Related
I posted part of this in charnsingh_online's 780p thread, but I feel it's more appropriate to post here instead so that everyone sees it, so here goes -
The biggest problems with the Nexus One's video recorder are the mediocre audio recording format (AMR 8kHz) and the low frame rates in decent lighting conditions. This is not acceptable, because the Nexus One is Google's so-called "superphone" and we have seen the iPhone and Droid produce good quality video recordings (ie. constant frame rates, good audio) on arguably lower hardware specs.
Here's a link to a Google feature request that a Nexus One owner posted way back in January:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6156
"Issue 6156: Adding support for more audio and video encoders in Android."
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Click to collapse
Please visit the page I have linked, and if you have a Google account (I am sure you all do!), click on the star at the top left (and leave comments too!) so that it increases the number of stars and thus brings it to the attention of the Google team.
It may be a longshot that they do something about it, but it doesn't hurt to at least let them know about it!
EDIT: The issue above is actually a general Android feature request, but for the Nexus One you could also visit a similar thread in the Nexus One help forum:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?fid=5f7b0b7d99eff9310004892474249fa2&hl=en
I do have to say, though, that the framerate reduction is a very positive thing for low-light videos compared to the Milestone/Droid. My N1 can take beautiful videos of performances in nightclubs and on outdoor nighttime stages by slowing down the framerate to capture enough light. Under the same conditions, my Milestone produces a high-framerate video of... total darkness punctuated by a few bright lights.
But it would be nice to have some more fine-grained controls over this.
cmstlist said:
I do have to say, though, that the framerate reduction is a very positive thing for low-light videos compared to the Milestone/Droid. My N1 can take beautiful videos of performances in nightclubs and on outdoor nighttime stages by slowing down the framerate to capture enough light. Under the same conditions, my Milestone produces a high-framerate video of... total darkness punctuated by a few bright lights.
But it would be nice to have some more fine-grained controls over this.
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Click to collapse
Image quality is all fine and dandy, but when you are only getting 9fps in a lit room then the video is garbage anyway. In the same conditions with the Milestone the frame rate is at a constant 24 fps and the picture is a bit grainy due to the increased ISO(?), which is still acceptable still (plus you can use the LED light to add some more brightness).
dsixda said:
Image quality is all fine and dandy, but when you are only getting 9fps in a lit room then the video is garbage anyway. In the same conditions with the Milestone the frame rate is at a constant 24 fps and the picture is a bit grainy due to the increased ISO(?), which is still acceptable still (plus you can use the LED light to add some more brightness).
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Click to collapse
Sure, but under the conditions I described (dark room with stage lighting, basically), Milestone fails completely and N1 succeeds. The LED light will not help under these circumstances - the stage lighting is plenty bright, but the Milestone simply fails to capture anything at all.
Here's an example N1 video in a nightclub - one of my favourite Vancouver drag queens in fact
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc4Kk0h4cL0
Yes, the frame rate isn't great and the audio sucks... but the colours are absolutely brilliant. I didn't have my Milestone yet at the time I filmed this but I've tried using it in similar conditions. All the Milestone produces is complete darkness with a few tiny flashes of light. Not even grainy... absolute darkness.
Thanks for this. Im so sick of hearing about the cruddy things about the nexus that arent hardware related. If it doesnt have the hardware i understand the limitations, but it seems like google just didnt really try with this damn phone. I mean fps sucks and we couldve had 720p recording? What the **** is going on over there at android headquarters? Whos in charge of quality control? And they didnt even think 720 was POSSIBLE? Talk about bush league.
Good idea...have visit the link and left my comments
Star added!
Thanks for doing this.
IMO, 720p is over-rated. 480 @ 16:9 (or 16:8 or w/e) is more file-size effiecient anyway. I think the biggest issue is audio. 8k?! That's insanely low. Un-necessarily low. We need a fix to this seriously badly.
yes 720p is over-rated. id rather have a high quality (high bitrate/high framerate) 480p... its like an upscaled DVD vs a low bitrate 720p movie rip from piratebay
Agreed with both of you. Personally, I don't think it's such a big deal to have 720p when the frame rate and audio is so mediocre in the first place. Takes up too much storage too. We need to fix the bigger issues first.
