Camera - Windows Phone 7 General

is it just me or do all HTC Cameras in WP7 seem half-assed compared to Samsung, LG, and Dell's cameras...
i own a Surround and whenever I upload a 720p video to my HD, the audio seems so... "underwater."
Are you all experiencing the same with HTC phones?

heard something on the engadget mobile podcast that htc uses phone mic software for their video sound recording where most use better software.

Related

Rhodium Video Performance?

I`m a Kaiser Owner, and looking at the Rhodium as a possible upgrade, but like many others here I`m sure, I`m concerned about iffy video performance. HTC really seem to have dropped the ball on this one, my experiences of the Kaisers video have made me wary.
Anyone heard any feedback on this topic? Anyone with a pre-production model give us a heads up?
For example, could the Rhodium play a 640*480 WMV video without dropping frames?
Same processor as the old TP must mean same video issues, right?
I had Kaiser, and with the right encoding & software video was absolutely fine! I don't know what all the complaints were about.
The Xperia can handle full resolution video pretty well if encoded correctly, and I'm sure this will be the case with the TP2 as well, as the hardware should be powerful enough to do it.
I can't comment on the Touch Pro, as I haven't used one. The TP2 has quite a high-res screen, but I'm sure it'll be fairly easy to get a decent video experience from it.
DavidMc0 said:
I had Kaiser, and with the right encoding & software video was absolutely fine! I don't know what all the complaints were about.
The Xperia can handle full resolution video pretty well if encoded correctly, and I'm sure this will be the case with the TP2 as well, as the hardware should be powerful enough to do it.
I can't comment on the Touch Pro, as I haven't used one. The TP2 has quite a high-res screen, but I'm sure it'll be fairly easy to get a decent video experience from it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think they made the drivers for the touch pro better didnt they? the 3d ones? so if they did yeah it will be VERY good if they do that for this to which I bet they will if they did for the old one
Won't be burned again!
Link278 said:
I think they made the drivers for the touch pro better didnt they? the 3d ones? so if they did yeah it will be VERY good if they do that for this to which I bet they will if they did for the old one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my knowledge nothing has been improved with the drivers for the touch pro. I have a Sprint TP and video sucks on it. Some ppl have messed around with 3d drivers with various levels of success, but nothing official has been done. There's a whole sticky thread at PPCGeeks on TP video playback tips:
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=57282
So far I haven't really got anything to work for me reliably. What ppl fail to realize is that having a bigger/better screen is only going to make things worse if the hardware/drivers aren't improved. 320x200 video played fine on my Touch and probably would be fine on my TP, but going to 640x400 is 4x the resolution.
Unless HTC improves the 3d/video drivers, the TP2 is going to be as bad or worse than the TP because it is the same stinking hardware. I was so disappointed that the TP2 is just a rehashed TP which really has no better hardware than the Touch--just better screens w/o the greater horsepower to drive them.
I hope I am wrong about this and the TP2 video and graphics are awesome, but I certainly will not upgrade to it until I am certain the situation is improved.
Beefstew83 said:
To my knowledge nothing has been improved with the drivers for the touch pro. I have a Sprint TP and video sucks on it. Some ppl have messed around with 3d drivers with various levels of success, but nothing official has been done. There's a whole sticky thread at PPCGeeks on TP video playback tips:
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=57282
So far I haven't really got anything to work for me reliably. What ppl fail to realize is that having a bigger/better screen is only going to make things worse if the hardware/drivers aren't improved. 320x200 video played fine on my Touch and probably would be fine on my TP, but going to 640x400 is 4x the resolution.
Unless HTC improves the 3d/video drivers, the TP2 is going to be as bad or worse than the TP because it is the same stinking hardware. I was so disappointed that the TP2 is just a rehashed TP which really has no better hardware than the Touch--just better screens w/o the greater horsepower to drive them.
