Develop Bugs

[Q] cyanogen mod on S4. Camera photo quality downgraded?

Well I'm gonna get straight to the point. Cyanogenmod has downgraded the camera on my Galaxy S4. Photos are significantly noisier and overall lacking in the photo department. I went to Best buy to compare a stock S4 to my CyanogenMod S4 and right there and then my worries were confirmed. Is there any way to keep cyanogen mod and get back the awesome camera quality of the stock S4? The camera downgrade is really getting on my last nerve.
It was the CyanogenMod installed through the play store BTW..

You got a few options
1) ditch CM all together, and use a GPE rom. This is AOSP built by samsung and google. It does not have any of the issues CM has.
now.. some "RDs" on this site insist that the GPE edition roms are TW based, simply because they use the same kernels - this is not true. An adroid 4.3 kernel will work on a 4.3 rom, be it touchwiz, or aosp, and same with Android 4.4
I personally run VirginROM 2.5.4 with a custom kernel that is not allowed on XDA, and my stability is 100%, battery life lasts about 2 or so day with moderate use, and audio/video (what there kernels are known for) rock. These kernels do not overclock, but excel over others that do overclock when it comes to performance.
2) compile the focal camera app yourself and deal with all the CM issues, flaws, and "hybrid" merges...
3) purchased/download a 3rd party app from the google play store

shadowcandy said:
Well I'm gonna get straight to the point. Cyanogenmod has downgraded the camera on my Galaxy S4. Photos are significantly noisier and overall lacking in the photo department. I went to Best buy to compare a stock S4 to my CyanogenMod S4 and right there and then my worries were confirmed. Is there any way to keep cyanogen mod and get back the awesome camera quality of the stock S4? The camera downgrade is really getting on my last nerve.
It was the CyanogenMod installed through the play store BTW..
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First off, no kidding. This did not need a new thread to be discussed. There are literally a thousand posts abotu camera quality with CM ROMS on the various S4 variant forums. Any search at all would have shown you the answer. Here's an example with posts from less than a week ago that explains this throughly.
Second, if this gets on your last nerve, get rid of CM and return to stock. This is the price of using CM. The camera isn't as good. Complaining about it and acting like CM owes you a better camera is downright rude to the CM team who gives you their ROM for free out of a desire to give a gift to the world. They don't owe you a thing.
The short version to your question abotu getting the CM camera back is simply no.
The long version is...
The issue with the camera in AOSP ROMS is that the stock TouchWiz camera has all kinds of proprietary software driving it. That software is built into different parts of the rom and absolutely requires the TouchWiz framework to run. (Which is also proprietary). You can't just pull the APK out of TouchWiz and install it on AOSP.
So there is no way to get the stock TW camera to run on any AOSP rom.
This means that any other app that is using the camera is using generic software to run the camera hardware. This leaves out the ability to do things that the TW software was specifically written to do like crisp auto focus and color depth and all those goodies that make the TW camera better. All that software was written specificly for the S4 hardware.
The Cyanogen camera or the Google stock camera is just an app using generic software not written specificly for this phone's camera hardware. That's no different than ANY other camera you can find on Google Play. They are ALL using generic software.
As a result, none of them are every going to be as crisp as the TouchWiz camera software. They almost all still take a really good picture with this phone, and many give various effects you might enjoy, but if you are looking the actual stock camera app that takes a higher resolution, better focused picture than the CM camera, you're not going to be able to do it.
Even with all that, the S4 camera hardware with CM camera software It's still better than most other phones on the market.
At the end of the day, it's not a camera that makes phone calls. It's a phone that has a camera in it. If photography is that big of a deal to you, you're never going to be happy with anything other than a true SLR. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you. But please stop complaining about the quality of the free ROM that har dworking developers put together in their spare time and gave to you as a gift with no questions or strings atatched.

