Parrot Disco - the most USELESS drone ever!
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- Опубліковано 14 сер 2019
- The Parrot Disco FPV was marketed as something you fly in the wild, in the mountain off a cliff, capturing amazing stable video. See the official marketing video here: • Parrot DISCO FPV - Off...
How could a drone that offered a whopping 45 min flight time still loose so bad to the competition? In this video we explore the features of the Parrot Disco FPV in a similar setting as the promo video and try to analyze why it did not succesfully attract any of the segments that the marketing seemed to be aimed at.
Thanks to:
Channel of Emelie Boss: / @emelieboss
Channel of Viggo Koch: / @viggokoch6998
Channel of Macs Moser: / @sparrowglider - Розваги
I agree with you that the Disco failed because it didn't have a true market segment...at first. Then Parrot realized the Disco was perfect for agricultural assessment and surveying. It can cover a much larger area than a quad, and you can automate your survey parameters. Parrot discontinued the normal Disco, but still sells the Disco Pro-AG for professional users. Far from useless.
That I didnt know! Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a smart adaption in the marketing. It makes perfect sense to try to target a segment that isnt already a fortified hill.
No it isnt they create a new segment but its look like they dont know it then.
@@MattiasAllring Also don't forget, they are not the only ones that made a wing drone, and there are countless of vtol winged craft. It is not that loud, check your prop balance. If you decide to get rid of it let me know, unless shipping is to high.
@@tuttoto you do realize that this isn't my video, right?
@@tuttoto lol what vtol plane is it? Can you tell me its name? Really wish to get one.
"difficult to fly" says the man trying to land fixed wing in a dense trees area
I got a 4g lte and battery mod and i never have problems to land anywhere so i dont knlw what this man is talkin about
@@lilpumpskrt5449 i know if you call the disco the most useless drone ever, and having issues you probably shouldnt be flying
@@christopherlee3045 i fly fpv qwads so i dont use it often
Lilpump Skrt I wasn’t talking about you, I was talking about the dude in the video bro.
@@christopherlee3045 yes yes yes, you are wright, totally agree with you
23:12 "difficult to land" says the man who tries to land a fixed wing close to a power line
Cant be useless if I just seen a video where a guy flew from 1 island to another island over 57 km away and make it back with battery left. 4g mod insane stuff
Dustin Dunhill. The best!
YESSSSSSS!
Here I am Dezember 2021… just bought a disco…
@@sanacca how is the experience going?
@@UserBR1010 superb 👍
Its fixed wing drone, what do you expect. And you try landing in heavily forested area with a fixed wing and you say its useless. You are not objective
ive had one for 3 yrs, never ever had an issue. dont think its fair to call this " the most useless drone" when there are plenty of far more useless drones on the market. it was a game changer and still people all over the world are looking to pay big money for these because they are hard to find.
Perhaps this is for category 5: the Cruisers, who just want to fly and have a look around.
Yeah, that could be a segment to approach. What are the key needs of a ”cruiser” and why is the Disco the best match for those needs? Why would a ”cruiser” choose Disco over, say, a Phantom 4 or Mavic pro?
I guess long flight times, long range, and a view like you’re in the cockpit of a passengers plane.
A Mavic or a Phantom gives you more the feeling of beeing a passenger in a balloon (well, a really fast balloon...)
Dustin Dunhill made some video’s about the Disco I believe
@Agent К_видео Yes
@Agent К_видео I've seen his videos, because of his videos, I converted my Disco into 4G LTE. You are right, all those flights beyond line of Sight in the USA are illegally performed. That's why I try not to go that far, although I'm guilty of having flown BLS sometimes...
Have a great evening my friend! Greetings from Douglas, Arizona 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
@@MattiasAllring because quadcopters are not effecient and they are not very speedy or reliable. Quadcopters are better for aerial photography
I am not 100% agree ... it is wonderful 4G flying machine once it is soft moded. I personally spent hours in the air with modified batteries flying over 50-60 km of a distance that way. This is hardly achieved with any other drone.
True, but deploying all those DIY mods are hardly achieved by any substantial share of users. I get that it is an appealing product for techies, but that is just a too small segment to sustain the product. Unless Parrot figure out how to reach the broader layers of consumers, there will never be a Disco 2.
@@MattiasAllring True! 👍🏾
@@MattiasAllring DJI should buy them out and come out with a Parrot 2 .lol
The same mods on my disco, with them this drone just dont have competition and its awesome i love it. my next mod solar pannels to even longer fly and i now it works, crazy.
Yep... pretty stable aircraft. I have amazing distance and video...
this guy doesn’t experiment much..
yea only a noob will fly there and land there hahaha so the review for the "noob" is very accurate :D
Niclas Horn Yeah, the setting was the best I had to compare to the setting of the official promo video with a bunch of noobs flying of a rock in the wild: ua-cam.com/video/m1Fpq4inefg/v-deo.html
Learn how to fly buddy, it's not a VTOL wing !.. you need to setup your approach, low and slow for landing, once your at a height of 10-15 metres, than press the landing button, to cut the motor and glide it in. If you don't hit the landing button, you fingers will get cut up from the prop when you try to catch it mate !
"Parrot Disco - the most USELESS pilot ever!" First of all you need to fly and land it in suitable terrain and before you actually hit the land button you need to reduce the height to the minimum altitude. The Disco is an awesome drone with the 4G softmod and love it as much as my DJI Phantom 4 Pro. I could give many reasons to get one of these much underrated drones but will be wasted on you. On a positive note though, nice catch!
You just explained in your own words why the Disco failed on the market:
1. ”...you need to fly and land it in suitable terrain”
2. ”...before you hit the land button you need to... [do 90% of a normal landing procedure]”
Thats why it failed on the market in a nutshell.
