Froyo 720p video - Disappointment

[d.knight99]

SD Speed Class - SD Association

Quick explaination of speeds in SD cards. I'm not sure if the Desire will take a class 10 because it's dependant on having a high speed bus, but they're astronomically expensive anyway...

 

[d.knight99]

• Class 2: 16 Mbit/s (2 MB/s)
• Class 4: 32 Mbit/s (4 MB/s)
• Class 6: 48 Mbit/s (6 MB/s)
• Class 10: 80 Mbit/s (10 MB/s)

Even though the class ratings are defined by a governing body, like

 

[brad-short]

Here's what a DSLR with 720p recording looks like.

http://vimeo.com/5983235

To say the Desire's footage is 'good' is laughable.

People think just because it's classed as HD it's going to be good. No lense that's 1cm across is going to record high quality footage regardless of resolution.

Really? you using that for a comparison? All that post processing means you can't see the quality of the original recording.

 

[leecavturbo]

Really? you using that for a comparison? All that post processing means you can't see the quality of the original recording.

i thought the same brad.
just change the sd card to a higher class ppl have reported vast improvements.
its not the ability of the camera/phone its the vast amount of data/sec being put on to the slow to write mem card

 

[anoniemouse]

Give it a couple of years & low to mid range camcorders will be in the sights of mobile phone video, just as cameras are now.

 

[lutin]

I personally think that the class of the card makes little difference to the video quality.
I've yet to see a proper test of a video made with a low class card and a video made with a high class card, so it's not really possible to say that it makes a difference.

In fact, all HD videos taken with the desire, regardless of whether it's a class 6 or not, suffer from a problem of low frame rate, so upgrading your card will more than likely result in disappointment.

 

[SB13X]

I personally think that the class of the card makes little difference to the video quality.
I've yet to see a proper test of a video made with a low class card and a video made with a high class card, so it's not really possible to say that it makes a difference.

In fact, all HD videos taken with the desire, regardless of whether it's a class 6 or not, suffer from a problem of low frame rate, so upgrading your card will more than likely result in disappointment.

My class 6 Lexar 16GB card works far better without stuttering as per my video above than my 8GB Class 4 Sandisk Card did as the class 4 suffered from major freezes every 3-4 seconds of video, whereas the Lexar is flawless.

 

[nacatomi]

I personally think that the class of the card makes little difference to the video quality.
I've yet to see a proper test of a video made with a low class card and a video made with a high class card, so it's not really possible to say that it makes a difference.

In fact, all HD videos taken with the desire, regardless of whether it's a class 6 or not, suffer from a problem of low frame rate, so upgrading your card will more than likely result in disappointment.

Swapping from the supplied 4Gb Class 2 to my 8GB Class 6 with a video shot in below average conditions improved my framerate from about 16 to 20 fps with no judder on playback. In perfect conditions you are looking at 24fps(25 at a push) which is ok for viewing.

The major problem for picture quality is always going to be the quality of the optics and size of the sensor and for this you really need a dedicated camera if you want top quality pics, either that or we start going back to chunky phones and stuff in some large lenses.


For a phone its ok, afterall it is just a phone - your vids aren't going to end up on DiscoveryHD.

 

[lutin]

My class 6 Lexar 16GB card works far better without stuttering as per my video above than my 8GB Class 4 Sandisk Card did as the class 4 suffered from major freezes every 3-4 seconds of video, whereas the Lexar is flawless.

I have a class 2 card and it never, ever freezes or stutters.

 

[UKseagull]

I have a class 2 card and it never, ever freezes or stutters.

Interesting, which card exactly? What results do you get when you run SD Card Speed Tester?

 

[skywlkr]

I totally disagree with people who say: it's not really working, but at least it's there, so be happy.

We were told that our phones will record at 720p and it also means that if I record with this option to the original SD card, I will have smooth fps and the audio won't be late or fast, etc. Desire can not record at 720p as iPhone 4 can, which -believe it or not- is a big dissappointment for me, as a Desire user.

 

[lekky]

ehh, good for a mobile, i think we all agree thats what people mean when they say good. i'll take a video tomorrow and see how it is, got a class 6 for some comparison to the class 2's

 

[skywlkr]

Of course I didn't mean it should compete with a camcorder. When I took a video at home just for fun, the picture had some serious lags and the audio was late like 2 seconds which is totally unacceptable for me.

 

[d.knight99]

For a device with no dedicated DSPs or a GPU, it does an amazing good job if you ask me! Remember the CPU is doing all the work, including running the OS underneath and all the widgets and apps you may have running in the background.

You have to remember, it wasn't too long ago that there were actual desktop computers with the same spec as the Desire which you wouldn't even dream of trying to encode/decode video of any sort on, let alone HD content! A bit of codec optimization may be necessary but it's a good start for a phone. I think with a good SD card you should be alright to a point but there are a lot of technical limitations in terms of the hardware. The phone has to take all that raw data from the sensor, buffer it into the RAM and then encode it on the fly and copy it to the SD card. That's a lot of commands to fit into 1GHz of clock cycles!

I assume that's how it works anyway.

 

[riki1kenobi]

The brief forrays into using the HD Video capability I have done so far (using the SD card that came with the phone) have been actually pretty impressive for footage from a phone.

