Develop Bugs

Looking for optimized video recording setup

Hello folks,
I tried to record decent 1080p video on my SGSII. Turned out that really gets a problem.
My device runs on Android 4.0.3 (IML74.XXLPQ) in combination with the Siyah kernel (3.0.32-Siyah-v3.2.5.2+ [email protected] #113). Secondrom is some CM9 ROM.
First, I just tried the stock Samsung camera app, but I can't work with the refocusing. Seems impossible to turn off the autofocus.
Besides that, the automatic white balance is crap. When I run through, wearing an orange shirt, it fu**s up the white balance and the picture gets a blue tint for a few seconds. Presets aren't the best, too.
I tried the ICS camera (while using CM9 secondrom). Same problems, but video stops recording after 16 minutes or so, and it doesn't proceed. I mean, what the f**k?
At this point, I'm looking for a camera app that:
- (optionally) has manual white balance (for me to set it using a white sheet of paper).
- can set the focus to fixed.
- records as long as I want it to, until the memory is full or I interrupt it. (When hitting 4GB, it will have to split, but it should automatically continue recording).
That was when I started looking for good camera apps. I tried some, and the best I could find until now was lgCamera. I used the free variant.
It works mostly like I want it to, though I have to set the white balance to some fixed setting. Focuses and fixes it. Everything seems to be okay.
Then it continuously stopped recording, after 4:17 minutes (@30Mbit/s), or after 1:32 minutes (@100Mbit/s). Looking at the files, it only uses 765 MB before stopping. Remember, it has to run as long as I don't stop it and there's memory left!
Of course, I used the free version, but the Play Store says:
Free version limitations:
-sometimes program shows BUYME dialog.
-program icon with red label FREE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the Pro version, but it keeps stopping.
BUT not enough with stopping recording! lgCamera also freezes some times. Especially while recording at 100Mbit/s (usind only 65) when stopping, it just freezes to death, leaving the phone unusable and I have to reboot. Yup, I waited whole 15 minutes, before I rebooted. I also saw how it worked like it should. Very slow when stopped, but hey, no freezes.
At this point, the app also should:
- never freeze! (Can't be that hard to find for an ex-mainstream phone...)
In addition to all that what I mentioned above, the phone loses battery like hell, of course. So I also look for a ROM which is very stable (!) and also very battery-saving while not limiting power used by the video recording app.
Aaand... And this one is a huge bummer... Absolutely every app with which I recorded produces unbelievable crappy framerates!
I set it to 30fps and I get random sh*t between 25 and 32 fps. This is a big downside, because I really get problems working with it in Adobe Premiere/After Effects and also encoding it. Even if I encode it to a “real” framerate, which all editing programs understand, it's still async!
So after I collected hours and hours of material, I don't really want to encode (assuming it would work) every single video (of whose every single one has a different framerate!), because it would take ages (and, of course, the encoding will cost a little quality)!
At this point, it has to:
- have conform fps output (29.970 or 30.000) or at least another fps which stays the same in every video!
- run on a stable, battery-saving ROM.
I don't need any other apps besides the recording one, because I will edit the video on my computer.
If you have read all this, I hope you also help me out.
Which ROM should I use as a pure video recording ROM?
Which app is a stable one for use on the SGSII and has the features I mentioned above?
Do you have any tips for me, how to get the perfect video?
I really hope anyone will help me with this.
Thanks in advance!

Great post.
I will be recording a conference using my SGS2 but, its a long video and I wanted to recorded without crashing the app after I stop the record as it happen using the deffault camera with ICS 4.0.3