It IS a cool drone. I do not argue with you on that. I have no plans of selling mine. But I stand by my point that it is a pretty useless alternative for what most drone owners want to do. Techies doing 4G mods are just a too small segment to commersially sustain such an ambitious product as the Disco. Unless Parrot figure out how to redesign the Disco into a drone that can capture one of the larger segments, there will never be a Disco 2. Thats all I am saying :-)
Dear bauhaus. Your logic has one flaw, that is exactly what this video is about: a sledgehammer, a 200mm lens, a microwaver and all other things you mention are all commmersially successful product with a clear market segment and use case. The Parrot Disco is, in contrast, a commersial failure lacking a clear target segment and use case. Before you jump to the conclusion that it is unfair to explain why it failed to capture 4 of the large market segments - try instead to explain what segment you think it is designed for and why it failed to deliver sales volume. My professional opinion as a product strategist is that it was not developed with a specific customer segment in mind, and that that is the cause of the market failure. It was designed around itself, not to a specific customer need i.e. Product Centric Design. The result is a high quality product that nobody needs.
There is no reason to be rude, bauhaus. The reason we come to diffrent conclusions is because we use diffrent scales. You reason Product Centric, I reason Customer Centric. If you work with design you should really read up on the difference. Yes, it is correct that the Disco does what it promesis to do. I do not suggest that the Disco is low quality, quite the opposite (apart from the packaging). It is the Discos high quality in relation to low market success that make this drone so interesting from a product strategy perspective. I can respect that the fan base of the Disco gets upset when they feel I am being unfair, but the commersial truth is that their view is commersially neglectable. Why? Because they where too few prepared to pay to little. It is an undisputable FACT that the Disco didnt sell. Yes, the Disco does most of what it promised, but from a strategic Customer Centric perspective that was obviously the WRONG PROMISE. This video is not a review of product quality, this is a analysis of a historically undisputably failed product strategy.
Bauhaus. Your personal attack has been removed. Do not bother to post any more comments if you cannot communicate in a civil manner.
bauhaus Correct, I am just stating my opinion! It is possible that I am wrong! Possibly beeing wrong is not rude, as it is not rude of you to not agree and possibly also beeing wrong. Rude is to engage in ad hominem arguments, attacking the person behind a thesis, instead of the thesis. This is an interesting topic to debate and there is no reason for any of this to get personal. The best counter arguments to the video has been pinned at the top so that everyone can see it.
Good vídeo, but you do not now how to land the Disco.
I like how when he tries landing he keeps saying “it’s overshooting again” lol..
The parrot isn’t the problem lmao. The Parrot Disco is an excellent flyer btw. I use the 4G mod and get 3 hours of flight time. I launch it then go inside and sit on my couch and control it using my TV as a monitor. I have launched and flown it all the way to the beach which is 4 miles away. It’s absolutely amazing. It looks like he’s just coming in way too fast on his landings.
My advice is that landing the Disco is very similar to landing a real plane. My misstake was assuming that the whole final leg would be autonomous once the button is pressed. Obviously, its just the flare that is autonomous - so you still have to do 90% of the landing yourself. A DJI drone will land at your feet at the press of a button, which is why that is what the big segment of beginners is going for. The Disco is, from a market perspective, a curiosity that didnt fit any significant segment. 95% of the angry comments here are from guys running range tests with 4G-mods that 99,9% of the market would never engage in, for various reasons. The Disco is cool - I do not dispute that! However it is useless to the general market, because it does not have the right properties to fit any of the major market segments. Thats why it was a commersial failure.
Where can you get the mods needed for extra range and battery life?
R L I got the 4G mod kit for mine a couple years ago from UAVPAL.Com or you can still get everything u need from EBay
Such a dramatic and over the top review filled with useless information, quite unlike the drone itself.
I have a DISCO and have NEVER had an issue landing. I dont try to land from150 feet up though. I'd be coming in JUST ABOVE the trees. I live on 20 acres and have High Tension Power lines over my landing area but that has never been an issue. I also have a DJI Air, MAvic Pro Enterprise Dual and an Inspire 1. You may just need more experience with fixed wing as they are VERY different from Quads. I use my Disco for Surveying and mapping as that is what it is best suited for.
I have a parrot disco with LTE mod and battery mod. Works really well and I can fly it 50+ miles at a time and 6 hours+. Way more efficient than a drone and I really enjoy the view too!
Disco is a fabulous product. It is way ahead of the rest of the industry. It is elegant, super efficient, stable and produces amazing footage.
I think we might use the term ”Product” diffrently. Disco has some fabulous technologies. It was indeed ahead in its nieche (and probably still is, since nobody else seems to want to go that direction). It is objectively the most handsome drone ever made. Those are all cool technologies/features we can agree on (if we dont confuse these features with real user needs).
But claiming that the Disco delivers ”amazing footage” is just very far from the truth by any standard. Nobody with any understanding of photography would agree with such a claim. The dynamic range is rubbish, the resolution below average, the stabilizing software a joke. That is why 99% of videos of Disco is not scenery, but range tests flying straight from A to B. You just cant make good videos with it!
SO FUNNY. GOD HELP YOU.
The Parrot DISCO is a 'Dream Machine'.
The Reason I clicked on this video was because I thought you was going to flight it in Reverse. Jejejejejejeje. Joking Bro is always good to see you again!! Blessings to you and the Fam...
Thank you :-)
I have it for 3 years. I think he is fantastic. and above all, almost indestructible. yesterday I flew with winds over 46km / h. I ran into a tree and ... it continues to fly. it's a great plane. I am waiting for a successor.
I enjoyed the review even if it was different from your usual style. Any sort of drone content is always appreciated!
Thank you, Andrew! :-)
It all depends on the key question about the price point: for 300€ as sold in summer 2018 you have a market
the FPV for fun flyers that can wait for perfect conditions and then might not need a gimbal.
The 4G mod changed the game at all - and you would be able to market it today again and more likely for a full 5G network.
Man you use the Parrot Disco really wrong when you land, it's not an common RC airplane, it's a smart drone, have a lot of telemetry data that you receive it on the tablet or on the phone, when I lose WIFI signal and telemetry was also the first time when I crash landing the drone, and is not a drone for beginners, have 2 ways of assisted landing but some time you really need to pilot the drone in landing, look on few of my UA-cam videos and you will see what means to land the drone in little space (runway or circle landing)
The Parrot Disco is a cheap version of a sensefly eBee. A combination auf eBee technology combined with parrot bebop tech. The eBee is drone for 3D Mapping. No Customer Journey or whatsoever. The just said: We can do that! Lets do it!