BTW the link to the entire Issues list is found on the "Issues" tab in that URL I showed in the first post. Or you can access it through here: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list
When I first posted this thread, the video encoder issue was only at 29 stars and it was on page 3 of the Issues list... now it has 74 stars and we are at page 2! Thanks everyone.. we need more people though!
You're going to have more luck posting this in the nexus forums than the android forums.
You will not be seeing support for propietary codecs on the Android base OS.
The only way you will see it is at the device level. Licensing issues prevent it from being incorporated into Android, but not into specific devices.
Topic says it all, when shooting video in dark situations framerate drops to 10 - 12 -17 so it's frustrating! Since the specification of the video says that the variable frame rate if there is a chance to somehow locked at 30fps!
Great magicians of hacking help please!!!
Nope, wait for a update from HTC and hope for the best... (for now anyway)
Even if we set Exposure to -2 and ISO to 800 we can't achive 30 fps, so, if we lock frame rate to 30, in low light, it is possible that the video is to dark for us to do anything with it.
IMHO DHD have a poor camera sensor for low light.
mdalacu said:
Even if we set Exposure to -2 and ISO to 800 we can't achive 30 fps, so, if we lock frame rate to 30, in low light, it is possible that the video is to dark for us to do anything with it.
IMHO DHD have a poor camera sensor for low light.
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Yes or not enough processing power to handle the low light data in real time, or enough power but the processor is busy getting US stocks data for people who never trade in US stocks and running Facebook for people who dont have a facebook account and.....(long list of featutes that burn my cpu and battery but never use or want)
Sent from my HTC HD so may contain typos, bugs and, if the battery lasts, pearls of....(battery 0%)
l0w said:
Yes or not enough processing power to handle the low light data in real time, or enough power but the processor is busy getting US stocks data for people who never trade in US stocks and running Facebook for people who dont have a facebook account and.....(long list of featutes that burn my cpu and battery but never use or want)
Sent from my HTC HD so may contain typos, bugs and, if the battery lasts, pearls of....(battery 0%)
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Click to collapse
Haha, love the sarcasm
You do know you can remove all the crap you don't want like Stocks etc? One of the many joys of rooting your phone
I really wish there was a way to get the camera to shoot 30 fps in low light too
I really dont care how much noise will be introduced. 30 fps is most important. Is this even possible for a developer here to work on since this is HTC's own app and i think HTC dont release their source?
Have you tried shooting with flashlight on? Or setting the white balance manually, I'm sure I read somewhere that helps, turning off automatic white balance removes the annoying changes in brightness and helps improve framers alongside setting exposure to manual.
Be nice if it just shot un 30fps all the time like iPhone, I'm sure it will be sorted.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
gamesmachine said:
Have you tried shooting with flashlight on? Or setting the white balance manually, I'm sure I read somewhere that helps, turning off automatic white balance removes the annoying changes in brightness and helps improve framers alongside setting exposure to manual.
Be nice if it just shot un 30fps all the time like iPhone, I'm sure it will be sorted.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I have a gut feeling it wont be sorted. Take a look at the old Desire. It's camcorder is still shooting at 22 fps in optimal light! Probably less than 10 in low light. HTC just doesnt seem to care
SupremeBeaver said:
I have a gut feeling it wont be sorted. Take a look at the old Desire. It's camcorder is still shooting at 22 fps in optimal light! Probably less than 10 in low light. HTC just doesnt seem to care
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Do you own a Desire(old one)?From what you say I guess you don't.With the Desire,if you set the ISO to 800 you can record anything between 25 and 30 fps,even in low light.It introduces some more noise,but not that much more that what the iPhone does in low light.Dunno why the DHD doesn't change much with the iso...
So, is there a way to record at 30fps at night?I searched all over the forum and didn't find a way.(besides reducing the exposure which makes videos very dark)
I noticed a thing that when I focus the objects aren't so shadowy because of low fps but only just for a moment like half of second and then it returnes to the normal 10-15 fps.
sergiu_07_07 said:
So, is there a way to record at 30fps at night?I searched all over the forum and didn't find a way.(besides reducing the exposure which makes videos very dark)
I noticed a thing that when I focus the objects aren't so shadowy because of low fps but only just for a moment like half of second and then it returnes to the normal 10-15 fps.
