Botgrinder says Walksnail has finally done it. Have they? (Firmware 25.29.4 testing) 

Botgrinder's video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZRoqsS-8IGs.html&ab_channel=BOTGRINDERFPV

Perhaps for this and future tests, having a standard loop you fly on a sunny or cloudy day would allow for comparisons as things are updated and changed, that way even legacy FPV items could be compared directly. Thanks for doing all these tests

Makes you really appreciate DJI's focus mode.

As always great content it is obvious you spent time editing the footage and thought through your response as any good reviewer would 👍

I'm really happy that Walksnail appear to be actively working on this trying to make it better all the time, shows some dedication at least. There most definitely is an improvement in quality especially with regards to the blockiness of the ground. If DJI didn't exist, then this would be absolutely amazing coming from analogue. However, it just isn't near as good as DJI yet... Unfortunately it will always be compared to DJI, that's just the nature of things. But good to see improvements at a fairly good rate so far 🙂 Thanks for the vid JB 👍👍

Djinis definitely doing better going around your property. Less loss of details in less area and also look at the ms specifically. Dji never really goes above 40ms and walksnail regularly seems to spike to the 60ms area . It's not doing bad or horrible but if we are comparing that's what I'm seeing. I also prefer the image on dji overall to fly and see. Has great dynamic range.

Thanks for the side-by-side Joshua! It's pretty obvious that the DJI system remains the clear winner, and I expect it to stay that way unless Walksnail has some absolute magic to pull out.

Bootgrinder its my light on the darkness

Great comparison video. Definite improvement, but still needs to cook a little longer. 👍🤓

Walksnail breakup looks like a Mushroom space trip🍄🍄

I think DJI is so good that it's gonna be very hard to beat.

DJI: Y'all competing with my old tech.😏 Fat shark: We're getting better though.🤷🏾 DJI: Ok,give me a few more weeks and I'll show yall whos ya daddy.😉😆🤣

I am glad there are pilots who still prefer analog system over digital. IMHO, I think there is still no point for me throwing away my HDO2. However, if I was a new pilot in this hobby I would probably go with a digital system. Thanks for sharing with us Joshua. Take care. Cheers.

Thanks for this video. I'm just in the situation where I have HDO 1 goggles and to start FPV I'm thinking on buying HD ones but not sure which one... or DJI... but I would prefer Fatshark Avatar. For now I practice with HDO ones on simulator and I will watch what will come in the next few weeks. It's really not cheap and not easy to do the good choice.

MrJoshua, first of all, I thank you for the content you make in my case, I have learned thanks to this content, I am a user of walksneil, I changed it to dji, knowing from these contents that it was worse, but to adapt perfectly to my face, I see a lot of attacks on people who he does his job honestly whoever wants to buy dji should buy it and whoever wants to buy walksnail should buy it is his money and does what he thinks best the last word is in the consumer those who criticize him thinking that he receives money from companies if it were true they would do it instead

I recommend using vtx screws. In my case, it was mounted on a 3M tape. During the first service of the drone, it turned out that the vtx is in two parts and the USB socket was torn out.

yeah image is real dark! Can't wait to see Avata performance!

I need that kind of neighbour!

Flying Analog reminds me of when I was a child trying to watch Sesame Street on an old tv with rabbit ears. We didn’t have cable we could only get a few channels through the antenna. The picture was always fuzzy and lines were going up and down the screen. I just can’t see when flying in anything other than what DJI has I recommend using DJI technology for every FPV quad. I don’t know how people can fly with a fuzzy picture

FightTime 😂I really hope this was deliberate!

Serious Question.. do i get this walksnail goggle or the HDO2 goggle? both now are almost the same price.. only advantage im looking at HDO2 is the HDMI input so i can fly in PC sim for practice

Why get walksnail when the DJI v2 are cheaper and better why

Happy i got my V2's :)

I think there is another point worth to mention. We're silently assuming that hardware design level is similar as DJI. You're saying you have different antennas and other things are slightly different, however what can make big change is quality of design. What components are chosen, how PCB is routed, even how PCB is manufactured. 5.8GHz is not easy thing and signal quality inside the googles be impacted in many ways. I'm waiting for DJI next generation FPV staff. Lets see what they bring up to the table. I'm afraid Walksnaill's HW V2 may be what will be worth to buy :/

Great comparison. Thanks for the updates, JB!

