Any improvements to Camcorder video under 2.1?

[jjw14]

Hi,

Has anyone noticed improvements to the Hero camcorder video quality under Android 2.1? I thought I remember hearing that the upgrade might improve this. It's not a big deal, but I was hoping the recorded video would be smoother than the 15 fps under the 1.5 OS. I don't see a difference, but wanted to hear some other opinions.

Thanks in advance,
jjw

 

[Wiskid]

I did some recording at the Nickelback concert the other day. Did a terrible job of picking up all the flashing lights and stuff. Audio wasn't the greatest either.

 

[jjw14]

Well, I took two 30 second videos of the same scene (my backyard in daylight - boring) at "Small" and "Large" resolution settings. I e-mailed the files to myself for viewing on my desktop (Mac). These are the results from the Quicktime movie inspector:

Small Resolution
Source: Video0001.3gp
Format: MPEG-4 (Perian), 176 x 144, Millions
AMR Narrowband, Mono, 8.000 kHz
FPS: 23.91
Data Size: 416 KB
Data Rate: 105.44 kbit/s
Current Size: 478 x 391 pixels

Large Resolution
Source: Video0002.3gp
Format: MPEG-4 (Perian), 352 x 288, Millions
AMR Narrowband, Mono, 8.000 kHz
FPS: 17.16
Data Size: 3.1 MB
Data Rate: 799.22 kbit/s
Current Size: 478 x 391 pixels

The small resolution video was blurry with pretty low quality picture and sound. However the frame-rate (FPS) was good at almost 24 FPS. The large resolution gave a clearer picture, but was definitely more choppy with only 17 FPS .

I know the video shouldn't be the selling point of a phone, and I wouldn't record "baby's first steps" or anything with it. However, it is disappointing that I have to compromise on video quality for decent FPS. As the saying goes, "The best (video)camera is the one you have with you", so if aliens land in my driveway, expect fuzzy video for the "film at 11".

If anyone has some known tweaks to get the frame rate and quality up, please post them. Much appreciated!

jjw

 

[Mr. Goodkat]

That last two times I've used the video camera resulted in failure. First time the last half went to a slide show frame rate(on 1.5). The second time(on 2.1) after I stopped filming, it went to the home screen and didn't save. And the precious memories are ruined, qq.

 

[jjw14]

Really sorry to hear that, Goodkat. I hate to carry another gadget around, but one of those Flip HD cameras sounds like it would be worth it. Besides, when I take a photo or video with my Hero, it reminds me of the old days of taking photos where you have to tell the subjects, "Now, hold still.... Just one more minute... Let me zoom in... Where's that zoom, now?...". And the trackball as a shutter button isn't ideal. Enough complaining. It's a great phone!