I hope I am wrong about this and the TP2 video and graphics are awesome, but I certainly will not upgrade to it until I am certain the situation is improved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow then check this out u might be able to get alot more out of your touch pro but I am not sure because I have a kaiser
http://www.fuzemobility.com/the-new-3d-drivers-are-here-with-video/
Link278 said:
wow then check this out u might be able to get alot more out of your touch pro but I am not sure because I have a kaiser
http://www.fuzemobility.com/the-new-3d-drivers-are-here-with-video/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for pointing that out. I am going to try them and they will probably help some, but I had already heard about it and for the most part they only address part of the problem.
If, and it's a BIG IF, HTC fully optimized ALL the drivers for the TP2, then it could be quite a bit better than the TP. Given HTC's crappy history I would have to have it thoroughly proven to me before I would believe it. However I am hoping against experience that it will be the case.
Maybe this is one of the big reasons why they stuck with much of the same hardware. So they could optimize everything. Hopefully.
Poke_N_PDA said:
Maybe this is one of the big reasons why they stuck with much of the same hardware. So they could optimize everything. Hopefully.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really hope you're right because I never thought of that, but I heard the new touchflo is alot smoother
scoob101 said:
I`m a Kaiser Owner, and looking at the Rhodium as a possible upgrade, but like many others here I`m sure, I`m concerned about iffy video performance. HTC really seem to have dropped the ball on this one, my experiences of the Kaisers video have made me wary.
Anyone heard any feedback on this topic? Anyone with a pre-production model give us a heads up?
For example, could the Rhodium play a 640*480 WMV video without dropping frames?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, I would have to say that the video quality is 100% better than the TP. I have been watching full videos with NO quality loss in sound or video. I was using the Sprint Touch Pro and was not very happy, but the TP2 is perfect. I can even get 2 full movies out of one charge!!! I have been watching a lot of DivX movies the same ones I watch on my PC, with no issues (well, except each one takes up about 700MB.)
The set up I have been using is, CorePlaer and the D3D Driver. DivX player works well also, but the text gets very small due to the resolution. Hope this helps!
Core player
Video quality is great with core player. Watched 2 movies on my TP2 today and it was very good with great frame rate. And I could use higher res mp4 movies if i wanted to and still keep 100% playback so i havent even pushed it yet. Totally recommended.
I can play a 800x480 AVC encoded movie with aac+ audio at ~1.2Mbit without any hiccups through HTC's video player. Coreplayer on the otherhand can't come anywhere near handling this. Looks damn good too! I used MEGUI with AVC Zune settings to make the video from a bluray movie. It's about 1GB in size.
curious
Just curious why the video player thats built in will play only some of my mp4 files? Thats one of the reasons why I went with coreplayer was because most of my mp4 movies would play a green screen with audio on the built in player and wmp.
Anyone know if TP2 has the same qtv video hardware acceleration?
I'm surprised nobody has posted anything about qtv.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=57282
I have a TP and mp4 video plays flawlessly through HTC album because it has the proper qtv drivers. My problem has been with playing divx in coreplayer with the reverse engineered qtv driver. I was hoping that HTC would drop qtv in the TP2 so that I could play divx in a player with proper video drivers. Does anyone know if HTC still uses qtv in the TP2?
Greyfoxzero said:
Just curious why the video player thats built in will play only some of my mp4 files? Thats one of the reasons why I went with coreplayer was because most of my mp4 movies would play a green screen with audio on the built in player and wmp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MP4 is a file format that supports a few different video codec. Mostly like the green screen means the video codec isn't supported by the player. I would highly recommend these days to encode the video with H.264 as the video codec. This codec is the standard supported by all major companies these days, Apple, Adobe, MS, etc. Some video cameras like the Sanyo Xacti also captures video natively as MP4 (H.264) so there is no need to encode the video.
And TP2 plays MP4 (H.264) video well both in HTC Album and WMP.