Well Said !!
I appreciate the way you explained. :good:
Skipjacks said:
First off, no kidding. This did not need a new thread to be discussed. There are literally a thousand posts abotu camera quality with CM ROMS on the various S4 variant forums. Any search at all would have shown you the answer. Here's an example with posts from less than a week ago that explains this throughly.
Second, if this gets on your last nerve, get rid of CM and return to stock. This is the price of using CM. The camera isn't as good. Complaining about it and acting like CM owes you a better camera is downright rude to the CM team who gives you their ROM for free out of a desire to give a gift to the world. They don't owe you a thing.
The short version to your question abotu getting the CM camera back is simply no.
The long version is...
The issue with the camera in AOSP ROMS is that the stock TouchWiz camera has all kinds of proprietary software driving it. That software is built into different parts of the rom and absolutely requires the TouchWiz framework to run. (Which is also proprietary). You can't just pull the APK out of TouchWiz and install it on AOSP.
So there is no way to get the stock TW camera to run on any AOSP rom.
This means that any other app that is using the camera is using generic software to run the camera hardware. This leaves out the ability to do things that the TW software was specifically written to do like crisp auto focus and color depth and all those goodies that make the TW camera better. All that software was written specificly for the S4 hardware.
The Cyanogen camera or the Google stock camera is just an app using generic software not written specificly for this phone's camera hardware. That's no different than ANY other camera you can find on Google Play. They are ALL using generic software.
As a result, none of them are every going to be as crisp as the TouchWiz camera software. They almost all still take a really good picture with this phone, and many give various effects you might enjoy, but if you are looking the actual stock camera app that takes a higher resolution, better focused picture than the CM camera, you're not going to be able to do it.
Even with all that, the S4 camera hardware with CM camera software It's still better than most other phones on the market.
At the end of the day, it's not a camera that makes phone calls. It's a phone that has a camera in it. If photography is that big of a deal to you, you're never going to be happy with anything other than a true SLR. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you. But please stop complaining about the quality of the free ROM that har dworking developers put together in their spare time and gave to you as a gift with no questions or strings atatched.
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Find 7 and questions about Oppo phones?

why on earth did they not launch this phone with Kitkat?
anyway I have a question regarding Oppo's software support, is it good? will they quickly update Find 7 to Kitkat? I have heard that Oppo's software are rather somewhat unreliable, is it true?
about Color OS, is it good? is it full of bloatwares or not? how deep is the customization?
will Find 7 have official Cyanogenmod support? how about other custom ROMs?
thanks for answering!

Oppo listen very much to their user base and they will update it to KitKat. You can flash other roms to Oppo using their stock recovery, they're partnered with CyanogenMod so Cm roms should run well on their devices.
As for other custom roms, it depended on if the Dev want to develop for it or not, if you purchase a Find 7 for them, they probably will. Hint: Take a look at the Find 5 and N1 development section.
sent via tapatalk

The oppo stock recovery flashes CM. OPPO are developer friendly,they even got OMNI Mediatek sources for the R819 (not an easy feat Mediatek are NOT willing)
They did not launch with kitkat because they are still adding features (ColorOS 2.0). They do that. If you are concerned about latest android version get on a custom rom like CM from the start,because OPPO don't move up the Android version until the previous ROM is stable enough to discontinue. The ROM itself is quite nice for a manufacturer skin,not bloated at all,and has some nice features built in you really miss if you go custom,but some people just hate the colorfulness so to each their own.

Allanitomwesh said:
The oppo stock recovery flashes CM. OPPO are developer friendly,they even got OMNI Mediatek sources for the R819 (not an easy feat Mediatek are NOT willing)
They did not launch with kitkat because they are still adding features (ColorOS 2.0). They do that. If you are concerned about latest android version get on a custom rom like CM from the start,because OPPO don't move up the Android version until the previous ROM is stable enough to discontinue. The ROM itself is quite nice for a manufacturer skin,not bloated at all,and has some nice features built in you really miss if you go custom,but some people just hate the colorfulness so to each their own.
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Did you say I can just use CM from the start even without proper official version? how? which version?

nap007 said:
Did you say I can just use CM from the start even without proper official version? how? which version?
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CM will probably have builds out within a month of release...

My concern with running CM on this phone is, will it lose features? Like the 50MP super zoom mode?

Yes you'll most likely lose SuperZoom and Maxxaudio with any AOSP ROM. You'd need stock based for that.

Allanitomwesh said:
Yes you'll most likely lose SuperZoom and Maxxaudio with any AOSP ROM. You'd need stock based for that.
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what? but didn't n1 retain it's features with cyanogen?
and can't you just install specific phones apps to get it's features?