Nice post.
I'm looking for exactly what you had written especially a camera application that can automatically resume recording after it reach 4Gb file limit.
I tried several program such as IgCamera and others application but it won't work.
After googling around and spend about a few hours, I found some methods that might workaround this issue.
A. Month External_sd card to NTFS.
This method might workaround 4Gb limit problem for FAT file system and with this I think that Camera application may not automatically stop when recording video file reach their limit.
From camera behavior , It seem that camera application can record video at maximum size upon maximum size of current file system.
Then , I suggest that if event "Reach max file size" occurred , android system whose monitor events will send some signal and command to stop camera application.
So if I can month external_sd card with NTFS file system , I can workaround this issue.
Unfortunately , After I read several topic and spend a few hours to find out how to month NTFS on my android device.
I'm still no luck . I got "fuse device is missing try modprobe fuse as root" and I read somewhere on internet,
someone said that this message may telling me that my kernel won't support the NTFS month.
Now I'm going to move forward to another kernel that have capable of month NTFS as native and trying to month external_sd in NTFS format in a few day.
B. Modify Camera.apk
This method can workaround 4Gb limit problem for FAT file system If you could modify camera.apk.
by modifying method that will be called when recording file reach 4Gb file limit, adding a few line of code to start a new record automatically. I think that this might work.
Some of xda member (Potatoman and rafalense), had successfully modified bitrate and audio sampling rate of camera application
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1104051)
They grab some camera application for their phone , decompile binary source into .class to locate a sample rate of video. After they found an integer that represent a sample rate of video, they made another decompile binary source into a file called ".smali" with a lot less understandable than a class file then edit it and recompile the program.
But, This method won't only just modify a sample rate of video, we needed to modify some part of method.
Since modify Camera application won't easy like sample rate, you needed to grab your camera application from your phone, decompile a binary source, unsign , sign , compile and etc and it is a long story. So I decided to move to another method.
C. Automatic touch simulate program by period.
This workaround work without modify any of your file format , kernel or anything.
If you could find some application to trig the record button after some period of time. So file size limit event won't occur anymore.
Only concern about this method is automatic touch simulate program may not survive long enough to trig the record button for all day.
I'm finding these kind of application and if anyone whose read this topic and know these kind of application , please let me know.
D. Compile your Camera application from Opensource
This is a last method I will ever choose. This is a really hard method but really easy to explain.
This method is about download sourcecode of your rom , edit camera application at the first place then complie it yourself. Since I din't complete reading a guide for compile a rom , I suggest that inorder to make modified camera application work , you may need to compile all of rom.
From my phone manufacturer(samsung), they had released some sourcecode of for Galaxy S2 ICS ROM
For anyone whose interest please find it in the link below.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Update
Hi , all
I just successfully found a workaround for video file size limit issue.
This workaround is based on approach C. Automatic touch simulate program by period and it also need a root access.
All credit goes to Yahor Paulavets from
http://softteco.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-low-level-shell-click-on-screen.html
To complete this workaround , I write some shell script that send a low-level script via Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) to stop video recording then send the same command again to start new record before its size reach 4 Gb. After finished writing shell script, I use terminal editor (with root access) to run this script when I start recording video.
That sound easy, but in fact, you need to capture a "touch event" with have difference signature based on the device.
Yahor Paulavets write some great article which explain how to capture this signature in the link below
http://softteco.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-clickonscreenxy-shell-script.html
____________________________________________________________________________________
Below are list of related topic that might help you
[1] Is there anyway around the 4GB video recording limit?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1140483
[2] How to mount NTFS or EXT4 format microSD to tab
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1552674
[3] [MOD] Hacked Camera.APK for better audio quality, usage with any battery life & MORE!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1104051
[4] App for long video recording
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1471449
[5] How can I bypass the 4gb limit on filesizes for HD Recording?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1130973
[6] Month ExternalSD Card to NTFS for Android
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15167790&postcount=41
[7] Samsung opensource
http://opensource.samsung.com

video recording - 4GB limit

Hello.
Is it possibile recoder more 4GB size videos?
I've tryied with default camera app, but record stops after 4GB (about 33 minutes at 1080p).
I've tryied both on internal memory and 64 GB microsd class 10 (formatted in EXFAT).
How can i remove this limit?
Thanks

I think using an external sd card formatted in ext3/4

exfat supports files larger than 4GB so its not a file system limit.
Might be a firmware limit, something can be modified in the build props maybe ?

I think there's a 32 bit limit in the H.264 codec or MP4 container spec that causes this limit.

I just wonder how on Earth you need to record for +30 minutes/4 Gb video.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2485063

Thanks. So, no solution with default app camera?
The only solution is open camera?
Thankd

Hi, don't know exactly what open camera does, but if it stops and restarts automatically (that's what I read), there's a better solution.
On the G4, camera fv-5 has no recording limit (one file).
I recorded 1080p continuously over an hour at 34mbits/s, file size around 15Gb on my external exfat 32Gb sdcard.
Sadly camera fv-5 doesn't support 4K video recording (hope it does in the near future).

bel57 said:
I just wonder how on Earth you need to record for +30 minutes/4 Gb video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WHY ? I record my whole fishing day almost every time, so if you dont use it, others maybe do.

bel57 said:
I just wonder how on Earth you need to record for +30 minutes/4 Gb video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uses are many: road trip, family preparing the Christmas tree or just gathering, fixing something in your car / home then editing and uploading to YouTube to help others, framelapses *with sound*, session with grandma talking about ancestors, are just a few examples.
That's how on earth.
The fact you don't do these things doesn't keep others from doing them.

I just hit the same problem as it divided my video into 4 segments
So no solution for this i guess?
It look liked it collected the 4 into one file but when i sent it to youtube it only sent one segment of the total. *Sigh*
---------- Post added at 04:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:59 PM ----------
Anyone knows how one can change the camera on the fly? Seems facebook can do it so why not the camera program?
Even my old Note 2 could do that feature.