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Nah dude there probably is no way. It's the hardware here that's the problem here.
The problem is that the sensors in your camera need a certain minimum amount of time to get the picture to look correct.
I could tell you how to get it locked at 30, but then you would hate me because your video would turn out extremely blurry, and to that extent, so dark that you might as well have just recorded a black sheet of paper.
(This would of course come with rooting your phone, which I wouldn't think is a problem)
The thing is, its been coded into your device to reduce the frame-rate, so that you at least get a scene in a video at a bad frame rate, instead of black in a video with good frame rate
Yeah, but as I said before, there is a thing that when I focus the video there is a small interval of time(about 1/2 sec) when the frames seem to be normal(25-30).I don't know if this happens only on my device but before the gingerbread update I didn't notice this.You could try it or I can even send you a recording.And why does the camera sensor state that it can record @60 fps in light and 30 fps in dark?(according to this thread p=13510330)
I don't know very much about its camera and I don't say that I am right about this, but I want to improve the recording as much as possible.Even my friends MOTO Defy is better in low light.
Also will a custom rom improve the performance of recording?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
sergiu_07_07 said:
Yeah, but as I said before, there is a thing that when I focus the video there is a small interval of time(about 1/2 sec) when the frames seem to be normal(25-30).I don't know if this happens only on my device but before the gingerbread update I didn't notice this.You could try it or I can even send you a recording.And why does the camera sensor state that it can record @60 fps in light and 30 fps in dark?(according to this thread p=13510330)
I don't know very much about its camera and I don't say that I am right about this, but I want to improve the recording as much as possible.Even my friends MOTO Defy is better in low light.
Also will a custom rom improve the performance of recording?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom roms dont improve the low light recording unfortunately.
sergiu_07_07 said:
Yeah, but as I said before, there is a thing that when I focus the video there is a small interval of time(about 1/2 sec) when the frames seem to be normal(25-30).I don't know if this happens only on my device but before the gingerbread update I didn't notice this.You could try it or I can even send you a recording.And why does the camera sensor state that it can record @60 fps in light and 30 fps in dark?(according to this thread p=13510330)
I don't know very much about its camera and I don't say that I am right about this, but I want to improve the recording as much as possible.Even my friends MOTO Defy is better in low light.
Also will a custom rom improve the performance of recording?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think any sensor manufacturer can specify framerate in "dark" because how do you define "dark"? What your eyes percieve as "dark" is more like "pitch black" for a camera sensor. Especially a small crappy one that sits behind a small crappy lens. Remember that to have 30 fps, you should be able to "gather" enough light to make a properly exposed image for a 1/30 of a second. Take your point-and-shoot camera, or even a DSLR, set it to manual mode, set the ISO to 800, set the shutter speed to 1/30, set the aperture to f/8 for a 28mm equvalent focal length (if you are using DSLR, for a point-and-shoot with a smaller than DX sensor, you have to dial it even higher) and see what picture you can get with those settings. This is how much light hits the sensor for 1/30 of a second. This is how your videos will look like.
EDIT: You should not compare video recording framerate on phones that record in different resolution. DEFY can record up to 640x480 (if I'm not mistaken) which is 1/3 of the frame recorded with the DHD (1280x720). With a good recording algorithm this means three times more light per pixel (if the sensor is the same).
Hey guys,
I know a lot of people with this phone are happy with the frame rate of videos in good light (30 fps constant). But one thing that really does my head in is the shocking frame rate in low light (like indoors).
Well fear not chums, supremebeaver is here to put your fears to rest
Steps:
- Open camera (not camcorder) app. Set ISO to 800
- Open Camcorder app, set Exposure to -2.
- Notice improved frame rate in viewfinder.
- Smile
I will admit, the quality suffers a little. The video gets a lot darker but imo its a good compromise for smoothness. At least for me. I was able to go from 9 fps with stock settings to 25 solid with those settings changed.
