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..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse

[Q] [Q/DISCUSSION] Camera Slo-Mo 240FPS

I got really exited about the new OP Three, there are just a few aspects I don't like, one of them being 120fps filming instead of 240fps. I'm a complete noob, but I'm trying to inderstand why it can't record 240fps videos. As far as I know, our processor (SD820) can manage 240fps (see S7/G5), and I guess our camera sensor can too (IMX298), but I couldn't find that information.
Anyway, previously I was interested in getting slow motion on a DSLR camera (Canon EOS 700D), but I found some reasons why it would't be possible: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/in...r0ic25ieqeee0&topic=11570.msg113776#msg113776
I know there are lots of differences between a smartphone and a DSLR camera, but what I found interesting was this:
3. The internal buses that move the raw data from the sensor to the image processors can't handle that much data (1920*1080*14bit*60fps = 1.7 Gigabits per second)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP3 can record [email protected] video, which would require 3840×2160×30fps=248832000 bits/s, while HD 240fps video would require 720×1280×240fps=221184000 bits/s (I'm not taking into account color depth since I assume it'd be the same in both cases).
Furthermore, some time ago, when camera2 api was first released, PkmX achieved 120fps and 4K on a nexus 5, which couldn't officially do that and had a far older sensor.
Since OP3 will be really developer-friendly and its sources are already available, do you think it'll be possible for developers to get 240fps, even on low res videos? Can you think of anything that could be a limitation?
Anyway, if I buy the phone eventually, I'll learn a bit about development and try to get it.
(Maybe I should mention that I found this digging into the sources, but I don't even know if it's related

iamthex said:
do you think it'll be possible for developers to get 240fps, even on low res videos? Can you think of anything that could be a limitation?
Anyway, if I buy the phone eventually, I'll learn a bit about development and try to get it.
(Maybe I should mention that I found this digging into the sources, but I don't even know if it's related
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you know the nexus 5x initially just had 120 fps and now it has a 240 fps mod, but thats due to the fact that google camera had just restricted it directly inthe apk itself, people just edited the google camera and BANG 240 fps on the nexus 5x.. oneplus3 could be a different story. i really wish it had it though, im like so close to buying this phone ! in the end i might just end up with the nexus 6p due to this feature

shriom_manerker said:
you know the nexus 5x initially just had 120 fps and now it has a 240 fps mod, but thats due to the fact that google camera had just restricted it directly inthe apk itself, people just edited the google camera and BANG 240 fps on the nexus 5x.. oneplus3 could be a different story. i really wish it had it though, im like so close to buying this phone ! in the end i might just end up with the nexus 6p due to this feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the 3. So far it's not looking good. It looks like the camera2 API implementation is broken for photos and who knows what for video.
They released some source and made a big show about it, but there is still proprietary code they haven't released and may never--they never did with the One which still has no camera2.
Might want to hold out on the 3 for things to settle and by that time the new Sony should be out with a much better sensor.

Scrawson said:
I bought the 3. So far it's not looking good. It looks like the camera2 API implementation is broken for photos and who knows what for video.
They released some source and made a big show about it, but there is still proprietary code they haven't released and may never--they never did with the One which still has no camera2.
Might want to hold out on the 3 for things to settle and by that time the new Sony should be out with a much better sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i already placed my order :\ , i read somewhere that the external apps are working with camera2 api ! i dont remember which thread in xda but its there , one person was not working, others confirmed working

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

PD root & camera (two questions)

Hi Guys,
I've gotten a PD now which replaced my S7, apart from the battery, bigger screen and 256GB storage there is not a lot better.
1. I'd at least like to have root - I've now only found one thread where someone nearly bricked his device.
But this thread is far more than 1y old - are there any news for root?
2. Camera: While I had the S7 before - I think the double camera here does not perform any better. From what I've seen this might be also related to compression.
While the Huawei camera-app does not support to change the compression ratio / quality, is there any know camera app which utilizes the double-sensor and does perform better than the Huawei app?
Thanks and regards,
Maeffjus