Thats exactly my point! The Disco could have been a great success if only product management first would have decided whom it is for, and then made sure to tick all the relevant boxes for that specific market segment. Too bad that there will probably not be a Parrot 2. With proper product management I think that defeat could be turned into success.
you cant land when you‘re 100 foot over the earth
Help would the Parrot Disco fly without Pitot Probe/On-Off Button lost mine and wondering if that's the reason??
Sorry, but I do not know. :-(
I just bought a Parrot Disco off a 2nd hand market, brand new, still in plastic. Having flown many FPV planes in the past, I think I'm really going to enjoy this plane regardless of your review. I just prefer fixed wing over boring hovering quadcopters. I'd say, for the ultimate flying experience and endurance, go fixed wing (either buy a Disco or build something yourself) and for the ultimate camera platform or when you're a beginner and just want to play around, buy a multirotor. You just buy fixed wing for the immersive feeling piloting a plane in first person. As for transportability of the Disco, mine came with a beautiful carrying backpack. Bought the total package for a very attractive price too.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is I think I'm going to love it but I'm not sure yet :-D
I hope you love it. Having said that, personally I would say that DJI goggles offers a way, way more submerging experience, having superior resolution, while also beeing easier to fly, suitable for noobs. To instead maximize flying experience, a normal FPV-wing or race quad that is not limited in banking would offer way more flying experience than the Disco. But thats just my opinion, let me know what you think after flying it. :-)
Did you ever try a race quad? That is a killer flying experience that has attracted a lot of people used to RC. Often race quads and RC planes are just diffrent sections of the same RC club.
@@MattiasAllring no, I kind of stopped the hobby due to a lack of time when quadcopters were just beginning to take over the FPV scene. I'll look into them but I still think I'm more a fixed wing guy. To each their own I guess.
Update, I flew my new Parrot yesterday evening and it's absolutely rock solid. I went out to 2km's without a problem, very clean video link. The Parrot cruises fast and shoots very stable video. Videoquality could have been a bit sharper but at least it's as stable as shooting from a tripod. I flew 30 minutes and still had 40% battery juice left. Flying is a lot less exciting than my old RC Planes because of the stabilization and the feeling that you're not in control of the plane but it's also very relaxing. Like you're just along for the ride. In fact, I didn't even have to touch the throttle stick. If you climb, the Parrot automatically uses more thrust, if you dive, the Parrot automatically reduces thrust or stops the engine. It may get boring after a while but at least it works, it's stable and it's safe. It's also very energy efficient and you can climb to high altitudes and just soar forever. And take off was also trouble free. Just toss it in the air and it flies to 40 meters and starts circling, waiting for you to be ready to take over.
I'm sure everybody with minimal RC experience can fly a Disco. It's too bad the Disco failed because of bad marketing choices. This platform could have been a real winner. I'm very happy with it and hope I'll be able to keep it in good shape for years :-)
I agree with most of what you say exept two things:
1.Video is very unstable compared to normal gimbal equipped drones - even the cheapest low end simple two axis gimbal drones, such as a Spark toy drone blows the Disco out of the water on image stabilization. If you need stable video - buy a normal drone.
2. Landing is nowhere near as easy as starting and flying. Easy compared to an RC-plane, maybe. But still requiring way much more flying skills than normal drones. If you are a beginner and are not dead set on a wing - start with a normal drone.
Possibly the best intro to any video I’ve ever watched lol
Have you ever heard of long range fpv?
Probably not
oh yeah, the price dropped a few months after they discontinued the fpv version then it sharply skyrocketed later and is almost back where it started. I hope it drops back because I want to get 2 more to do the 4gLTE mod on it.
This was a great and hilarious review! Also, I agree with just about everything. This drone seems really cool and it would have been fun to try one out, but I just can't figure out why I would possibly want to own one. I couldn't use it for anything.
Thank you, Danni! :-)
I figured out how to safely land mine on the very first try, its not rocket science if you read the instructions.
it is rocket science if you're trying to land it near powerlines, trees, on very rough terrain where the camera is likely to be damaged. The best use case is in big open fields where you can use linear landings with waypoints taking into account wind direction where you don't even have to control it, and it lands perfectly every time.
It’s the most awesome drone for UAV lovers. Because it supports Ardupilot!
& Paparatzzi.
I have been thinking about your review and have come to the following conclusions:
a. Your use to flying standard quad-rotor drones, your finding the transition to fixed wing drones difficult and are therefore struggling to land the Parrot Disco successfully.
b. Your purposely doing worse than you normally would to try and prove your point of the video.
I believe that conclusion b is more of the case here. You come into your review very narrow minded and appear to have the belief that 'If its not DJI then its going to be a bad product' You don't go over any of the good software features this drone has, your only real negative point of the drone you had was that "its very hard to land" which seems to be more of a personal problem.
I own a Disco and a Mavic, I love both for different reasons. They are two capable drones that serve multiple purposes. I dont do anything professionally I just do it as a hobby.
Unlike in this review, I look at the strengths and weaknesses of the drones before I have an opinion, and ultimately whether I buy it or not.
I had a pilot license before I had a drivers license, so believe me I am quite comfortable flying a fixed wing and im more used to real planes than toy quads. It would not have been that hard (for me) landing the Disco in this spot if it was not a drone with ”autonomous landing”. What the landing part of the video shows is me (as a noob reading the manual) trying to wrap my had around how the landing feature works. Seems all that is auto is executing the flare (not explained in the manual). You have to do everything manual including controlling the decend of the final approach, else you overshoot. If you have to do 90% of the landing manual, I just dont see why an auto flare would be enough to tip the scale for a noob.
Anyways, my point is that unless you can make a wing design that is better than a quad drone for noobs or any of the other main segments of users - dont go for a wing design. Or pivot to another market segment, which is what Parrot eventually did. That was probably the right call, but really long term bad for us consumers as we are left with a viritual DJI-monopoly.
If the Disco would have been as easy to land as it is to launch and fly, it could have been successful with noobs, but it was not.
I think Disco is really cool tech, but terrible product design. Thats because I define good product design as beeing the BEST SOULUTION FOR A SIGNIFICANT MARKET SEGMENT. (I.e the best choice for a specific type of users that make up a large enough mass of the market)
@@MattiasAllring I agree with some of your points.
With the 4G mod you could say that it is the best for long distance flights.