HD video recording?

There are rumours of HD video recording for the Desire, but why isn't this available for the Nexus one if they have the same hardware?
Source: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/coming-soon/
HD support will come with a firmware update, the hardware can do it, but the software doesnt yet
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010...d+(MobileTechWorld)&utm_content=Google+Reader
I was thinking the same after reading all news about the Sprint HTC Evo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Evo_4G
including the HTC Sense user experience, an 8.0 megapixel auto-focus camera/camcorder with support for recording HD-capable video at 720p ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It uses the same Snapdragon 1GHz (except this one for CDMA).
I dont know if the 8MP camera has anything to do with 720p recording ...
So, this HD 720p recording definitely only the software, which I assume:
- The CAMERA
I guess, we can rip the software from HTC Evo and put it in the HTC Desire
Easy to say btw
gizz68erz said:
HD support will come with a firmware update, the hardware can do it, but the software doesnt yet
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010...d+(MobileTechWorld)&utm_content=Google+Reader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news for the Desire!
I hope they will keep 30fps though
720x480 30fps is already very good

No HD video or Divx (from HTC employee)

I have just watched the below video and I have mixed feelings about whether the Desire is capable of hd video recording, and will have divx support on release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2RA0T67Wws
The employee seems to shoot down the rumours as he says that he heard them on the net.
Why would htc keep these features a secret? but at the same time on the t-mobile site under coming soon phones HD video recording is noted as a feature?
Well, actually he's literally saying "at the moment", and that is VERY much on the first week of the announcement, coming from a HTC employee. it means they're working on it.
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010...ceive-divx-playback-support-in-future-update/
"HTC Desire to receive DivX playback support in future update"
It appears that one has to trust HTC and buy Desire over Nexus one, hoping for 720p and DivX. I believe DivX is possible, but 720p would be unlikely to happen over update.
I believe I saw another video, where an 'HTC Exhibitor' said that the device as it is records in VGA but the hardware is already in there to support HD video recording- even going as far as saying, "if some developed an app to do this they (HTC) would have no problem with it".
i've preordered a desire and on the specs-page they say it supports DivX!
link
I can confirm that the desire plays DIVX. I have had a demo handset from HTC for a week, playback is very good, great phone.
i.a.wright said:
I can confirm that the desire plays DIVX. I have had a demo handset from HTC for a week, playback is very good, great phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please let us know - does it play 720p mp4 MPEG and 720p AVI DivX without conversion? Any limit to bitrate?