Maeffjus said:
Hi Guys,
I've gotten a PD now which replaced my S7, apart from the battery, bigger screen and 256GB storage there is not a lot better.
1. I'd at least like to have root - I've now only found one thread where someone nearly bricked his device.
But this thread is far more than 1y old - are there any news for root?
2. Camera: While I had the S7 before - I think the double camera here does not perform any better. From what I've seen this might be also related to compression.
While the Huawei camera-app does not support to change the compression ratio / quality, is there any know camera app which utilizes the double-sensor and does perform better than the Huawei app?
Thanks and regards,
Maeffjus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Congratulations on picking up the PD!
I own this and the note 8 and I can honestly say the camera on the PD outperforms the note camera by miles. Active shots, where either the camera or the subject are moving come out crisp.
The only reason I bought the note was because my banking apps kept saying the Huawei is using rooted firmware when it wasn't.
Performance is much smoother than the note and just all around the phone is better. I hope you find this as well, but as you use it more, I'm sure you will agree

Hi Charm,
Normally I had not abandoned the S7, but our GM came up one day with the brand new PD and said that this phone is for for me.
(in general: I'm using a company contract that I'm allowed to use it for all private things - so this is my only phone).
As per my opinion especially in low-light the P9Pro is a lot worse.
However, I'd like to know if there is an 3rd-party cam-app that can handle the two sensors.
And while you said that due to the root your software is complaining - do you have the PD or the "normal" one? And if it is the PD, how did you root it?
Regards,
Matthias

Maeffjus said:
Hi Charm,
Normally I had not abandoned the S7, but our GM came up one day with the brand new PD and said that this phone is for for me.
(in general: I'm using a company contract that I'm allowed to use it for all private things - so this is my only phone).
As per my opinion especially in low-light the P9Pro is a lot worse.
However, I'd like to know if there is an 3rd-party cam-app that can handle the two sensors.
And while you said that due to the root your software is complaining - do you have the PD or the "normal" one? And if it is the PD, how did you root it?
Regards,
Matthias
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well consider yourself lucky to be given such a nice phone for free haha!
I use full stock and even the phone is full stock. I have not rooted it, but the banking apps were saying it was rooted which is why I had to abandon it. So I have no idea how to root, but to be honest, I wouldn't root such an expensive phone.

charmz2k2 said:
Well consider yourself lucky to be given such a nice phone for free haha!
I use full stock and even the phone is full stock. I have not rooted it, but the banking apps were saying it was rooted which is why I had to abandon it. So I have no idea how to root, but to be honest, I wouldn't root such an expensive phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to root it because I then can use a NFC emulator and combine my companies key for the door and the fob used for "arrival" and "leave" in our time-tracking system from my phone.
What I have found out and what is annoying AF: My bluetooth turns of from time to time by itself. This is especially no fun since I drive in my car with handsfree at lest twice a day plus got a BT connected smartwatch. Any idea how to solve this?

Worth to buy an S9 to use LOS?

Hi all! It's time to change my old Nexus 5 and I'm looking to buy an OP6 or a S9 due to its smaller dimensions.
Thing is I don't like Samsung's personalizations as I heard it slows down very quickly.
Here in Italy I could get an used S9 for 400€. Is it worth to get it with the specific intent of using it only with LineageOS? How does it perform and what am I going to miss from stock android?
Thank you!