Yes, because CM built the phone with OPPO,far as I know,they're making the OnePlus One ATM. So yeah, it'll be like on Find 5 most likely.

seriousneo said:
CM will probably have builds out within a month of release...
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I haven't heard any news regarding a Cyngn partnership for the Find 7.
Remember, after last year's events, when talking about CM, there are really two different entities which are semi-connected:
CM - the original CyanogenMod open source software project. The Find5 was originally maintained by community members who were solely involved on this side of things. All of that team left for Omni as a result of the Focal relicensing fiasco (This is why the Find5 never saw official CM10.2)
Cyanogen Inc - Referred to from here on in this post as "Cyngn" - The corporate entity created by some of the Cyanogenmod leads
Cyngn was partnered with Oppo for the N1 so that Cyngn could gain experience with taking a device through GMS (Google Apps) certification. There has been little to no CM community involvement with the N1 - it's a purely Cyngn affair. All community efforts on the device are focused on other projects (Oppo sent preproduction N1s to people involved with CodefireXperiment, Omni, Paranoid Android, and a few others)
Cyngn is currently partnered with OnePlus to focus on their launch device. They aren't even putting much effort into the N1 now if you read any of the user reviews. (Both official 10.2 updates are full of bugs, and CM11 has had broken location services for two months now with not a single word from the development team.)
So the support of the Find7 by CyanogenMod is unknown and indeterminate. It will likely involve community effort if it happens, but all "community" contributors with current Oppo devices are working on other projects. Omni support is HIGHLY likely, I would not be surprised if, like the Find5 and N1, it proves to be one of Omni's best supported devices. CodefireXperiment and PA support are also highly likely (Actually I'd say pretty much guaranteed in the case of CFX, Oppo and Anders get along as well as the Omni team gets along with Oppo). (While PA usually focuses on Nexus devices, there usually have been exceptions for Oppos due to Oppo providing excellent support to Aaron from PA.)

Its the best phone out without a doubt right now .. Might even beat all new HTC one .. It's a no compromise phone .. Except speakers idk if they are good or bad .. Also you can choose your own software oppo skin or cm(later) and paranoidandroid. I'm very impressed .

returning to the color os talk, do you think it will be a long time before oppo move to kitkat based color os?
and as I asked before, is it true regarding color os instability and incompatibility with common android apps?
and I'm glad if Paranoid Android will indeed come to Find 7!

nap007 said:
returning to the color os talk, do you think it will be a long time before oppo move to kitkat based color os?
and as I asked before, is it true regarding color os instability and incompatibility with common android apps?
and I'm glad if Paranoid Android will indeed come to Find 7!
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About the apps yeah,there was a thing about Lightflow not working,but its usually a one app thing,especially if it works by identifying the phone,mostly coz OPPO is so unique. As a plus ANY Chinese app works without a hitch when they give other manufacturers incompatibility issues
Omni is confirmed,Maxwen is getting a Find 7.
Unless i'm wrong ColorOS 2.0 should be kitkat.

CHlCKEN said:
Its the best phone out without a doubt right now .. Might even beat all new HTC one .. It's a no compromise phone .. Except speakers idk if they are good or bad .. Also you can choose your own software oppo skin or cm(later) and paranoidandroid. I'm very impressed .
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Click to collapse
Well I would consider the battery a moderate compromise. 3k mah is not really sufficient for a 5.5" 2k screen. I was really hoping for 3500mah or more.
I'm wondering how the screen compares to the Note 3 OLED screen. The Note 3 has an extra .02", extra 200mah, but Samsungs OLED's aren't as efficient as SLCD's.
The batt life is the defining factor here for me and I would assume a great many others. If HTC can deliver on this, they'll take a good few percent of the upgrade market. Damn Sony for not bringing their Z2 to the US. It would dominate the tech-savvy market completely.

last time I heard the screen use new low power tech so let's wait for a review first before calling the battery is a flop.

mhl, hdmi?
Does anyone know of any video output port on this device such as HDMI or MHL or any other?

Wyzco said:
Does anyone know of any video output port on this device such as HDMI or MHL or any other?
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likely not but during the unveiling they used a find 7 to output audio using huge cable, maybe it was just a huge stereo cable though.

I heard the lower-end version Oppo Find 7a is better than Oppo Find 7 in many sectors, like screen, performance, etc. I really hope that Oppo equips this phone with that brilliant touch-less voice command just like on Moto X. It's gonna be really awesome for this phone. In fact, i think all of the new phones in 2014 should also have this feature. I mean, the real touch-less voice control when the phone is still locked. Unlike Google Nexus 5's "Ok Google" voice control that can only be used when the phone has been unlocked.

nap007 said:
likely not but during the unveiling they used a find 7 to output audio using huge cable, maybe it was just a huge stereo cable though.
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Really??? You're telling me about Audio output?
Every phone has that! Smh

nap007 said:
likely not but during the unveiling they used a find 7 to output audio using huge cable, maybe it was just a huge stereo cable though.
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Supports a bunch of wireless outputs
DLNA and Miracast off the top of my head,and Wifi Display

[Q] Will replacing the firmware impact on the camera?