And I feel once you got use to the landing of the drone and had a better surface to land on you would have enjoyed the experience more.
A negative of the disco is that you need a large flat open area to land. I live on the Broads National Park in the UK, it is extremely flat and open. This drone allows me to take long distance footage of the area, something I can't do with the Mavic.
It's a shame that one of DJI's competitors has dropped out as that allows DJI to charge more for there products. (Like Apple and smart phones)
Sakligt och bra review, snyggt jobbat!
Tack! :-)
That spot is not a landing field - it is a nightmare and no strip also with wires next to it and in the turn around flight path. What is worser, the plane or the pilot ?
This is the problem when people buy a product and think they don't have to have any knowledge or experience of being able to fly by hand. The pilot should always be able to land the plane without a computer doing it for them
You make a great video good work.
I think the problem you are having is trying to land it in a very difficult environment. Far from optimal. This is a fixed wing so you need to first come down in altitude before autoland.
I feel a few more flights with this under your belt you will get it.
I would have liked to see more actual flying. The perspective on the market was right on. :)
I say it's a model aircraft with a camera. Have no problem flying those. Have been flying aircrafts and helicopter for years. But it's not a drone that you can use to make cinematic film. I like my phantom 4 pro. Have an amazing weekend, Andreas from Off Grid Sweden 🇸🇪
you can do cinematic with fixed wing ;) ua-cam.com/video/Llq46sjFUdI/v-deo.html
I disagree, but just because you have a different opinion doesn’t mean you deserve any hate. Nice video 👍
The difference between this one and the ones people usually make themselves, is the efficiency. It's very light, with a very small motor but still it's aerodynamically incredible body makes it go pretty fast, and for pretty long. Especially back then. I love mine for not having to land and change batteries ALL THE TIME ;)
The tech is cool - I agree with that! The Disco has impressive features! Modded it can be even more impressive. However, as a PRODUCT it is pretty useless, as it is not really aimed at the needs of any substantial group of users. Disco was the best choice for very few -> low sales -> low profit -> discontinued -> there will be no Disco 2
@@MattiasAllring '
to be a great drone the disco should be combined to the skeleton of the mini drone swing, giving to disco the Vtol feature and giving the 4G thing by series or at least a powerful trasmission system, not the crappy wifi
They overprice it a lot at the beginig no doubt, but they dont expect how easle this drone can be moded with almoust no costs. Why they cant sell it ??? In my opinion price wasnt that big poblem. Drone who can fly 80km/h and about 40min without landing, with max range 2/3 km !!! I think range was a biggest problem with this drone without mods its only nice toy, but after upgrades its just blow away all competition.
I agree alot with what you say, Kamil. If the upgrades would have been supported, simple to install and sold through Parrot in same way as Apple App Store, then the product could have been much more successful. Parrot opened up to 3rd party development, but failed to exploit what came out of it to open the market. Again - poor Product Management.
I think this is the only UA-cam video in my life i have disliked. 🤪🛩️👌LOVE Disco for the right Money 🛩️
I not agree. I`m a land developer in Patagonia and the Disco is perfect for my special needs doing explorations of new land to buy and overview large extension of land to watch and planning the work on the land. Specially becouse Disco have the Flight Plan to preprogram the flight and footage before.
Happy to hear that you are happy with your Disco, Jorge! Mapping land and crops seems to be a good use, as pointed out earlier in the comments by another viewer. There is even a specialized version of Disco released for farmong, is that the one you use? It seems that after Parrot failed to get sales volumes in the big segmets of leisure droning, they refocused into niche markets. Sounds like the right move to me. :-)
@@MattiasAllring Unfortunately, Parrot stopped producing the Disco Pro Ag, and they created the bluegrass parrot for agriculture. The Disco Pro Ag is too expensive to be used only in land exploration, so the simple version of Disco is the best drone for my activity, and that's the one I'm using.
Someone managed to mount a DJI pocket Osmo onto it and the result wasnt bad at all. As you can see from comments here people have taken the base product and modded the heck out of it from increase batteries, stabilised 3-axis gimbal, 4G mod etc - Their original RRP didnt make them very popular but when Parrot discontinued the product and sold @ 1/3 the RRP people lapped them up.
It is interesting how much awesome mods there seems to be. Too bad Parrot didnt manage to leverage all this creativity into sales figures. I guess whats missing is how to bridge it too the masses. I speculate that if the mods would have been plug n play and sold through Parrot it might have changed the fate of the product. What do you think?
I’ve had mine for almost 3 years and basically it’s a plane rather than a drone. You fly it as a plane. FPV is great fun. Range tests/flights are rewarding and also when a few of you fly together (other Discos) then it’s a laugh. It didn’t sell as well as Parrot hoped- but that was because of the heavy price tag. 15 months ago it was selling everywhere for a few hundred pounds/dollars. So it sold out everywhere. If Parrot would have sold it at around that price then it would have been a different story.
The technology in this aircraft is superb and the videos it creates is extremely good.
To land you have to pilot it down to about 10 meters and pull back on throttle and lower its altitude gradually before hitting the land button. You need at least a clear area , just like a plane needs when landing etc
But hey you make interesting videos. For that I subscribed.
P.s I caught it once lol. 😝
I agree that the the price tag was a problem, but still it was roughly on par with a Phantom 4 drone. Naturally, hard dumping the price sold units. What we dont know is if Parrot have a low cost position (able to make it dirt cheap with profit) of if this was just the last deparate attempt to clean out stock. If it does not produce more value than the cost of making it, it is a huge defeat for Parrot (Im pretty sure it was). There will never be a Disco 2 until Parrot figure out a new version of whom to target, with what key features, to be able to sell at what price and what volume. The prospect of yet again selling advanced but super discounted drones to a relatively small segment of techies will not please the shareholders.
I am glad you like your Disco! I never had the opportunity to chase anyone - sounds fun (I got chased by that falcon in the video - does that count?).
I cannot possibly agree that the Disco deliver good video - it is objectivly terribel! Even for its time! Compare it to the super stable 4K video that you got from a Phantom 4 that was on the market in the same time at a similar price point. Most of my videos are shot on a Phantom 4.