Enjoy
if you want to know why this works, heres how:
at 30 Frames Per Second, each frame of video has a minimum exposure time of 1 thirtyith of a second, or 1/30 seconds.
in low light this is does not give the camera enough time to gather light to expose an image, so it slows the exposure time down, saaaay, 1 fifteenth. this reduces the frame rate to 15fps. this gives the camera twice as long to expose an image.
by changing the exposure to -2 you are telling the camera not to increase the exposure time and so you end up with a darker image but better frame rate.
this is not something that can be magically fixed by a firmware update, its simple photographic physics.
the only thing a firmware fix will do is turn the default ISO up.
rossysaurus said:
if you want to know why this works, heres how:
at 30 Frames Per Second, each frame of video has a minimum exposure time of 1 thirtyith of a second, or 1/30 seconds.
in low light this is does not give the camera enough time to gather light to expose an image, so it slows the exposure time down, saaaay, 1 fifteenth. this reduces the frame rate to 15fps. this gives the camera twice as long to expose an image.
by changing the exposure to -2 you are telling the camera not to increase the exposure time and so you end up with a darker image but better frame rate.
this is not something that can be magically fixed by a firmware update, its simple photographic physics.
the only thing a firmware fix will do is turn the default ISO up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but why is the cam on htc hd7 have faster fps than hd2 when they got the same specs? hd7 has WP7 and hd2 has WP 6.5. is it the o/s?
The HD7 has the same chipset as us, the HD2 has the last generation of snapdragon (the same one as the classic desire).
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Consider using the built-in flash to compensate for that darker image issue
it would be nice if we had a brightness setting, like LG camera does. There, you can also boost ISO to 1250.
mdalacu said:
it would be nice if we had a brightness setting, like LG camera does. There, you can also boost ISO to 1250.
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Click to collapse
but the noise will be too high.. like on the iphone 4, they raise the ISO so high to maintain framerate but all u get is a super grainy video that looks rubbish.
Technology for phone cams still has a long way to go...
Loving this phone so far except for one thing. When recording in low-light, there is a significant decrease of fps.
I realize that the 28mm f/2.0 lens is the best out there so why would HTC pair it with such a crippling software feature???
I'd rather have the software crank up the ISO or lose a little exposure to keep the video at a steady 30 or 24 fps instead of the stuttering/lag effect.
Some of my videos in low-light areas are averaging 20/fps.
Do any of you know if HTC usually updates the camera software or if an outside dev would come out with a camera hack allowing us to lock the framerate?
Zexell said:
Loving this phone so far except for one thing. When recording in low-light, there is a significant decrease of fps.
I realize that the 28mm f/2.0 lens is the best out there so why would HTC pair it with such a crippling software feature???
I'd rather have the software crank up the ISO or lose a little exposure to keep the video at a steady 30 or 24 fps instead of the stuttering/lag effect.
Some of my videos in low-light areas are averaging 20/fps.
Do any of you know if HTC usually updates the camera software or if an outside dev would come out with a camera hack allowing us to lock the framerate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alot of expensive video cameras will do this also.
it has to slow the shutter speed to let in more light. otherwise if you increased the shutter speed you wont see anything. i guess they could add a shutter speed control to let you increase that and ramp up the ISO.
simba2585 said:
alot of expensive video cameras will do this also.
it has to slow the shutter speed to let in more light.
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Click to collapse
Shutter speed is for pictures, lol. I am talking about frame rates for videos.
I am more than happy with the htc one for pictures but for low-light videos, I would love it if I can lock my frame rate at 24 or 30 fps for my entire video.
I would rather have less light/more ISO instead of choppy videos.
I think HTC allows the drop in framerate to keep the ISO the same.
Zexell said:
Shutter speed is for pictures, lol. I am talking about frame rates for videos.
I am more than happy with the htc one for pictures but for low-light videos, I would love it if I can lock my frame rate at 24 or 30 fps for my entire video.
I would rather have less light/more ISO instead of choppy videos.
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Just curious, are you running a 1.29 based firmware?
Zexell said:
Shutter speed is for pictures, lol.
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Click to collapse
I've never facepalmed so hard before.