Hullo
I'm looking at grabbing one of these. Seems like a great update to my HTC One M7, especially the camera.
I do, however, like replacing the firmware with something AOSP based, often CM.
I was wondering how serious the impact removing the LG firmware would have on the camera? The impact was noticeable with the HTC One so was curious if it would be the same with this.
Thanks

I've tried using other camera apps but always go back to the LG app. It really is nice.

Perhaps I've misunderstood replacing the firmware, but my understanding was that replacing the firmware also removed whatever camera specific drivers were installed as part of LG's firmware. As AOSP roms are not device specific, they don't have these same drivers to get the most out of the camera. So the camera quality would likely decrease, however this seems to differ between devices.
So I'm curious as to how much the camera is affected, if it's known at this stage.

Orb.P said:
Perhaps I've misunderstood replacing the firmware, but my understanding was that replacing the firmware also removed whatever camera specific drivers were installed as part of LG's firmware. As AOSP roms are not device specific, they don't have these same drivers to get the most out of the camera. So the camera quality would likely decrease, however this seems to differ between devices.
So I'm curious as to how much the camera is affected, if it's known at this stage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... no matter what build you have, you still need those hardware specific drivers. That's why devs can't do anything until the sources for the device are released. Those sources are merged with the main AOSP code, compiled, and you get your rom.
What you might lose is carrier stuff...like T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling.
Luckily, LG has released both the kernel and system sources, so devs can start working. The only problem is that the only version that has an unlocked bootloader is the D851 T-Mobile version.
We'll just have to wait and see now. There aren't any custom roms out yet, just modified stock G3.

The laser focus only works on the LG Camera. So there's that.

LeoRex said:
Well... no matter what build you have, you still need those hardware specific drivers. That's why devs can't do anything until the sources for the device are released. Those sources are merged with the main AOSP code, compiled, and you get your rom.
What you might lose is carrier stuff...like T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling.
Luckily, LG has released both the kernel and system sources, so devs can start working. The only problem is that the only version that has an unlocked bootloader is the D851 T-Mobile version.
We'll just have to wait and see now. There aren't any custom roms out yet, just modified stock G3.
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So when I replaced Sense with CM on my HTC One M7 was I imaging the decline in photo quality? Genuinely curious if it's just my imagination or if it's a genuine thing.

ChummyDays said:
I had the same feeling on my HTC One X, but someone made a thread showing pictures taken with the aosp camera vs sense camera, and I was impressed (there might have been one on the m7 forums as well).
I think HTC did some trickery to the camera that made it seem better, but realistically, they probably take the same pictures, but you can see for yourself: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1943160
Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk
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That's quite interesting actually. Thanks for the info.

CM 13 vs. Marshmallow

Like in the topic, which is better? CM have better performance but marshmallow is better cuz it have dual window, qslide etc.
I dont know :/ write advantages and defects of both, PLEASE!
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

CM13 IS Marshmallow you i... also, CM13 has multiwindow too. None of them has "defects". They both work great. They work so great infact that it's no longer a question of functionality but rather a question of preference.

patryk.kecik said:
Like in the topic, which is better? CM have better performance but marshmallow is better cuz it have dual window, qslide etc.
I dont know :/ write advantages and defects of both, PLEASE!
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean CM vs LG Stock? Currently stock. CM13 still has a lot of bugs + way worse camera (in terms of functions)

davebugyi said:
You mean CM vs LG Stock? Currently stock. CM13 still has a lot of bugs + way worse camera (in terms of functions)
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Click to collapse
Except, it doesn't have "a lot of bugs". It has "some" bugs, most of which you won't even notice, as any ROM out there has, even official OEM ones. The camera is a non-issue as you can easily find apps in the Play Store that have even more functionality than LG's stock camera app.

nitrous² said:
Except, it doesn't have "a lot of bugs". It has "some" bugs, most of which you won't even notice, as any ROM out there has, even official OEM ones. The camera is a non-issue as you can easily find apps in the Play Store that have even more functionality than LG's stock camera app.
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Click to collapse
Well I tried it a week ago exactly. That build had more than just "some bugs". App wise you are right, there is Proshot and Camera FV-5. But you mean CM13 now also has a working laser focus, spectrum sensor and long exposure for the camera?

