPad.no need for a hub or converter at all, luckily!

In PDRAW the screen turns grey temporarily when changing video modes, in VLC it lost connection - but reconnected since I set it to “Repeat All”.

On a side note, in the dark living room, P-log was the best option for low light conditions, HDR was the worst. No real impact from 1080p to 4K. Lowering the frame rate to 24 seemed to help a little, but it might just as well have been the good ol’ placebo effect. It was interesting to see that one of the stereo cameras was running under exposed and the other over exposed.

Update 2:
I just noticed this thread was about the ANAFI 4K, while my post was about the ANAFI Ai. It is pretty much the same though, except for the 4K you need the USB Hub to connect the Ethernet converter to access the rtsp stream. It is basically like this video, except that our non-military controllers don’t have a dedicated Ethernet port:

 

[UsernameRequired]

Fascinating and informative, thanks!

Edited to add:

I tested the latest firmware update and FreeFlight 7, v7.5.0 - I can confirm the noticeably enhanced low-light performance with P-LOG enabled and a few adjustments to exposure, ISO and shutter speed in video mode.

For photos, the rectilinear JPEG DNG at 48MP and the same exposure, ISO and shutter speed adjustments as with video resulted in similar improvements in low light.

HDR doesn't come close, to my eye.

Parrot has some great hardware in this Anafi AI, good thing they are still improving the ability for us to use it.

 

[SleepLessTLV]

Hi All,
can you specify the PC TCP/IP configuration? DNS/DHCP/Subnet mask?
We tried the same and could not get a ping or stream from the skycontroller when connected to the PC via USBC-Ethernet Adaptor.
Thanks!

 

[Kes300]

hi im also looking for a streaming solution and would welcome some advice im using a wifi only ipad mini gen5 for a display which requires the wifi to stay on in order to connect to phone hotspot so my question is ,
will mirror casting the ipads screen to my laptop affect the controler signal
cheers kes

 

[Vaakefjell]

hi im also looking for a streaming solution and would welcome some advice im using a wifi only ipad mini gen5 for a display which requires the wifi to stay on in order to connect to phone hotspot so my question is ,
will mirror casting the ipads screen to my laptop affect the controler signal
cheers kes

Not for the Anafi Ai as long as you use 4G. The wifi connection also seem more robust than the 4K, but I wouldn’t really know since it switches to 4G seamlessly.

In any case, for mirroring to work, the laptop has to be on the same network as the iPad. I don’t think my old MacBook supports mirroring the iPad in any case, but newer ones might? Perhaps 3rd party VNC solutions would do the trick.

Let us know how it works.

 

[aerialwhidbey]

Hello,

I just made a little mistake, I thought I was looking at a previous post about the Ai and live-streaming video, but it turned out it was a super old post about the ANAFI 4K… in any case, I just tested both (as well as a little HDMI video capturing device for gamers). Anyways, ju in case someone else is interested, I will repost the thread here so it’s easier to find:


View attachment 6208

FWIW, see the assertions on this Parrot SDK page (9 May 2023). More comments from September 2020 here, and through other links. There appears to be challenges to those who want to use an iOS device running FF6, who want to simultaneously get a live video stream while the Anafi is in flight. More options for Android devices.
Then there's this Parrot training video.:

 

[aerialwhidbey]

FWIW, see the assertions on this Parrot SDK page (9 May 2023). More comments from September 2020 here, and through other links. There appears to be challenges to those who want to use an iOS device running FF6, who want to simultaneously get a live video stream while the Anafi is in flight. More options for Android devices.
Then there's this Parrot training video.:

A follow-up from experience. This will not work with an iOS tablet/phone. Must be Android. Here's my notes about what I know works with the original Anafi 4K:

Use a USB-A hub which includes a USB-A-to-Ethernet adapter.

1. Connect the input end of the hub to the USB-A connector on the SkyController3.
2. Connect a short cable from the Android tablet to a USB-A socket on the hub.
3. Connect a Cat-6 cable from the Ethernet adapter to the laptop.
4. Power up the Anafi, the controller and the tablet.
5. Open VLC Media Player on the laptop.
6. Tools > Preferences > Input / Codecs
7. Disable: Hardware-accelerated decoding.
8. Save.
9. Media > Open Network Stream
10. Network tab > enter: rtsp://192.168.53.1/live
11. Play

Watch live video with about a 2 second lag. I connected my laptop with an HDMI cable to an HP X24iH gaming monitor which was very clear with no breakups.

"... the SkyController has a DHCP server and the streaming proxy can be accessed with rtsp://192.168.53.1/live."

As an alternative, it may be possible to share your Android device's screen display with another Android tablet, or an Android TV or Google TV. I have not tried this approach.

As an experiment, I bought one of the cheap Android TV Box devices ($45) to connect with my monitor. I downloaded the available VLC for Android app, which does not match the features of the VLC desktop app that I use on my Windows10 laptop. The low-end model that I bought could not process fast enough. The most that I could get was a "PopUp Player" mode which had major signal breakup when I moved the Anafi. Perhaps a newer, faster TV Box would work.