Shutter speed applies for both pictures and videos; with videos, it's the amount of time the sensor (or that particular slide of film, in the 'old days') captures light for a frame in said video.
If it's low light, the video needs to let in more light by increasing the amount of time the sensor captures light for a given frame. Thus increasing the shutter speed.
Now, here's where frame-rate comes into the picture (see what I did there? ;D)...
For example (I'm not using real numbers here, as I don't know what numbers are used for the One, plus maths isn't my strong point. But...) in normal lighting the frame rate is 1/30th of a second, and it's shooting at 30fps. All's well.
However, if it's in 'low light mode', it'll need to lower the shutter speed to 1/20th of a second (again, just example numbers). It'd then need to lower the fps down to 20fps.
TL;DR: pictures and videos both have shutter speed.
Um, I'm sorry OP, can you point to the phone that is currently shooting usable 60fps video in low light?
Maybe in a few years. Right now you just have to deal with the current state of the art instead of complaining that HTC is making crappy decision decisions.
You could probably have 30fps video in low light right now. It will just look very very dark.
I'm guessing if they went that route, you'd complain about that decision too.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda app-developers app
M_Woody said:
I've never facepalmed so hard before.
Shutter speed applies for both pictures and videos; with videos, it's the amount of time the sensor (or that particular slide of film, in the 'old days') captures light for a frame in said video.
If it's low light, the video needs to let in more light by increasing the amount of time the sensor captures light for a given frame. Thus increasing the shutter speed.
Now, here's where frame-rate comes into the picture (see what I did there? ;D)...
For example (I'm not using real numbers here, as I don't know what numbers are used for the One, plus maths isn't my strong point. But...) in normal lighting the frame rate is 1/30th of a second, and it's shooting at 30fps. All's well.
However, if it's in 'low light mode', it'll need to lower the shutter speed to 1/20th of a second (again, just example numbers). It'd then need to lower the fps down to 20fps.
TL;DR: pictures and videos both have shutter speed.
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Click to collapse
Gotcha. But the shutter speed isn't always controlled by the fps. On my T2i, I can record at 30fps while leaving my shutter speed at 1/30th or change it to 1/400th while changing the f stop or ISO, which results in crystal clear motion captured. I always believed shutter speed is always independent of framerates. For the HTC one, i would love it if the fps was locked regardless of shutter speed per frame or iso or aperture.
The choppiness really creates unusable footage.
NxNW said:
Um, I'm sorry OP, can you point to the phone that is currently shooting usable 60fps video in low light?
Maybe in a few years. Right now you just have to deal with the current state of the art instead of complaining that HTC is making crappy decision decisions.
You could probably have 30fps video in low light right now. It will just look very very dark.
I'm guessing if they went that route, you'd complain about that decision too.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Actually, that's exactly what I am asking for. The option to choose a choppier footage with more light or have 30fps video in low-light at the compensation for darker exposure or more ISO.
Recording at 720p @ 60fps in low-light still results the framerates dropping below 24 which I consider is unusual footage.
I guess I'm the only one feeling like HTC made a poor decision by not locking the fps but when my footage goes from 30 fps to 20 fps in less than 1 second, the footage is really undesirable. They could've easily just raised the ISO or aperture like the s3, lumia 920, or iphone 5 do.
Actually, that's exactly what I am asking the choice for.
So noted.
Raising ISO is a fancy way of saying turning up the gain which will also amplify the noise in the sensors, creating some very grainy video.
That probably wouldn't be very desirable either.
It's all about tradeoffs.
Phones, more than other devices, tend to have a very fluid idea of frame rate. If you need it nailed up at 30 fps no matter what, you're right, this may not be the camera for you.
NxNW said:
So noted.
Raising ISO is a fancy way of saying turning up the gain which will also amplify the noise in the sensors, creating some very grainy video.
That probably wouldn't be very desirable either.
It's all about tradeoffs.
Phones, more than other devices, tend to have a very fluid idea of frame rate. If you need it nailed up at 30 fps no matter what, you're right, this may not be the camera for you.
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Click to collapse
Grainy videos can be treated or processed with filters. There is no alternative to frames that are lost.