We need a better video camera

So just browsing along I stumbled on this video review of the camera app. I knew our DINC's had problems with video, but WOW, is it really this bad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzglMIwpYo4
I'm sure there has to be a developer that can maybe come out with a fix for this
theguy386 said:
So just browsing along I stumbled on this video review of the camera app. I knew our DINC's had problems with video, but WOW, is it really this bad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzglMIwpYo4
I'm sure there has to be a developer that can maybe come out with a fix for this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm not sure what a dev could do to fix this. it seems that the issues with the pixel density and audio aren't something that could be overcome with patching a file from another OS or even an app...
my advice is this:
if you want a better video experience, buy a dedicated video camera or a dedicated camera with video functions. as a phone, it's a balancing act. you're not gonna get the best of ALL worlds, but including hardware and features for things like recording video in 720p is pretty handy and convenient when you're caught without a dedicated camera or video device. i wouldn't rely 100% on my phone as my primary device for anything except phone calls. but to each their own
That video showed me at least one new thing: I didn't realize that with 2.2 and 720p recording, H.264 isn't available. With H.264 selected, the highest available resolution drops to WVGA (800x480). Only H.263 and MPEG4 are available in 720p. Does anyone know if this is true on other Froyo devices, like the Nexus One? Or did something get changed when 2.2 went through HTC?
Perhaps the OP is right, I think that with a software update of some kind, H.264 for 720p could be enabled on the Droid Incredible, as well as higher bitrate audio. The OP's video suggests those two things to be major reasons as to why the camcorder quality is so different. Anyone know if Cyanogen is working on 720p H.264 as well as his continuous autofocus awesomeness?
Of course the actual optics are a bit different between the two devices as well, but I'd like to think the Droid Incredible has a better camera than those camera tests seem to show.
chameleon131 said:
That video showed me at least one new thing: I didn't realize that with 2.2 and 720p recording, H.264 isn't available. With H.264 selected, the highest available resolution drops to WVGA (800x480). Only H.263 and MPEG4 are available in 720p. Does anyone know if this is true on other Froyo devices, like the Nexus One? Or did something get changed when 2.2 went through HTC?
Perhaps the OP is right, I think that with a software update of some kind, H.264 for 720p could be enabled on the Droid Incredible, as well as higher bitrate audio. The OP's video suggests those two things to be major reasons as to why the camcorder quality is so different. Anyone know if Cyanogen is working on 720p H.264 as well as his continuous autofocus awesomeness?
Of course the actual optics are a bit different between the two devices as well, but I'd like to think the Droid Incredible has a better camera than those camera tests seem to show.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'll ask my friends with other devices that are capable of 720p and see what they say, will post findings
EDIT: samsung captivate doesn't have encoding settings. we didn't record a video to see what it saved it as, either. but there is no option in the settings to change encoding, only resolution.
chameleon131 said:
That video showed me at least one new thing: I didn't realize that with 2.2 and 720p recording, H.264 isn't available. With H.264 selected, the highest available resolution drops to WVGA (800x480). Only H.263 and MPEG4 are available in 720p. Does anyone know if this is true on other Froyo devices, like the Nexus One? Or did something get changed when 2.2 went through HTC?
Perhaps the OP is right, I think that with a software update of some kind, H.264 for 720p could be enabled on the Droid Incredible, as well as higher bitrate audio. The OP's video suggests those two things to be major reasons as to why the camcorder quality is so different. Anyone know if Cyanogen is working on 720p H.264 as well as his continuous autofocus awesomeness?
Of course the actual optics are a bit different between the two devices as well, but I'd like to think the Droid Incredible has a better camera than those camera tests seem to show.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been thinking the same thing. I even posted about changing the codec but no one responded.
I was reading on the evo forum about the camera software and several posters suspected that the compression is what is making the video not as good as it could be. They also had the same thought about enabling h.264.
I would definitively pay for these features.
kdog78
Virtuous v3.0 - Evo Camera App
Unrevoked Forever
Hydra Kernel #1 Overclocked Undervolted 1.15ghz v1.0
You bought a cell phone? What do you expect? ITS NOT GONNA HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA/CAMCORDER BUILT IN!!!!!! Get over it... If you want high quality then buy a standalone camcorder. Phones weren't made to take great videos. They are more for like a quick need thing. Maybe you see some cops doing something underhanded, see some kind of crime in progress, stupid things that happen at a party that you feel are important, etc.
TNS201 said:
You bought a cell phone? What do you expect? ITS NOT GONNA HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA/CAMCORDER BUILT IN!!!!!! Get over it... If you want high quality then buy a standalone camcorder. Phones weren't made to take great videos. They are more for like a quick need thing. Maybe you see some cops doing something underhanded, see some kind of crime in progress, stupid things that happen at a party that you feel are important, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah pretty much what i was going to say
I thought XDA was about getting the most out of your device through tips, tricks, tweaks and hacks, and that it's been that way for some time. Maybe I'm mistaken.
I think trying to squeeze the best performance out of your device's camera is perfectly legit, OP.
Am I wrong?
----------------------------
Anyway, that's weird and seems pretty pitiful that the Captivate won't even let you change the codec setting at all. Better for user experience I suppose, not to have to mess with codecs to try to get the best picture. I'm curious what codec it defaults to. I wonder what a comparison between the Captivate and Incredible camcorder would look like.
The camera indeed has some problem on the Incredible. My incredible will flicker in low light condition even in camera mode. I had to return and exchange one, but the problem is still there just less severe.
TNS201 said:
You bought a cell phone? What do you expect? ITS NOT GONNA HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA/CAMCORDER BUILT IN!!!!!! Get over it... If you want high quality then buy a standalone camcorder. Phones weren't made to take great videos. They are more for like a quick need thing. Maybe you see some cops doing something underhanded, see some kind of crime in progress, stupid things that happen at a party that you feel are important, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the power this phone possesses, the video sucks. I would not only expect it to be better, but use the latest codecs and not amr audio and save files in .3gp! What good is high def video if I can't play it on my Xbox or PS3, or other media boxes?. That's a joke. I think as long as the iPhone can do it, maybe Droid should.
I didn't buy a cell phone. I bought a multi-hundred dollar smartphone with an 8mp camera that BOASTS 720p video. If I bought a RAZR I would accept it.
I found your post rude and unhelpful.

[Q] Video capture quality on the G2..