Right on JB🤘🏻👊🏻

can only get better

Would about setting up a big big patch antenna on a tripod with a connection cable to the googles. I am talking about like 0.5 m2 of antenna area. Whouldn't that capture way more signal and improve everything? Or even better if you only fly in a certain direction, a parabolic mirror like a satellite dish would work even better.

Fatshark introduced some really nasty contrast scaling which makes the picture darker and shadow definition terrible. They did improve the greasy texture somewhat; you can still see the ground texture issue especially mid center screen while moving forward. At least it’s better than it was but nowhere on par with DJI. If they have to fix it with darkening the contrast there are bigger issues here. Have to wait and see.

Price for price, the walksnail/fatshark system still isn't on level with DJI. If the WS/FS system was half to 2/3 the price of the DJI equpiment, it would be worth it. It still seems to be an inferior system. I think botgrinder is great, but he isn't very subjective when it comes to his reviews. He hates dji, he hates rotorriot, and lets all of that taint his reviews on products.

Shoutout to the neighbor for being cool

Analog still my jam haha

Is anyone flying multiple quads on the Walksnail system? I haven't done a lot of testing or tested in other environments yet, but just flying around my home in the vacant lots next door, I notice my walksnail-converted Babyhawk 2 has almost no smearing while my 5" is more like Bardwell's video (at approximately the same speeds). Only thing I can think of is the stock walksnail TX antennas shielding might be at fault. On my 5", the antennas do run alongside some esc wires and main power leads (can't get around it on that quad, but the actual active part of the antenna is raised up above the top-plate. On the Babyhawk, I had more room to get away from the ESC wires and the power leads come out the front. Also, has anyone tried other antennas on the quad or have recommendations? Currently running 4 AXII omnis on the goggles, but ordering some patch antennas today.

Thanks for the effort on putting all these updates on this matter doing a fair comparison. I can see your frustration and mine too cause we have high hopes for this system to compete on pair with Dji. I am sure it will get better soon. Let's see with the next updates. Keep going and thanks again!

The central question here is: why should anyone buy the WS/FS system when the DJI digital FPV system is better, more stable, more reliable, arguably still provides better video quality, and is now significantly less expensive? While DJI haters can argue endlessly that the digital FPV system had many issues at launch that weren't resolved for about a year, that completely avoids the fact that it was the very *first* digital FPV system, and was doing something that many thought was impossible. For the WS/FS to have those issues at launch *now* - more than two years later - is absolutely inexcusable. The market has moved on, and consumers rightly expect a solid and reliable digital system. *No one wants to failsafe and for their quad to just fall out of the sky because the link just dies - that's a huge safety hazard.* For everyone claiming that DJI hates FPV and is going to imminently exit the market, they're ignoring that DJI has done more to revolutionize FPV than any other company, and it is Fat Shark that completely abandoned their first attempt at a digital FPV system. Do you really think Walksnail is going to keep their expensive manufacturing lines open and continue to spend on R&D and development when the OG DJI system is available at a much lower price? Or, presumably just weeks or months from now, DJI makes the O3 Air Unit available to work with the DJI Goggles 2 and provides true 1080p while presumably being more stable and reliable - owning the high end of the market for the money-is-no-object enthusiasts? HDzero is a completely different market, catering to racers who want at least slightly better video quality than analog with fixed latency, or for use with 1S whoops. HDzero absolutely deserves a place in the FPV market. *But why should WS/FS exist when their product is unquestionably worse and more expensive than the best available option?*

Is the walksnail quad badly tuned or is it the walksnail system causing that video shudder? Its hard to watch

I m afraid that Software will not and cannot solve hardware issues by the end. Can t imagine the actual pressure on developpers to release quickly new firmwares... My respect to them. But Bad camera, noisy and saturated vtx/Rx, fpga bound program, bad antennas, burning vtx, bad jst connectors soldering .... The list of hardware issue cannot be reduced like magic.