I didn't mean to go on debates about ISO or shutter speed.
Instead of returning the phone, I was asking the community if they happen to know if HTC updates the drivers for the camera at any point or if someone would develop a camera hack that addresses this loss of frames or the choice.
Zexell said:
Actually, that's exactly what I am asking for. The option to choose a choppier footage with more light or have 30fps video in low-light at the compensation for darker exposure or more ISO.
Recording at 720p @ 60fps in low-light still results the framerates dropping below 24 which I consider is unusual footage.
I guess I'm the only one feeling like HTC made a poor decision by not locking the fps but when my footage goes from 30 fps to 20 fps in less than 1 second, the footage is really undesirable. They could've easily just raised the ISO or aperture like the s3, lumia 920, or iphone 5 do.
Actually, that's exactly what I am asking the choice for.
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What are you recording in such low light anyways? Why not just go get your t2i to record with then...
AndrewAmazed said:
What are you recording in such low light anyways? Why not just go get your t2i to record with then...
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Click to collapse
Because the T2i doesnt fit in my pocket, lol.
I had an HTC Evo, and in those days they would drop frames in *good* light. It was extremely frustrating. I bought faster SD card storage, overclocked, switched to performance governor, BFQ scheduler, the works.
I searched high and low for mods that would lock the frame rate. I wasn't the only one searching, gamers are always interested in fps as well.
If that mod was made, I missed it. Maybe it's possible. I'm as curious as you are to see if anyone has info on this. My expectation is no. HTC's camera drivers are closed source and seem to defy this kind of hacking.
Anyway, now you see why, coming from older technology, I'm so grateful for the excellent low light video the One *does* have. ; )
Sent from my PC36100 using xda app-developers app
OP, you aren't the only one who feels the fps in low light video recording drops too low. I'm also annoyed by it. Furthermore I know higher fps is possible because if you record in HDR mode the fps are higher in the same lighting situation. I believe this is because it cranks up the ISO/gain in order to get double the fps or more since it needs high and low exposure frames to combine together behind the scenes. Try HDR mode and see if you get better fps. Downside is it is definitely noisier in low light, can have higher filesizes, and also the sides of picture are significantly cropped to leave some room for electronic image combination/stabilization during the HDR processing.
One other trick you can try is setting the exposure lower, this seems to result in faster shutter speeds/higher fps.
So yes I also wish the ISO and/or fps would be more controllable in the varios video recording modes. I tried some of the other special modes and no luck. Also I wish there was an infinite focus lock, so far I can't find that either. Seems like such a basic feature missing?
You will get a laggy video in a low-light scenario even you managed to lock the fps. Because the device dose need more time for capturing more light in one frame.
So,smoother = darker.Vice-versa.
FPS drop is not acceptable. My 4S can shoot in low light without any drops...so I'm pretty sure it's a software problem that can be fixed by HTC.
QuantifyThis said:
OP, you aren't the only one who feels the fps in low light video recording drops too low. I'm also annoyed by it. Furthermore I know higher fps is possible because if you record in HDR mode the fps are higher in the same lighting situation. I believe this is because it cranks up the ISO/gain in order to get double the fps or more since it needs high and low exposure frames to combine together behind the scenes. Try HDR mode and see if you get better fps. Downside is it is definitely noisier in low light, can have higher filesizes, and also the sides of picture are significantly cropped to leave some room for electronic image combination/stabilization during the HDR processing.
One other trick you can try is setting the exposure lower, this seems to result in faster shutter speeds/higher fps.
So yes I also wish the ISO and/or fps would be more controllable in the varios video recording modes. I tried some of the other special modes and no luck. Also I wish there was an infinite focus lock, so far I can't find that either. Seems like such a basic feature missing?
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I did some more testing. ISO and exposure settings only seem to effect pictures. When it comes to recording videos, we only get one set of options (slow mo, 720 @ 60fps, and HDR). I recorded a bunch of similar situation videos with various ISO and exposures and while it does change on screen, the moment you press the record video, it reverts back to all auto except for the 1 set of options reserved for video recording.
