Does the zoom feature only work in Video mode?
I haven't been able to get it to work in camera mode on my XDAII.. is this normal?
/me thinks I should read the manual...
You should be able to zoom with the camera, I can with mine, by pressing "up" on the round pad to zoom in and "down" to zoom out.
Hmm.. in camera mode mine doesn't.. looks like I better call O2 support.
Maybe in your camera mode youre capture size is set to large, then it won't work. Set it to small and you can now :lol:
Raoul said:
Maybe in your camera mode youre capture size is set to large, then it won't work. Set it to small and you can now :lol:
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Click to collapse
Raoul, you are right on the money!
Thanks for that, saved me a wait on hold I am sure!
You've cracked it already, but just to explain for all other users.
The camera of the XDA2 has a DIGITAL zoom (that is, it zooms in by interpolating the pixels), not by a proper optical zoom.
This obviously reduces images quality too.
For it to work of course, if the camera is capable of 640x480, then the XDA2 needs to be using a SMALLER image size.
If you use the smallest size then usually two stages of zoom are allowed.
If you use a medium image resolution, then only one stage of zoom is allowed.
And of course, if you are already using 640x480, then NO digital zoom is possible, as there is no possibility to interpolate the size of the images and pixels.
This applies to all devices that feature a digital zoom.
THANK YOU, EVERYBODY
Finally, after 7 months owing I-MAte I really know how to use camera on it
I did not use it very often, but it is neat to know what it is capable to do
Hi since the Blackstone has a light sensor, just wondering if it is possible to use it for film to control aperture and color temp such as the Minolta Light Meter?
http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/camera-accessories/minolta-lightmeter-flashmeter-vi.asp
i know it might now work the same way but i think i could work.
I'm using PCINE and PCAM and they are brilliant but would love to have something like this rather than shelling 2000 grand on a light meter.
i'm guessing no?
Can't remember where I saw it but pretty sure you can atleast get the HD to give you a readout in lux or lumens. Could have been an additional program.
But I'd recomend the Flashmeter IV or V can usually get it for a half decent price on ebay - sometimes cheaper to get it from abroad. . .
rather than lux values, would there be one to give out aperture values like most incident light meters?
Luxmeter for HTC
Take a look at pocket-kai's Luxmeter for Touch HD (http://www.pocketkai.net/asp/en/details.aspx?488). Works on my Touch HD.
thanks so much vargamic, however, do would you know if one would exist to tell aperture readings?
If you can get it to read lux value then you can convert it to EV steps and work from there. There's a program here http://www.intl-lighttech.com/library/calculators/evluxconvert that works on PC, shouldnt be that difficult converting it over - I think - or more longwinded use the following formula in a scientific calculator app (copied from a forum at Convert-Me.com)
The definition of EV=0 is an exposure of 1 second at f/1 using ISO 100 film, or any equivalent thereof (2 seconds f/1.4, 4 seconds f/2.0 etc)
The technical definition of Ev is 2Ev = LS/C.
Where:
• Ev = the exposure value
• L = field luminance
• C = Exposure Constant - If you use candelas/ft2, it is 1.3. If you are using LUX (candelas/m2), it is 12.5.
• S = film speed following the ISO standard
Now, as far as where I think you're trying to go with this... Consider that 2ev = A2/T
where:
• A = the f-stop number of the aperture
• T = shutter time in seconds
Combining these two; EV = log2(A2/T) = log2(LS/C) - This is perhaps the most vital formula there is for understandiing the basics of the mathematics behind photography. (From poster called Knight)
I'm just fed up with this wallpaper issue in Manila.
When I got my Touch HD I figured someone will figure out why exactly is the 800x400 screen reducing wallpaper image quality to some low-res sh*t.
But, it's been months now, and no one seems to be working on this, so what the heck - I've decided to post it here, in hope that someone will actually try to do something about it.
What really disappointed me was the fact that even the latest Manila 3 from Topaz and Rhodium still has the exact same issue. So, it seems obvious to me that guys from HTC have no intention of fixing this. Why? I don't know.
But I do know it's frustrating to have all those fancy graphics, all that big, high-res screen, and then be forced to stare at THAT all day long.
Since I've seen so many great things being done to improve Manila, such huge changes to the whole system, I reckon there must be a way to improve this as well.
p.s. If no one cares, just take this as a bunch of rambling from a visual kind of guy
Oh, and just to share my info so far:
- the wallpaper picture format has no impact (I have tried them all - jpg, png, gif, bmp, 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit etc.)
- wallpaper picture size has no impact (it will look just as bad if you use 640x480, 800x400 or 8000x4800 pixel)
- if you put 800x400 wallpaper, it will not be stretched in any way - it will fill up the screen exactly 100% full, so people reporting 640x440 photos having better quality when used as wallpapers were having a placebo effect.
- the default Manila wallpaper is crisp sharp - no trace of any quality degradation.
- all default Manila wallpapers are very simple looking, with small number of colors, and very short range of colors (mostly it's just shades of gray and black)
- TF3D obviously applies some kind of compression algorithm to any applied photo, increasing brightness and applying very, very, very agressive image compression.