Im happy you subscribed, despite our diffrent opinions about the Disco :-)
MattiasAllring hi thanks for getting back to me. I don’t think Parrot was trying to compare with the P4 which is totally in a different class. I think Parrot wanted to get into the fixed wing realm and they copied a more expensive wing from the sense flight corp, which was around $24k. ua-cam.com/video/-gGot8ohtBc/v-deo.html check this review out of the wing I’m talking about. So Parrot released there version for the $1200. But the consumers still said for less than half the price I can buy a rc plane etc. I think this was designed for the sheer pleasure of flying a fixed wing FPV and not for creating cinematic video same as the P4 was. It was all about the money in this case. Yes if it could be sold for £300 at the end it made you think obviously it cost less than that to create. So unfortunately Parrot shot them selves in the foot and over priced it. I’ve created loads of videos with mine and I’m more than happy with the footage. The experience of sitting in a cockpit flying through the air. I have DJI drones also from phantoms, Spark and Mavic Pro. But these are my cinematic videos tools. The Disco is flying free in the air aircraft. Yes the bird of prey chasing you was cool. I recently had a seagull on the beach chase mine few weeks back. On my channel I’ve loaded the video. Thanks again for your informative video. Cheers and your welcome. 😊👍✈️
I make sure the throttles being pull all the way down to fly as slow as possible. Then tapping the land button for linear land. This along with landing into the wind it’s pretty easy to land. Haven’t caught it yet though.
I think your assessment put my experience with the Disco in good words. Although many might disagree, the drone is definitely not easy to adapt for a total newbie. I know nobody who didnt crash at least one hard or in the trees. BUT: From an engineering perspective that drone is a masterpiece. Perfectly industrialized, perfect for carrying downward looking sensors, perfect to transport some small payload over 50km autonomously and perfect for military application at it is just foam. It can take impressive amount of pain. A bit of tape and it flies again. I bought like 5 of them. Perfect also to run ardupilot on it.
Peter Pretscher I agree to all that you say! The Disco is a fantastic technical achievement with really cool features. The only problem is that these features are a poor match to what the volume market prioritize when they select a drone to buy. Few seem to need the Disco.
@@MattiasAllring Totally agree. Its a niche product. It was however (sadly) never marketed properly to universities/education services. Because there it is the only (no shit) product that can come out of the box AND be customized with a wire cutter. You can easily fit new different wings, edit the software parameters or fly aggressive aerobatic maneuvers on manual mode whatsoever. As that was my idea when buying the disco i could really never understand why not everybody would want one. Now i get it ;-) Ah- forgot: If you push nose down after pushing the landing button you can make a short landing as soon as the range finder senses ground. The prop then goes on reverse thrust. Thats not in the user manual ;-) And: You can totally kill someone with that. The camera is mounted on a metal cast part. If you hit someone flying low and fast and tailwind, hitting someone is like a stun gun for cattle. But not during landing mode though.
Peter Pretscher Its strange that Parrot didnt leverage the niche potential more. All this mods that the fans are exited about could have been endorced and marketed by Parrot in the same way that Apple makes money out of 3rd party apps. I bet that Parrot would have made a lot of money on enabling 3rd party mods, if only they where made available through the same resell network, endorsed and supported. Also, they should help 3rd party modders to target niche market needs, such as education, delivery and whatever else.
MattiasAllring well they tried via a software dev. Kit. I for example however was not able to get to any grips with that. That’s really complex stuff. Just to generate the software environment was a nightmare. They should deploy that somehow via a Remote Desktop client so I don’t need to download a gazillion of tools I don’t understand. But the customers are in for the cheap thrills so either you are an expert and know all that stuff already or a noob which takes ages to work yourself through that because there is no community. Depressing. Fail by parrot. Currently repeating itself with Anafi sdk
What if popular range extenders, battery mods and other legal 3rd party mods would have been picked up by Parrot through a partner program and adjusted:implemented in their portfolio as user friendly clamp-on solutions? As it is now, Parrot opened up for creativity, but didnt leverage on it in their business model by expanding the product portfolio, revenue or targeted market segments. Poor product mgm and business development, imho...
The Disco is an airplane, and you cannot fly an airplane like you are trying to do. Even the best Disco pilot will only be able to do a hand landing every now and then. Then your choice of airfield... I would never ever fly there and you can be glad your camera is still intact. Also you must always take off into the wind and even more importantly, land into the wind. When you land, you should in good time, pull the left lever all the way back as this will reduce the airspeed to about 40 km/h from 50 km/h. Once stable at this speed you push the right lever forward in increments to loose altitude without increasing speed too much. At 10 meters altitude, press the landing button and after a couple of landings you will be able to land with some precision. This is how you do it. And stay on the grass... No kalhyggen, please.
Look how Parrot markeded the Disco (link) - flying from a cliff, capturing amazing stable videos. There are not any flat grass fields near any such scenes. The place I chose as location I think is relevant as reference. I was landing headwind (have a real pilot licence for real planes) so I got that part of the basics covered. The test was to see if it is realistic that a noob (or anyone else) can unpack the drone in a similar setting as the commersial and get similar results. I think I have proven that that is not the case and the drone will dissapoint anyone inspired by the commersial. Hand catch was just a fun thing to try, not a requirement. ua-cam.com/video/m1Fpq4inefg/v-deo.html
@@MattiasAllring I do not disagree with you entirely, only I think you were "noobier" than necessary. All Disco owners I´ve seen on the forums seem very keen to pick up advise and learn how to use the plane safely. What really is against the Disco is the short range from factory. That can be improved with the Uavpal 4G modification.
Technically the Disco is a marvellous machine, but for your reasons probably, it failed in the market.
i have 2 its the greatest drone ever fantastic wing when you know how eh
You are entitled to your opinion, but how do you explain that it didnt sell? Thats the purpose of this video. That the Disco failed to sell is an undisputable fact - I am just giving my best assessment on why. :-)
I agree i think its better then my drones and planes 🛩️😁
@@MattiasAllring They didnt sell at the price they were asking. But hard to find them available now with the 4g mods that you can do with them.
Can I have one
MattiasAllring You are not just saying why it didn’t sell. You said (from the title, that is clickbait, because is false) that is the most useless drone ever.
You didnt say it’s useless in stock version (that also is false), and the user mods doesn’t make it useless(responding to one of your answers).