Various ISO/Exposure settings resulted in most videos looking similar and averaged from 20-22 fps. The one I recorded at 720 @ 60 was unwatchable at an average 15 fps. The HDR was well lit and had a tremendous amount of noise yet averaged 17 fps.
For comparison, I recorded the same situation with my iphone 5 on auto and my galaxy s3 on night setting. The iphone 5 had a little more noise than the HTC, exposure was slightly darker than the HTC, but was the video was fluid and yielded an average of 25 fps. GS3 @ Night setting had less noise than the iphone, visibility was darker but the video was smooth at 27 fps.
My conclusion is that both apple and samsung have coded in their recording software to NEVER dip below 24 fps while HTC allows the camera software go as low as 15 frames per second.
In a world where the iphone 5 and HTC one share the same camera technology and share the same lens, this would make sense. But in this world, the HTC has a far superior lens. A wide angle 28mm with OIS at f stop of 2.0 definitely has power to deliver better results against lesser lenses.
I truly hope that somebody or even HTC can unleash the lens to its full capabilities.
M_Woody said:
I've never facepalmed so hard before.
Shutter speed applies for both pictures and videos; with videos, it's the amount of time the sensor (or that particular slide of film, in the 'old days') captures light for a frame in said video.
If it's low light, the video needs to let in more light by increasing the amount of time the sensor captures light for a given frame. Thus increasing the shutter speed.
Now, here's where frame-rate comes into the picture (see what I did there? ;D)...
For example (I'm not using real numbers here, as I don't know what numbers are used for the One, plus maths isn't my strong point. But...) in normal lighting the frame rate is 1/30th of a second, and it's shooting at 30fps. All's well.
However, if it's in 'low light mode', it'll need to lower the shutter speed to 1/20th of a second (again, just example numbers). It'd then need to lower the fps down to 20fps.
TL;DR: pictures and videos both have shutter speed.
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spot on, thanks for explaining this to the OP. i didnt want to start a discussion about it so thanks.
Completely agree that they need to tweak the vid recording modes to increase fps. Regarding the exposure "working", I have found using a 3rd party recording app (in this case, the dashcam software VideoRegPro) it has exposure settings that do work, and not just in the preview. The upside of cranking down the exposure all the way is you get a much darker picture, but this can somewhat be fixed by also cranking down the contrast setting. You end up with a very flat looking image with not enough color, and also get some blueish noise in black areas. Still hoping a future HTC update improves the low light FPS, at least in one or two of the special video modes. And also hoping for a working infinite focus (useful for a dashcam).
Hi community.
One of the major reasons I got this phone is its claimed 60fps video capture capabilities which I was told was comprable to the iphone 5s'slowmotion mode. Thing is, I have come across something that I was wondering if other G2 owners could confirm.
60 fps video seems to only work under optimum lighting conditions. When indoor or under low light conditions, it drops to as low as 15 fps captures. Thus something Ive confirmed when importing into Adobe premiere. Capture fps is actually variable and depending on lighting conditions, the file is recognized at its slowest framerate. This is very disappointing and raises other questions for me:
1. 60fps is interpolated by cpu and not sensor capable?
2. Sensor cannot compensate hfr with autofocus/shutterspeed?
3. My cpu is too underclocked (24k antutu) to handle hfr.
Any insight would be much appreciated since i have only one more week to exchange for a iphone 5s.
Have you checked out this thread?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471900
also constant 60fps issues will cause light issues - likely the cause of the problems here : http://www.imore.com/how-quality-your-iphone-5s-low-light-video - check out morac's comment at Nov 12, 2013 at 9:19 pm
Thanks Andybites.
I didn't expect to be relying on mods to get capabilities they have been marketing to function properly. Nice to see I would have encountered similiar low light issues with Iphone 5s, though their frame rate is still constant as opposed to framerate AND low light issues of the G2's stock camera.
15fps is unacceptable and would rather have consistent framerate so when my footage moves outdoor to indoor within the same shot, my footage won't look like its chugging like a video game being run with a bad gpu.
I'll try the camera mod you suggested and report back. Thanks again.
Rumor has it that both Google and LG are working on a software fix for both their cameras.
Steady frames > light compensation. Simply bad software.