All the video samples from the G2 I have seen on Youtube so far have not been impressive. Most disturbing about these videos is the sound quality, it is pretty bad. I have a Nexus One (hacked with Cyanogenmod's 720p recording feature) and it also isn't that great so I'm guessing this is a 'feature' of HTC phones. Compared to the Galaxy S (from Samsung) the HTC phones (G2, N1 and even the EVO) seem to suck in the video / audio department.
In a recent post I read that the audio codec for a HD recording off the G2 is this:
AMR (samr), Mono, 8k, 32 bits per sample
Could this be the problem and can this be changed?
AMR == Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio Codec. Dunno what the "s" in "samr" is all about tho.
I see a comparison with the nokia 8 and there is a definite sound quality difference. (Be sure to watch this in 720p)
Wonder if the sample rate is adjustable by firmware/settings or if it's set in hardware. Strangely wikipedia lists 14 modes, none of which are at the "8k" (rate?) you reported... I see AMR_7.95 tho.
Anyway, my g2 is on the way....
W
cowmixtoo said:
AMR (samr), Mono, 8k, 32 bits per sample
Could this be the problem and can this be changed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, yeah that's pretty bad.. 8k.
ericc191 said:
Wow, yeah that's pretty bad.. 8k.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, my watch can do better..
I just confirmed that my N1 encodes audio in the exact same format.
cowmixtoo said:
I just confirmed that my N1 encodes audio in the exact same format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idle thought- I wonder if the codec is set to a low bandwidth to accommodate slower SD card speeds. I think the g2 comes with a class 2, and this thread suggests that there is stuttering when playing back at the HD setting.
This is just idle speculation.
http://vimeo.com/15487989
Done a couple days ago, not so much about the audio, but the video couldnt keep up.
Yup, I noticed a lot of stuttering when playing videos back too.
ericc191 said:
Yup, I noticed a lot of stuttering when playing videos back too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What SD card?
Agreed. Audio isn't stellar and playback has stuttering. In fact, I've already experienced a weird situation where the video wouldn't actually play - just showed a blank screen with the audio playing.
I love this phone, but the video / audio / picture quality on my Sprint Epic is far superior.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
VValdo said:
What SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8GB Class 6 Transcend. It usually transfers up to 7mb/ps, so definitely not the issue.
ericc191 said:
8GB Class 6 Transcend. It usually transfers up to 7mb/ps, so definitely not the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn thought it might be it... well what else causes stuttering? Not buffering enough... or maybe cpu being pulled to do something else..?
Is there any message from logcat when it's stuttering?
Meanwhile, I'm looking at the video camera source to see if there's any way to change the audio bitrate...
Lines ~230:
Code:
for (AudioEncoderCap encoder : EncoderCapabilities.getAudioEncoders()) {
switch (encoder.mCodec) {
case MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB:
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("amrnb", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
break;
case MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC:
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("aac", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC);
break;
}
}
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.putDefault(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.DEFAULT);
/*
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("amrwb", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_WB);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("qcelp", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.QCELP);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("evrc", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.EVRC);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("aacplus", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC_PLUS);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("eaacplus", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.EAAC_PLUS);
*/
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("1280x720", 6000000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("720x480", 3000000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("800x480", 3000000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("640x480", 1600000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("352x288", 360000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("320x240", 320000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("176x144", 192000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.putDefault(320000);
}
The video bitrate is right there.. how do you change the audio I wonder....? And what's up with the commented-out bits...
Maybe I'll try to get this running... I have no g2 yet to try it on but will soon.
W
One more thought... This is an old issue. If you doubt the potential the video camera COULD have, take a look at this audio comparison linked from the thread. At least on the n1, the microphone is capable of way better sound than the camera app currently offers. The g2 has a faster processor-- it should be able to encode better sound.. AAC? Ogg?
Update: It's not the camera app's fault. It's Android's. There is an open issue for this. It looks like Android itself doesn't support anything better. The good news is this isn't a hardware limitation. As someone suggested, a WebM encoder seems like an obvious thing to add.
VValdo said:
One more thought... This is an old issue. If you doubt the potential the video camera COULD have, take a look at this audio comparison linked from the thread. At least on the n1, the microphone is capable of way better sound than the camera app currently offers. The g2 has a faster processor-- it should be able to encode better sound.. AAC? Ogg?
Update: It's not the camera app's fault. It's Android's. There is an open issue for this. It looks like Android itself doesn't support anything better. The good news is this isn't a hardware limitation. As someone suggested, a WebM encoder seems like an obvious thing to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's a plus.
VValdo said:
One more thought... This is an old issue. If you doubt the potential the video camera COULD have, take a look at this audio comparison linked from the thread. At least on the n1, the microphone is capable of way better sound than the camera app currently offers. The g2 has a faster processor-- it should be able to encode better sound.. AAC? Ogg?
Update: It's not the camera app's fault. It's Android's. There is an open issue for this. It looks like Android itself doesn't support anything better. The good news is this isn't a hardware limitation. As someone suggested, a WebM encoder seems like an obvious thing to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow amazing! i really hope we can fix this issue
I just starred the issue (they look at that don't they?)... I recorded some video at a concert last night and while the video wasn't terrible, the sound is absolutely unbearable. Makes the videos pretty much worthless
I keep wondering if it's possible to stuff our own codec in there. I mean, some of the android phones have higher quality audio, right? If so, how do they do it? Why are those codecs commented out in the video camera code for...?
Doesn't cyanogenmod have FLAC support? Couldn't other codecs be added to the phone app, even if they're in java?
You're right, the current audio situation sucks.

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