Please consider the much higher number of dislikes and stop falsely arguing.
Hello, I do not think that the parrot disco is a useless drone, but it obviously has differences compared to quadcopters, for linear landing you have to practice and master it quickly and if you still have a hard time mastering that you can perform the automatic landing which does it in a way. circular and completely autonomous.
That was hilarious. You are naturally funny thanks for making me laugh awful drone!!!! Have subbed
its reallynot created to be hand-catched. Its actually made to crashland without breaking..
Negative! Read my previous post...👍🏾
😂
My son bought one and it comes next week. I am getting excited and ordered stuff to make 2P batteries and LTE. We happen to have a school field 200 meters away, so we have a place to land.
If thats your opinion ,send it to me ,i wil love this thing and flight like a steel
There's something wrong with your prop. It's not really that loud. Man it has wings - how else were you supposed to transport it ? Roll it up ? It's really easy to land (if you don't try to catch it unless you actually can) find a place with SPACE and push the button. Digital stabilization hasn't come that far yet, but it will be big in the future, then again, this is marketed as a FPV drone. It doesn't have the resolution to make anything for the big screen. The image stabilizer on this one is actually amazing, if piloted differently. You know it will all be much better with smaller inputs on your sticks. I love this wing. It's made for the joy of fpv flying. It's a fixed wing not a crazy agile stunt drone. It's even great for 3d mapping as it is - you don't need to get the insanely prized industrial one with the extra vertical cameras for crop analyzis etc.. The autopilot (that you really should try if you can't produce steady shots yourself) is very moddable it runs a linux variant and is strangely enough easier to work with than many DIY autopilots. The only thing wrong about it was the price.
I bought one 6 months ago for 200 Euro. At that price it has been a source of really good fun. Also with an easy battery Mod and the 4g/LTE mod, long distance flying (only where the law allows) is amazing to try. But also - if you read the instructions / parrot training videos you are not landing it correctly in your first few tries - you are only supposed to press the land button at low level having already made your landing approach. Dustin Dunhill has some amazing parrot videos out in Hawaii....worth checking out.
But meant to say - I agree with your general conclusions, and enjoyed the video... !!
Thank you! I was conciously sloppy about reading instructions as I was trying to mimic a realistic level of ignorance of the average noob without aircraft experience. In my opinion I think a noob will be better of with a Spark or similar idiot-proof drone. I struggle a bit to understand whom is skilled enough to handle the Disco, yet too novice to land a normal foam wing?
I love the upgrade options you mention! Too bad Parrot didnt offer them.
Over all, the Disco got so much right, It just didnt focus enough on one user group to reach the broad market.
I just searched for Parrot Disco because refurbished ones on Ebay are selling for $499. I was thinking if it's that good, why the hell did they stop making it? I guess it's not that good. Seems like a nice RC airplane though. GPS, it can loiter and stuff. If they put a camera with good stabilization that can lock the horizon, that would have been good.
As a product it sucks, as it does not fit the actual needs of consumers. Therfore bad sales and discontinuation. However, the performance and the open technology platform it is amazing, thus the fan base of techies making mods. I love the tech of the Disco, but I hate the fact that I have never had any use for it. If Parrot would ever come around to make a Disco 2, then video stabilization and a way to get it down in less ideal landing sites would be at the top of my list.
Dear Mattias, when comparing apples and pears, what should be the result. If a wing drone is called, it is true that she flies autonomously after FlightPlan like a drone. What you are comparing are MULTIKOPTER or flying tripods. Comparing the landing of a rotary wing aircraft with a wing is impossible and unfair. The disco is a wing for noobs that can not start and that makes flying easy, incl. RTH. In addition, you land, as in the start ... in the wind and not with the wind. You can control the disco when landing, then it works out too. Weak point is the camera in the nose (damaging) and the quality of the image. But how do you want to realize a stabilized image without gimbal? The price was unacceptable at launch, successes came only with the sale of the remaining stocks at 260-300 €.
And to criticize a device whose production is set for over a year, where even remnants are sold out .... is also useless! Look at the many videos on YT, there are already interesting flights and hand landings ... but all in suitable terrain. The disco is for relaxed flying,
Dear KartOpa51, when entering the market of fruit, first check if customers need apples or oranges. Parrots misstake was to think that there was a sustainable market for oranges, while the customers they intended to sell to compared with, and chose, apples. Its very easy to compare, and however unfair it may seem to you, thats what the consumers Parrot needed did. Making the mistake to think that competition comes only from oranges is exactly why product centric design often fail. Disco is just a very obvious case. I understand how unfair you think it is to compare a drone wing (yes it is a drone - read up on the definition) with drone quadrocopters, but thats exactly what the market did - much to the disadvantage of Disco. That Parrot managed to get rid of their stock by plummeting price is hardly anything that gave Parrot return on investment. There will never be a Disco 2 until Parrot figure out a profitable way to take a larger chunk of the drone market.
I think you are completly missing my point in this video. I am explaining why the Disco failed on the market. It did fail. It is a fact.
Ngl 3 years on and i still love this drone 😂 of course bit of tinkering but not much changed
The parrot disco is my favorite drone, it is also one of the best drones. Please don't disrespect the drone before thinking about your piloting.
Best for you is not the definition of best product. It needs to be best for a significant market segment to be a good product. You obviously do not understand that a product needs to make money to be successful. It can only do that by selling. It needs to sell a lot to be successful. It will not sell a lot if it is not the best option for a lot of people. Disco is not the suitable choice for most peoples needs. Therefore it did not sell and Parrot discontinued the failed product. Despite cool features and small fan base of nerds.
it is an amazing item due to its amazing loiter capability with a sim card you can fly it to 20 mile +. not intended for phantom flyers, it is more comlicated to fly
Ok, after seeing your attempts at a landing I have to ask, were you trying to make it harder to land? you can control the craft while it is in autoland, and there is Circle landing as well though I have never attempted it. The craft is great but, it was way over priced to start with and, they over sold the idea. The platform is awesome and unlike many other craft, you can even reflash this craft to use Mission Planner, you know the gui us builders and the few Solo pilots use. you can get ridiculous long range too, not to hard to hack and control via 4gLTE. Batteries can me changed out for 18650 and have capacity to fly for hours.
stock, its nice takes good video but, takes a large spot to land without getting the butt pucker feeling. I have been flying my Disco for well over a year and have yet to have to replace anything on it.Flying FPV in close proximity is a no go however as there is to much latency. I even have 2 packs I use that give me an hour flight.
oh, I have never done a complete autoland.