Analog and DJI ftw

Grotbinder ❤️

The video was not negative.. It was just honest joshua 👏 Call it how it is!!

DJI are releasing the Avatar drone on August 25, 9.00am Aus EDT

Excellent video, Joshua! Thanks for the honestly! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

is that a crop in fhd? It looks like they just blow up the 720p signal in the goggles lol

why don't you use the same antennas, controller and receiver for a test like this? this would make it a real comparison of the two video systems...

Hey Joshua, what HD system to buy in 2024, if I'm still on analog?

"This isn't even my final firmware" - Frieza

i do not understand, why the compression logic does not differentiate between the center of vision, bottom and everything else. Even with a low bitrate it could be possible to maintain flyability, but not updating the boundaries as much as the really critical regions of the videostream. Just a thought, that may be beneficial for FPV and worth submitting to the people involved in the development of these goggles. As you have a quite good position in the community, it may be your part to submit ideas like this to the correct destination.

now you have footage to compare to the new dji system which I have a feeling you may have already lol

Since only one antenna transmits on the walksnail goggles, wouldn't you get more use out of the patch antenna if it was on that port?

How far away is that ridge Josh? A mile ?

You have cool neighbors....

The ground still looks like mush half the time which is the biggest turn off for me.

At the end yes walksnail will be good but why should I switch from Dji at the moment. Vistas, Airunits, goggles are available and the v2 goggle looks like it’s also backwards compatible.

I am glad Walksnail is here to compete with DJI, I am sure their quality will improve over time but for now....DJI just looks so much better.

Botgrinder is my fav pro pilot

I think this tech was a massive challenge from the beginning. A dedicated hardware technology will likely see it happen, EVENTUALLY. This is no mean feat give the complexity of the challenge.

What happened 11:22 with the picture it was like ghosting .

1:54 Is there another place I can watch your videos other than RU-vid?

To be honest the DJI is flawless with break ups in stock form through a lot of stuff far better then analog but in stock form my walksnail(newer set with the 2 walksnail pathes) with a 1s vtx is closer to analog/hd zero range then DJI but honestly that is fine. My biggest complaint about Walksnail is probably their goggles feel like I'm looking through two key holes vs the DJI v2s. I have some Skyzone 04Xs coming to see if this is how most high end setups are and I'm really hoping it's not and I'm also hoping DJIs new goggles 2 optics are larger then they look but I fear this is common. How is it that everyone isn't complaining about Walksnails tiny binocular look vs DJI v2s? I feel like I'm the only one who is seeing this.

Man, I'm so sorry to have to say this, but months ago, when I first heard that there was a new digital FPV system coming from Fatshark, I was so excited and happy. But all I have seen from these goggles so far is such a big disappointment. They said it was gonna be 1080p, OMG, mind blown! But nope, can't even use it well in 1080p, gotta use 720p instead, so no advantage over DJI's v2 goggles and even when it's working properly, 1080p just doesn't look great with the encoding settings they're using. Yes, HDMI-Out is nice, but at the moment, this and their form factor whould be the only things that these goggles got going for them imho and for me personally, that just isn't enough. At this point, DJI's image transmission just looks better and is more reliable, and that's the most important thing for me. And we haven't even seen yet, what those DJI Goggles 2 are capable of...

thanks for the great and balanced (non-biased) review...!

Something my grandpa will appreciate, indeed 🤦🏼‍♂️

🔥🔥

It looks to me like it's still got a ways to go to even be as good as dji. Especially in 50mbps mode

dji looks smoother

Walksnail/Fatshark are on the right track for sure. They obviously rushed the release and need to do more testing. I'm on the same page as Bardwell where I really want them to succeed going forward, but I don't have the confidence to make the investment yet. If they had just put more time into the software, they would have a very compelling product. (BTW, I love the shirt)

Dji is the best! i think when someone enter now in the market, have to realese better than what's on the market. DJI make 1 big update and done for the last year or more, but is the "first" do digital flyable, now everyone enter on market have to better than it is behind and yes make updates later, not this....