Okay so I tested it with Open Camera to see if it was Android itself or the Stock Camera App. And Open Camera just continues to record I made a 14,5 GB file recording. So... The problem of cause is Open Camera have other issues like not wanting to record in 60 frames. So I'm going to delete it again and go back to stock so not to be confused with 2 Camera programs.
So I found a solution for gluing the video files together easy - the free Program is called AviDemux and it is very easy to just glue it all together and quickly have a file ready. It seems to just fix them together without recoding it all which can take a long time and I tried another free program, openshot which took a very long time to recode it all and had issues with the sound. You need to set it up by Frames and so forth and some times you just don't get the same number of Frames Per Second when recording on the mobile.
But AviDemux did it nicely - very nice program for doing it - you just load the first main file *Control O* and then attach one file after another to and let it fly. Control A to attach another file.
Output MP4V2 muxer or Mkv muxer

Remove 4k limitation time

hi guy's...i have a question for the expert's or programmer's who know what they say/do: is there any solution/mod to remove the 5 mins limit of recording 4K video?
Because, i want a longer video with this resolution and this thing like they are is not enough...my phone doesnt heat up because i do the thermal compoud mod in my phone and they run cooler than a freezer so i dont have that problem, even when i record in 4K the max temps i have is around 62º degrees so i want to expand this function to no limit of time recording.
if are anything to do this i want to know...
thanks

You could try a third party app and the only reason that there is a time limit, it is because it would overheat to much the cpu

Will we finally be able to choose h.265 for UHD video recording compression?

Even last gen Exynos supported it, I believe. Not sure about Snapdragon.
Would save a lot of space on the NAS...

"Can do it" and "can do it with all resolutions in real time" are different things. Capturing 4k/60 in real time with HEVC is still a chore for most GPUs even with hardware acceleration, not to mention the 960fps stuff that the S9 will be doing. It's possible, but I would not take bets on it.
You can always convert the stuff on your NAS to HEVC with ffmpeg. Any recent GPU can hardware accelerate the process pretty well. I convert stuff all the time with the nVidia GTX 1050 in my media server, converting an hour long 1080p video to HEVC takes about 5-7 minutes (4k takes about half an hour per hour). I have a script that runs against a folder and drops the results into where I store my videos.

Illrigger said:
"Can do it" and "can do it with all resolutions in real time" are different things. Capturing 4k/60 in real time with HEVC is still a chore for most GPUs even with hardware acceleration, not to mention the 960fps stuff that the S9 will be doing. It's possible, but I would not take bets on it.
You can always convert the stuff on your NAS to HEVC with ffmpeg. Any recent GPU can hardware accelerate the process pretty well. I convert stuff all the time with the nVidia GTX 1050 in my media server, converting an hour long 1080p video to HEVC takes about 5-7 minutes (4k takes about half an hour per hour). I have a script that runs against a folder and drops the results into where I store my videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[email protected] is almost guaranteed to use HEVC (H.265) because it would take up so much storage. The GPU and ISP/DSP in the Snapdragon 845 and Exynossupport native HEVC encoding/decoding - if Apple can do it so can Samsung.
I mean, using the ZeroMod on my Snapdragon S7 Edge, I can encode all video modes in HEVC anyway so that shouldn't be an issue

Illrigger said:
"Can do it" and "can do it with all resolutions in real time" are different things. Capturing 4k/60 in real time with HEVC is still a chore for most GPUs even with hardware acceleration, not to mention the 960fps stuff that the S9 will be doing. It's possible, but I would not take bets on it.
You can always convert the stuff on your NAS to HEVC with ffmpeg. Any recent GPU can hardware accelerate the process pretty well. I convert stuff all the time with the nVidia GTX 1050 in my media server, converting an hour long 1080p video to HEVC takes about 5-7 minutes (4k takes about half an hour per hour). I have a script that runs against a folder and drops the results into where I store my videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which software and nvidia driver version do you use ? ffmpeg directly ? using cuda nvencoder ?

tiliarou said:
Which software and nvidia driver version do you use ? ffmpeg directly ? using cuda nvencoder ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use ffmpeg with the nvenc command string. Quality isn't perfect, but the 66% size reduction is worth it.

Mod for using the Super Slow Mo ( 960fps ) embeded into a Slow mo (240fps ) capture

Hi,
I'm not sure to be in the right section of the forum ( I feel a little lost as my wish concern S/Note9 and S/Note10 family ) but my idea would be to enhance the super slow mo with the "slower" one in order to reduce the potential triggering timing error : example with a golfer, if the capture start only after the second half of the swing it would be less annoying if you would have 240 fps before and after instead of the few seconds with classical frame rate.
I guess it is harder than the "S10 multi take" mod by XML data file but maybe not too hard as I'm not a magician of the coding :crying::crying::crying:
Technicaly I don't think there is HW problem as the phone can capture "indefinitively" in 240fps : there is no memory buffer limitation instead of Super Slow Mo 2Go ISOCELL
Thanks by advance

bentsh33 said:
Hi,
I'm not sure to be in the right section of the forum ( I feel a little lost as my wish concern S/Note9 and S/Note10 family ) but my idea would be to enhance the super slow mo with the "slower" one in order to reduce the potential triggering timing error : example with a golfer, if the capture start only after the second half of the swing it would be less annoying if you would have 240 fps before and after instead of the few seconds with classical frame rate.
I guess it is harder than the "S10 multi take" mod by XML data file but maybe not too hard as I'm not a magician of the coding :crying::crying::crying:
Technicaly I don't think there is HW problem as the phone can capture "indefinitively" in 240fps : there is no memory buffer limitation instead of Super Slow Mo 2Go ISOCELL
Thanks by advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, or probably time extension for super slow mo will be great mod too : for example from 0.2s 960fps to 0.3s