Man have you ever checked dustin dunnill channel? He did the 4g lte mod and dude goes flying really far away..... like 80miles away. Check him out and it is an easy mod
Will have a look! Sounds exiting, but very unlegal in most of the world.
Do more videos like this!
You are a very good presenter.
Thanks buddy! :-)
@@MattiasAllring but "completely" useless at spelling ;)
Great video Mattias! Never flown one before. Thanks for sharing
Thank you! :-)
Have flown this for 3 years...
IT IS AWESOME DUDE... 4g.... add a receiver and use your own transmitter...
Can fly around 150km roughly if you use a 5000mAh batt
Lol the intro
This is very good and useful for search and rescue in my opinion...
Lmao at the beginning
Haha “from an airplane that always lands like a piano”!!! Thanks for the time you spent to make this video Mattias!! Can see how its a love/hate drone😉
Thank you! :-)
Like all your videos but the trick flying is definitely the best :)
so many are angry for he did not know how to land...thats exactly his point if the disco could be easily handled by a noob..to know if it can qualify for the fourth segment which is the noob market.
Exactly!!!
Bra kritik och om du vill sälja den är jag intresserad
THIS IS QUITE THE MASTERPIECE of drone..imo. I also have to disagree with it being the most useless drone. Ive never owned one.. but i am going to buy one here soon. but looking at those that do own one. They are amazing drones....just capability of this drone which out performs pretty much every other drone.... is the fact that you can put the 4gLTE mod making this drone...on a whole another level......its been 10+ years and other major brands still havent emplemented this into their "NOOB" drones...much less their professional drone lines neither... but interesting perspective you have....
Consider not flying on such a windy day, and get a wind screen for your mic. Your field audio doesn't sound very good when you have all that wooshing. :) Thanks for the presentation! I checked out the Parrot Disco, but was put off by the high cost for mostly a hunk of Styrofoam. Regarding the landing, is there a way to just manually land it (instead of choosing the "linear landing" you kept mentioning)? The thing seems to glide very well. Bad when you want to land!
The only 2 options to land that I know of is Linear Landing and Circular Landing. In Circular landing the drone is suppose to circle while gradually decending - to scary option for me to try among trees and power lines. :-)
Find my previous post in which I Explained how to land it partially manual... Yes you can control the aircraft's approach and once you are about maybe 3 feet over the desired landing area you simply press the landing button and the aircraft will smoothly land every single time...👍🏾
It seems like it would be good for farmers who want to view their fields from above, am I wrong? Great video btw!
nice business class, Let me know when you rear drones. Peace.
You should have had a fixed wing flyer assist you with flying and especially landing this drone Mattias. You were the "useless" component in this review. It really is exceptional when you know what your doing.
The test was if a beginner out of the box can land the Disco in nature of similar challenge as the promo video (see link). You seem to agree that I could not, so then you agree that the drone is not suitable for newbies.
I agree that the Disco is exceptional, but it is also useless (i.e. lacking practical use) for any of the main segments on the drone market. It is a historical fact that the drone failed on the market - I am only analyzing why.
Haha! That's right, fly like a drunk or injured bird in a big field to get the birds of pray to come check you out:) great video.
Still one of the most amazing drone with military technology for the consumer market.
You call it useless and sure for the majority of the public she is probably not of great use, but there you quickly realize what the system and software of this drone was/is intended for and from where and for whom this technology was made of!
Well I own four DJI drones and am a good pilot having flown in a lot of places. However the Disco I really appreciate as it is a great piece of tech. You need just a level landing area for the safety of the craft. Plus you need to learn to fly it my friend! I can land in really tight spots and the best use is using programmed flights which although is an extra app expense. Works great. Using Geofencing with a min altitude of 10 meters I can dive that puppy straight down, flare into the wind and land . So yes this is not a product for dummies. T Whistler, B.C.
It''s a completely different beast to a quadcopter ... it looks awesome to me .... might try and get one.
You have to be kidding? Do the 4G mod, upgrade the battery to 2 x Titan 3500mah li-ion’s and fly for 2 hours with unlimited range with full manual control and live hd video feed. Current record flight distance is 90km’s. Post process your footage with ReedySteady Go. Its for people who just want to fly and explore, not for film makers. If you have flown a lot of fixed wing RC aircraft you would know this is about as easy for noobs to fly as you can get. Watch Parrots own how to fly videos on UA-cam, you just to need to fly it within a couple of metres of the ground in a stable approach and then hit the landing button. It is not an automatic return to land like a quad copter drone!
Oh, so you can do a nerdy 4G mod and fly illegal beyond line of sight? Cool, but utterly useless. There is no significant market for illegal DIY nerd toys. To use ReelSteady Go on the utterly useless dynamic range of the video output of the Disco would be like putting makup on a pig. And in addition, that makup was not available while the Disco was on the market. You may love the Disco if you like, but it is still a historical FACT that it failed on the market. Your opinion will not give Parrot back their lost investment. There is no reason to debate that. This video speculates WHY it failed to sell. Please deliver your alternative explanation to the lack of sales numbers, but dont pretend that your personal opinion can change history.
Nerdy? What.... and you making videos about drones and posting them on UA-cam isn’t nerdy 😂. At least I fly real aircraft as a real commercial pilot and post my videos. You just play with toys! This UAV flown in the right hands can produce very good results. In yours not so much😉.
ua-cam.com/video/57qalO7aBnI/v-deo.html
Oh, so then we both have a pilot license! Not sure how that is relevant since we are debating drones at my drone channel. Not sure how claiming that the Disco can do great video content in ”the right hands” is an argument here, as you only have 14 followers on your channel. ;-)
This guy: *Parrot Disco - the most USELESS drone ever!*
Also the Parrot Disco: *_Can use 4G LTE for long flights and is better at doing long flights than any other drone/RC aircraft_*
The 4G mod and battery extention packs seems epic, but utterly useless. Isnt 45 min of crappy, unstable video enough?