What about qslide? Is it available on cm 13? And which camera app is better than lg stock camera or cm13 camera? And what about lg apps? I mean calendar, smart notice, quick remote. Its important for me.
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

I you don't care about camera quality: CM13 all the way. But if you care, forget CM13. Camera it's just horrible. Photos with horrible quality, not so many options, strange ratio, etc.
I've tried CM13 one day after use stock MM for almost a month (the seven version) and returned to stock because camera.

I completely agree. CM 13 is an amazing project but I think that is a little bit unfair put a young project devolped by a guy or two VS the stock one that starts from completely different conditions.
At this stage of development there is no contest simply because CM 13 has a lot of bugs and no real optimizations focused on G4 only.
All that said what I hope is to have in the future someone that works on a custom kernel cause what I see in the past is that custom ROM works perfectly only on Nexus devices but custom kernel could really improve stock experience in terms of fluidity and battery life without losing features that comes only with stock ROM (e.g. camera or dual window).

I would have 5.1 or Android 6.0 over CM 13 any day. I use quick circle case so dont want to lose awesome feature to give up
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

How does having the released mi5s kernel help in the camera department?

Hi.
I'm using EU MIUI 7.3.30 and it's not bad, but I would much prefer using a non-MIUI ROM such a LineageOS.
However, all the AOSP variants using the stock kernel (LOS,RR...) until now have had mediocre to faulty camera implementations and I've tested many camera apps at that - Piximod mark IV, stock LOS, stock RR, Google camera, a better camera, open camera, manual camera... None of them are able to hold a candle to the stock camera app under MIUI in terms of having everything (video,RAW,HDR,panorama...) working flawlessly under one app.
I'm not even sure if this will change now that we have the released kernel for the mi5s, so please help me understand the following:
1. Does having the released kernel potentially help in getting a better camera experience under LOS, RR or a similar ROM versus using the stock kernel from MIUI? How so?
2. Does having the released kernel potentially help in porting the stock MIUI camera app under LOS/RR?
3. Does having the released kernel potentially help in getting a *better* camera implementation than currently under stock camera app MIUI by better utilizing the camera2API (from my understanding the stock camera app in MIUI doesn't use V2 of the camera API)?
4. Does having the released kernel potentially allow one to port the Pixel camera app?
Thanks all

I think you should create this thread into the Question & Answer Section.
But for your question regarding the kernels and implementation for los / rr, yes indeed it'll help for dev to use new released kernel from xiaomi, since the kernel is made specifically for mi5s hardware optimization and function.
Yes and yes, the bottom line is the kernel will give us huge advantage rather than use stock kernel like we use right now if we use los / rr, for the camera of course there will be some improvements, not only the camera, fingerprint, ambient display, multi touch, etc will improve.

As far as I understand the source doesnt contain every information.
Open source sounds cool yeah. But take Amazons FireTV as an example. There is a source code available because of GPL, however they only share the source of the stuff they have to share and nothing else. So source doesnt mean, the source code of everything.
As a better example you can take the Google Pixel. You would expect that the VERY Android device itself should have source code of everything available. Like the Google Camera Software and algorithm that could be used for the Mi5S since both share the same Sony Sensor. Sounds awesome right? Sadly Google, doesn't share this particular piece of source code/drivers.
And when I talked with LuK about source, he was not very optimistic. It is because the Qualcomm Fingerprint reader is also closed. Which is why he said "Qfp will still be a mess"
So.. Long story short. It will still be a custom rom with its disadvantages. But I believe that it will contribute a lot in terms of stability. Phone calling , no force closes and sudden reboots.
I mean after all these years on xda , everyone should already got used to "everything works. Stable build. not working : camera etc"
This will not change I think. In fact it will get more complicated and the list of troublesome things will get longer as phones get more and more features with closed source. Fingerprint reader is such a thing for instance. and More advanced sensors in the future etc..
So there are two options:
1) Either you stick with your current phone and try to make it work and live with its downsides. Maybe after 3 to 5 years, almost everything will be supported or maybe not. Although by then the phone will most likely be obsolete and any 100$ phone will beat it.
Go back 5 years. Would you still bother with a Samsung Galaxy S2 or S3?
2) Just get a phone that has proper company support from the start and use the phone at its full potential right away. Like the Google Pixel. However it costs more. So you have to weigh the Pros and Cons. Do you want to spend more money or more time and headaches. Everyone has to make a decision there.
As for me: I know that I drop and break expensive stuff. So I buy cheap phones. xD