Jeeza said:
Hi all! It's time to change my old Nexus 5 and I'm looking to buy an OP6 or a S9 due to its smaller dimensions.
Thing is I don't like Samsung's personalizations as I heard it slows down very quickly.
Here in Italy I could get an used S9 for 400€. Is it worth to get it with the specific intent of using it only with LineageOS? How does it perform and what am I going to miss from stock android?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Performance wise, S9 performs really well upto this point. I got it since launch and there were only minor drawbacks in the launcher, which were easily removed by installing pixel launcher, and now everything feels smooth. I dont think there is a need for using LOS rom just for speed because you'll lose the great features of samsung.

kyooohei08 said:
Performance wise, S9 performs really well upto this point. I got it since launch and there were only minor drawbacks in the launcher, which were easily removed by installing pixel launcher, and now everything feels smooth. I dont think there is a need for using LOS rom just for speed because you'll lose the great features of samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which features you think I would miss the most?

Jeeza said:
Which features you think I would miss the most?
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Click to collapse
The features from your camera, I dont think gcam camera is any better than samsung stock. You would also lose any Knox related apps such as secure folder, samsung pass, etc. For me, I dont think there is a need to root now, atleast when it is still receiving software updates .

kyooohei08 said:
The features from your camera, I dont think gcam camera is any better than samsung stock. You would also lose any Knox related apps such as secure folder, samsung pass, etc. For me, I dont think there is a need to root now, atleast when it is still receiving software updates .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are u kidding? GCam is way better than samsung stock , i have s9 and Gcam installed..i know what i am talking about

Simion Catalin said:
are u kidding? GCam is way better than samsung stock , i have s9 and Gcam installed..i know what i am talking about
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you don't. Samsung's proprietary image libraries and enhancements are better than any gcam port will achieve.
Not saying gcam is bad but stock is quite a bit better on Samsung Experience compared to gcam.
also to OP: Note you probably won't be able to use the variable apeture OR the iris scanner to unlock your phone. Also as much of a meme as it is VoLTE also isn't supported on LOS.

iiyn said:
No you don't. Samsung's proprietary image libraries and enhancements are better than any gcam port will achieve.
Not saying gcam is bad but stock is quite a bit better on Samsung Experience compared to gcam.
also to OP: Note you probably won't be able to use the variable apeture OR the iris scanner to unlock your phone. Also as much of a meme as it is VoLTE also isn't supported on LOS.
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Click to collapse
so..u are saying that my eyes are ****ed up if i see that photos taken with Gcam are better in every way ..and the eyes of many others see the same results...i don`t know man...maybe is something wrong with your eyes....just saying

Simion Catalin said:
so..u are saying that my eyes are ****ed up if i see that photos taken with Gcam are better in every way ..and the eyes of many others see the same results...i don`t know man...maybe is something wrong with your eyes....just saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, pretty much. Even inside the GCam thread for the s9 there are plenty of people saying it's not as good as stock. It's one of the reasons why I haven't jumped ship from Samsung Experience yet.
Also, more vibrant color != better photos. They might LOOK better but what I look for in a smartphone camera is color accuracy. If you like saturated hdr+ overblown shots so be it, to each their own.

When i bought the S8, I was hoping that the dev comunity could after some month port an AOSP rom on it but nothing stable really happend. It's a shame because I always prefered stock roms. Then the s9 came with de Treble project and this was for me the best feature that could ever been done.
You have everything that you could wish :
- Sweet design of the galaxy serie with the infinit display and for me the most beautifull overall body design (without the f*****g notch)
- Very great battery life (it easily last the day without have to charge during the day)
- The best performances, smoothness.
- No bugs at all
I always said that the galaxy series had the most complete phones in the market. But TouchWizz was the point where i always been frustrated about. With LOS, i'm ready to say that the S9 is probably the best phone you can get on the market.
Btw, don't worry about the camera's quality. It's still good even whitout samsung's camera framework.
Peace !

Simion Catalin said:
are u kidding? GCam is way better than samsung stock , i have s9 and Gcam installed..i know what i am talking about
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Click to collapse
The GCam Im talking about is the one from gapps, not the gcam ported from pixel 2 which has HDR+ capability. I agree GCam with hdr+ is superior when it comes to contrast and details, but you dont get it when you are in LOS. That's what Im referring to.