I make sure I have nothing running in the background when I record, so maybe that helps.

Maybe we should all shoot some footage and compare......

 

[thegadgetdude]

What ever the resolution you shoot at, i still find the video feature fairly pointless whilst it still uses the awful amr audio compression. Hopefully someone will work out how to improve this or an update will come out to improve it.

 

[lekky]

forgot i already did this

YouTube - Desire 720p Test

 

[Mik3h]

**** Local pub, 10:08 p.m. ****

Tom - "Haha, look at this guys, Harry got hit by a bus yesterday, got it all on my phone!! ROFLcopter or what???"

(they all crowd round Tom's phone)

Dick - "O...M...G... like, totally AWESOME DUDE! HAHAHAHAHA"

Tom - "I know right? Lucky I had my phone out when it happened eh? LMFAO!"

Dave (geeky kid that owns a Desire) - "OOoooooh you should have shot that in HD, WVGA is SOOO 2.1. You're such a n00b Tom, those extra couple of pixels would have made all the difference to my viewing experience you know...."

**** Blank stares from Tom, Dick and Harry (from a wheel chair) ****

Fade to black. END

]
Hahahahahah that's so funny, you made me drop all my popcorn.

 

[SB13X]

I have a class 2 card and it never, ever freezes or stutters.

You might very well do so, as Card Classes are based on minimum transfer rates and can in some cases result in a Class 2 Card running at similar speeds. There is a PNY 16GB Class 2 card going for sale at play.com which a lot of people say works well and at Class 6 speeds.

That said my Class 4 Sandisk one was around 3 years old, could you provide a video sample as I have done??

I totally disagree with people who say: it's not really working, but at least it's there, so be happy.

We were told that our phones will record at 720p and it also means that if I record with this option to the original SD card, I will have smooth fps and the audio won't be late or fast, etc. Desire can not record at 720p as iPhone 4 can, which -believe it or not- is a big dissappointment for me, as a Desire user.

The iPhone4 records to an internal flash drive the specs for which I cannot find, however I'm guessing its transfer rates are higher than the class 2 4gb card you got with your phone. Another reason for the price difference between the handsets and the Desire being cheaper, is based on you deciding to pay the extra for better memory yourself than having it provided to you allowing you to decide what features are essential for you and if the 720p is then you pay extra for capable memory.

 

[OFI]

I totally disagree with people who say: it's not really working, but at least it's there, so be happy.

We were told that our phones will record at 720p and it also means that if I record with this option to the original SD card, I will have smooth fps and the audio won't be late or fast, etc. Desire can not record at 720p as iPhone 4 can, which -believe it or not- is a big dissappointment for me, as a Desire user.

And I think this is why most people are not happy, not that they are expecting it to match up to the latest DSLR quality of video recording. But I also thought it might match up to the iPhone 4s video recording which is quite good actually (for a phone it looks comparable to the HD Flip I just bought..

 

[SB13X]

And I think this is why most people are not happy, not that they are expecting it to match up to the latest DSLR quality of video recording. But I also thought it might match up to the iPhone 4s video recording which is quite good actually (for a phone it looks comparable to the HD Flip I just bought..

As I mentioned above though both the iPhone and HD Flip record to internal flash drives and the manufacturers know exactly how each and every unit will perform and can program their capture software accordingly. HTC however have had to do their best to provide 720p capture software that must make best use of the huge variety of MicroSD cards that all of us Desire owners will use and so many of us will moan and complain while trying to use an advanced feature on the phone that requires high transfer rates being to tight fisted to part with cash for something better than a Class 2 card.

No matter how you look at it neither Flip HD nor Apple (no matter how magic they say they are) could get their HD recordings to look good on such low rent memory card hardware.

 

[lutin]

You might very well do so, as Card Classes are based on minimum transfer rates and can in some cases result in a Class 2 Card running at similar speeds. There is a PNY 16GB Class 2 card going for sale at play.com which a lot of people say works well and at Class 6 speeds.

Interesting, which card exactly? What results do you get when you run SD Card Speed Tester?

I actually have an PNY 16gb class 2 card, which is maybe punching above it's weight according to stublake. Perhaps that's why I've never had any problems. Thanks for the info stublake.

 

[YPud]

Does this look like a decent class 6 card or has anybody got any better options

http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/12761327/Samsung-8GB-Micro-SDHC-Plus-Memory-Card/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccc:%7Cprd:12761327%7Ccat:Mobile+

 

[nacatomi]

Looks ok to me and reviews seem to concur, a little pricy maybe but play is a trusted seller so if there are any problems you shouldn't have any trouble getting a replacement.

 

[johnnyjp]

to all of you talking nonsense like "oh its amazing for a mobile video"...

my sony ericsson c510 recorded WAY BETTER videos with its 3.2 mp camera...

honestly i dont care for stupid 720p video, it can be even 320x240 BUT SMOOTH

and most of the CHEAPER mobile phones can record video with real 30 fps, so that only means that htc did a crappy job with their camera implementation. and theres no excuse for that!

as i love my desire there are 3 BIG TIME FLAWS:

1) mail client which is so rubbish that it makes me wanna slit my wrists... learn from Apple
2) android market which is a misunderstanding. its awfully terrible and pathetic
3) camera... please... at least 320x240 @ 30 fps...