Thank god you have friendly neighbors, I crash landed a rc plane and someone stopped, picked it up, and stole it.

Thanks for a test :) Where was your TX antenna at Walksnail goggles? Was it the patch one?

126ms delay wen u got behind the tree :O

Yeah, they've fixed it! Lol.

They need AV1 encoders.

Josh I don't think an RF expert is smarter than you. You've been helping our small RC community for years now in many ways. Thanks

I'm starting to doubt that they'll fix it in future.

When you just know the forthcoming Avata system is going to look stunning in 1080 and blow the WS system into the weeds.... In fact tbh I think the V2's image in 720 50mps still looks far better than the WS in 1080. :/

can you also please make some other contents except walksnail... like the old days

Let's be clear. The reason why people switched from Analog to HD more than 2 years ago was that DJI could deliver a stable link. I personally believe that the WalkSnail system is a step backwards, especially having the DJI2 system around the corner also not a very wise investment.

So I've been hearing about the GPS wipeout on Walksnail system. Care to investigate, Mr. Know-it-all?

Still not quite there yet. Going to be sticking with my DJI setup.

The shadow detail is definitely a problem in this firmware. There are like black holes where all other cameras would adjust. You can see it as you looked back at your self. I also find that the 50Mbps mode is interesting in the sense there is no dramatic improvement like DJI. This firmware is much better with regards to overall compression performance however it still needs work. It’s getting there though.

I'm waiting for my avatars to arrive while watching all this drama about dji vs everyone eternal battle xdd love ur vids Joshua, thanks for teaching us so much. Love from Spain

Very well organized information and presented in a systematic way. It is not only entertaining to watch but also easy to listen to. As much as Fatshark/Walksnail are making strides in the direction of improvement, they are small steps. These small steps are adding up quickly but I wonder how much of a lead DJI will take in their anticipated newer goggle...

There’s what? 3-4 Open source HD FPV projects out there??

thanks for all your hard work, dji for the win still!

And why am I spending my money? I haven’t seen anything too impressive come out yet

I just like that they keep making it better. It shows potential and response to custy feedback.

I truly believe that they are not handling the codec properly, and im on the beta version as well.

Maybe you should compare to the original DJI Airunit. This has two antennas like Fatsnail so it would be more comparable wrt system performance level.

Wow, this is really eye-opening. I really appreciate your very scientific approach to comparing in real-world situations. Also, I certainly retract my previous statement regarding this secretly being a DJI product. It wouldn't be flyable for me. I don't think I could rely on it to maintain visual clarity of small details. I'd end up seriously eating shit the way that image smears randomly. Great comparison, Bardwell! Thank you!!!

he called it Good win .... ich hasse mein DJI jetzt ...und es war sehr !

DJI winner

ISPs wont give me youtube at 1440p anywhere I can freely fly a drone.

What I really want to know; is the Cine(mon roll) Whoop props in or props out?

I can never get over how trashy the compression makes both of them look. You move over the grass at high speed and even analog looks like HD compared to that. Just a muddy smear where green blades should be. Makes me wish we could just have high bandwidth analog instead. HDZero handles it pretty well, but certain things about analog just work without any fuss. The quad I tend to give more of a beating will probably always pack analog.

Although a considerable improvement, it does seem like the video compression smearing is still prevalent in clear LOS or is that not the case? Damn! I'd love to give this new beta firmware a try.

Whaha if botgrinder thinks it better im interested.🤟🤣

You mentioned in the video that the delay is about 5-10 ms off, I wonder if the delay is just not including the delay added from the switching of the display and camera processing aand just giving like a link delay

After watching this video it just seems to me that DJI is better than fatshark/walksnail.

freeze screen is terrible then hdzero , hdzero at least can see some things 🤣

Good test JB. I like the darker look of the Walksnail. But I think they need to go a long way to get the system running like the DJI system.