 

[SleepLessTLV]

Thank you very much!

 

[aerialwhidbey]

A follow-up from experience. This will not work with an iOS tablet/phone. Must be Android. Here's my notes about what I know works with the original Anafi 4K:

Use a USB-A hub which includes a USB-A-to-Ethernet adapter.

1. Connect the input end of the hub to the USB-A connector on the SkyController3.
2. Connect a short cable from the Android tablet to a USB-A socket on the hub.
3. Connect a Cat-6 cable from the Ethernet adapter to the laptop.
4. Power up the Anafi, the controller and the tablet.
5. Open VLC Media Player on the laptop.
6. Tools > Preferences > Input / Codecs
7. Disable: Hardware-accelerated decoding.
8. Save.
9. Media > Open Network Stream
10. Network tab > enter: rtsp://192.168.53.1/live
11. Play

Watch live video with about a 2 second lag. I connected my laptop with an HDMI cable to an HP X24iH gaming monitor which was very clear with no breakups.

"... the SkyController has a DHCP server and the streaming proxy can be accessed with rtsp://192.168.53.1/live."

As an alternative, it may be possible to share your Android device's screen display with another Android tablet, or an Android TV or Google TV. I have not tried this approach.

As an experiment, I bought one of the cheap Android TV Box devices ($45) to connect with my monitor. I downloaded the available VLC for Android app, which does not match the features of the VLC desktop app that I use on my Windows10 laptop. The low-end model that I bought could not process fast enough. The most that I could get was a "PopUp Player" mode which had major signal breakup when I moved the Anafi. Perhaps a newer, faster TV Box would work.

Here's an update:

Ideally, use a fast gaming monitor (tested: HP X24ih).

Use a USB-A hub that includes an Ethernet adapter.
(tested: GAROGYI USB 3.0 to Ethernet Adapter,4 in 1 Multiport Hub with Gigabit RJ45 & 3 x USB 3.0 Ports,LAN Network Adapter).

Tested with a SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 10.4" 64GB Android Tablet.

1. On a Windows laptop, open VLC Media Player to do these steps once:
   1. Menu: Tools > Preferences > Input / Codecs
   2. Disable: Hardware-accelerated decoding.
   3. Save.
2. Connect the adapter's USB-A plug to the USB-A socket on the SkyController3.
3. Connect a short cable from the hub to the Android tablet.
4. In this sequence, power up:
   1. tablet (completely)
   2. Anafi
   3. Controller.
5. The camera's output should appear in the background of FF6 open on the tablet.
6. Connect a long Cat-6 cable from the Hub's Ethernet adapter socket to the laptop.
7. Open VLC Media Player.
8. Menu: Media > Open Network Stream.
   1. (One time only, enter the Network URL (Menu: Network tab > enter: rtsp://192.168.53.1/live.)
   2. An Open Media window opens, typically showing the Network URL.
9. Click the Play button.
10. Watch live video with a slight lag (about 2 seconds).
11. Tap FF6's FLY button and proceed to launch.

"... the SkyController has a DHCP server and the streaming proxy can be accessed with rtsp://192.168.53.1/live."

Will not work with an iOS tablet/phone.

IMPORTANT: On FF6, in Settings, in the Network section, do not tap the YES button for DRI. Otherwise you will be blocked from using the Anafi. You will need to delete FF6 and reload from the Play Store.

 

[Crossrich]

Not for the Anafi Ai as long as you use 4G. The wifi connection also seem more robust than the 4K, but I wouldn’t really know since it switches to 4G seamlessly.

In any case, for mirroring to work, the laptop has to be on the same network as the iPad. I don’t think my old MacBook supports mirroring the iPad in any case, but newer ones might? Perhaps 3rd party VNC solutions would do the trick.

Let us know how it works.

If all you want to is stream your iPhone controller's FF6 display to a larger screen, such as a SmartTV, then I did that for my drone lab class demos. I setup my iPad 2 SkyController display to stream via wifi & MacOS AirPlay to my Mac Pro screen that was extend via HDMI to a SmartTV. See “Use AirPlay to stream video or mirror the screen of your iPad”. There are also Apple instructions on how to do that to a Samsung and other Android based SmartTVs.
Here are the step I went thru once I configured both my Apple devices for AirPlay, to mirror the Anafi Controller iPad's display onto a large SmartTV screen,

• On the iPad select “Screen Mirroring” from its rt upper corner drop down control panel
• On the MacPro Laptop
  • Connect the MacPro to the SmartTV with a HDMI cable
  • Setup the MacPro display to extend to SmartTV screen
  • Accept iPad Mirror request.
    This should mirror your iPad display on laptop’s main screen
• In upper left-hand screen corner select the SmartTV screen to display the iPad.

NOTE: it is not possible to display or use the MacPro’s screens during the AirPlay mirroring.

Sorry Android & Windows users, you will need to explore the various OSs forums for how connect your Android device controller to a SmartTV.