@@MattiasAllring Bruh those two mods make the plane more capable. (It makes the plane more useful!) Also, the 4G mod is meant for people who want to go 5+ miles away. And if you're cruising at 350 to 400 AGL and you just let the plane coast, the video is actually quite stable (unless if its windy but most people wouldn't fly very far in high winds anyway)
And also, the Parrot Disco isn't really a filming tool. A DJI Phantom 4 is like a flying camera, but the Parrot Disco is like a GA Plane shrunk down with RC control. Quadcopters and fixed-wing drones are very different.
I agree that the mods are super cool and makes the drone more capable. No doubt about that. Still, watch the promo for the Disco that is attached in the description. The Disco was clearly intended to.reach a wide consumer market, not just soldering tech nerds running range experiments. My point throughout the video, is that the Disco failed to focus on any major market segment and thus was never the top pick for any substantial user group. The Disco has epic features, however packaged in a way that did not sell. Way more people wanted to film, fly in dramatic nature and have a simple VTOL operation. A wing design was a risky move by Parrot, but could still have been a success if it had been more crafted around ONE set of users. In my opinion, either more focused on video OR more focused on flight experience with some kind of ”acro mode” OR more focused on noobs beeing able to autonomous land within 10m of the user running both approach and flare autonomous. As it is packaged, everybody gets 80% of what would make them choose the drone over other alternatives (exept the few soldering nerds that get 300%). Thats why the drone failed on the market - not the price.
I dont thinkt the drone is the problem here....
When a drone is caught in a forest...
Does anyone care....
It is a great plane for the purpose of doing quality videos. It has great integrated features such as quality camera, air speed sensor, and it is easy to pack away. I highly recommend it.
Quality videos?!? Quality camera?!? What have you been smoking?!? The camera is well below even any cheap cell phone camera!! It is rubbish even compared to the toy camera in DJI Spark. Not even the most die hard Parrot fans in this thread has claimed that the camera in the Disco is any good. Please post a link to a ”quality video” shot with a Disco!
JUST MANUAL LAND IT BRO, i can land it in my building roof
Pics or it didnt happen! :-)
Parrot is the perfect wing to learn fly fixed wing or airplane.
I dit it, and now i fly the Blade Theory w team edition and its fast 160 km 100 miles per Hour.. 😉
And can land perfect in storm.
Is not an ordinary RC plane or wing a both cheaper and easier way to learn to fly? Im struggeling to see that you learn anything from flying the Disco. It does not behave anything like a non-drone aircraft in my opinion.
@@MattiasAllring Its not so sensitive to control but i learned alot i can fly now rather good. 😉
The Disco is a PLANE, not a quadcopter or helicopter. It requires completely different skills and techniques for takeoff, flying and landing -- including a "50+ metres soft level runway" to land.
If you provided a car review, it would be like complaining it was not like a motorcycle!
I have a quad and a Disco, and have enjoyed both simply because they are totally different.
The Disco is Drone (see the definition) and it was targeted vs the same general market (see the commersial). It was not commersially successful. This video is analyzing WHY. In short, Parrot obviously didnt think through what the market needed and how to package their product towards that. One might go as far as saying the fixed wing approach was wrong (thats probably what Parrot thinks today), but I am not sure of that. All we know for sure is that it failed as it was designed. I would speculate that it could have been successful with a wing design if it had been more focused on a specific segment. As it is, it ticks 80% of the requirements for many segments, instead of ticking 100% of the requirements for one segment. Simply put, thats why it failed. Not because its a wing design and not because of the price point.
The Disco is the only obtainable example of its type. It has amazing possibilities if you know how to operate it. What other drone can fly out to over 10 miles away - take pictures and then return to home? It's the ultimate long distance surveillance vehicle - (please note flying like that is illegal in some countries)
I totally agree that the Disco is amazing! Still it is useless to most potential users, as illegal things that require soldering reduces the market scope damatically. Amazing technology, useless product.
@@MattiasAllring Your video is quite useless too - since you got as many dislikes as likes.
With that logic YOU are useless, since you only have 12 followers on your channel. Lets raise the bar of the conversation a bit, shall we?.
It is controversial to say that the Disco is useless, mainly because the small fan community missunderstand what I mean by that. A product can be amazing and useless at the same time. ”Useless”, in the sense I use the word, mean that too few people will find themselves in situations where the Disco is the best choice. Dispite some outstanding features. Thats why it did not sell.
@@MattiasAllring Perhaps as a foreigner you don't understand the normal understanding of the word "useless" - it means beneath contempt and no good at all. You are understanding it in the literal sense. It would be better if you had said "Great drone, but I can't see many uses for it". Saying "useless" is bound to annoy many people. Which it seems to have done.
Insulting people was never my intention. I work with product strategy where Usability is a clear term referring to the fit between Customer Problem and Product Solution. Parrot Disco is a high quality Solution that seem to have been developed in a vaccum without a clearly defined Customer and Problem. Hence low Usability (the technical term, used internationally in product strategy) - or, phrased differently, Useless.
I thought I explained this concept clearly in the video - either it was a too technical explanation, or people didnt bother to listen. Anyways, no harm intended vs either the community, nor Parrot. I am just very passionate about Usability and thought the Disco was the perfect example to illustrate how a product can fail due to a lack of problem-solution fit.
Great destroy-catch
wont you find an Ugliest place to fly?
If you want to send me your parrot disco , i would be grateful to keep one for spares ! I just done my first flight and i love it ! You unwanted disco will be very popular so sell it and let someone else enjoy it ! You really should have had a go on a bit flat grassy field, im sure the manual says so :)
Its not unwanted. I have no intention of selling it. Its just useless. And the field I fly in reflects the environment of the promo video for the Disco (see the links).
Whats the fun in flying on a grassy field - they dont do that in the promo, so why should I?
No offense but, this drone is not to be flown as a toy. Its actually pretty good for shooting videos. Like the videos you see on televisions at the mall. I actually dont see this as a bad product.
Nice video uhhmm its time to gave it away 😊😊😊🏁
Good morning/afternoon,
may I suggest flying with the goggles/glasses and when you are ready to land lift the goggles up on to your forehead and either catch it or land los. Great honest review. Thanks for sharing buddy.