I believe it is this compression that is the cause of the image degradation. If someone could find the registry key to turn it off, I assume the problem would be solved. I also have a feeling that this compression was pushed up so high in order to speed up TF3d.
I am attaching an enlarge example of this compression. Original wallpaper vs. how it looks on TF3D.
I have no idea if I should move this somewhere else..
so Rozenthal, is this meant to be a development thread?
Well, more of a "hacking" if you want. If an application would arise from this, it would sure be great, but tracking down the problem itself and finding a manual solution would be also very much appreciated.
I posted this into this forum because I figure here's where most of the people dealing with Manila graphics are hanging out.
Bla, fixing up my CFC patch for Manila to be able to load PNGs would possibly solve this. However I seem to recall something about the background always being shrunk to 512x512 max with the vertexes then stretched to fill the screen. Not completely sure on that, though.
And yes, QTC compression (used for Manila) is definitely lossy. It can be pretty decent though, depending on the editor you use.
Chainfire said:
Bla, fixing up my CFC patch for Manila to be able to load PNGs would possibly solve this. However I seem to recall something about the background always being shrunk to 512x512 max with the vertexes then stretched to fill the screen. Not completely sure on that, though.
And yes, QTC compression (used for Manila) is definitely lossy. It can be pretty decent though, depending on the editor you use.
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Click to collapse
Chainfire, you must be reading my mind! I was just now reading that thread of yours where you used CFC to resize images for QVG and was going to write to you
I believe that information you provided in that thread MUST be somehow linked to this problem. I have only skimmed through your thread, but from what I understand there is in fact a compression algorithm involved in all Manila graphic files?
About the 512x512 - I can almost certainly say that this is not the case in Touch HD. The images you use for wallpaper do not get scaled in any way if they're in 800x400 resolution. They stay the same (this was the first thing I tested). However, they do seem to go through some sort of compression that causes any kind of graphic to look bad.
So, you're saying there's a way to manually compress with better results? But what then? How do we apply the custom-compressed image? I'm guessing it would be necessary to first find out which file is the default Manilla wallpaper, and then replace the new one with that? Would that work? Can this somehow be automatized?
I know it's a lot of questions, and it's late, but any help would be appreciated, especially because I feel that this might be the closest we got to solving this damn problem.
Cheers!
Have you tried interlacing your .pngs? I realized that interlacing my images for manilla 2D themes helped. I was also under the impression that HTC has some special compression going on with their images, but while saving my images in photoshop, I save them in .png and select interlace option in the end. Try it.
Here's what's up:
1. When you save images for your pocket PC, they DO have to be in a loss less format, such as .png... This goes for Homescreen backgrounds as well, so when you save a picture off your phone camera, it'll be pixelation by default because they're usually in .jpeg format.
2. When you save images in Photoshop, in a format like .png. Save them as Interlaced images, or they'll come out crappy on the device.
3. If you are using the color overlay feature in Photoshop to, say, change the color of the image, There will be pixelation if there are any gradients in the picture. Most of the images in the Manilla 2D theme files have gradients, so almost all of them result in pixelation. What you have to do for those is: Zoom in and use the Blur tool (Smart Blur filter on larger images.) to smooth out the pixelation!
Hope this works for other people, and if someone can contribute anything else, it would also be appreciated.
The screen is 800x480 isn't it?
yes it is 800*480
makes me feel bad that it looks like that on such a beautiful device.
its obviously unacceptable that HTC playes like that.
i dont understand whats their big problem to give us some drivers that would solve this annoying issue
Here, try this file out. Make a backup copy of yours unless its cooked in rom, that way you can delete this if necessary. It makes a difference for me. In this section of script, I changed the values to 200, 200 and it was reeeeeally crappy. I did that when I was checking effect. Originally it was 512, 512. In this one, I made it 800, 800.
I think it also makes bg's better if you make them square(in my case 640x640), especially if your using the new landscape manila. I know on touch pro, the rotation works better with bg's that don't have to be stretched.
BackgroundAsyncImageFactoryLoader = AsyncImageFactoryLoader()
BackgroundAsyncImageFactoryLoader.Priority = TaskPriority_BelowNormal
BackgroundAsyncImageFactoryLoader.Quality = 100
BackgroundAsyncImageFactoryLoader.OnComplete:connect(BackgroundImageResized)
BackgroundAsyncImageFactoryLoader:ResizeImage(machineStatus.HomeBackgroundPath.Value, CachedImagePath, EncoderType_JPEG, 800, 800, true, false)
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Click to collapse
Does anyone know what the true, false is at the end of that line?
Re Wallpaper Resolution
I'm sorry but the Wallpaper you have as an original is of such poor quality that no phones resolution could correct it. I have a Touch HD myself and have made many Themes for all different phone resolutions and now for my new phone as well and have never had trouble getting what I expected and I use all of the graphic formats ie: .png .jpg etc.
For WVGA the Backgrounds actually need to be 480 x 696 for portrait and 800 x 366 for Landscape, what has not been taken into account is the size of the top and bottom bars which are both 52 pixcels adding up to 104 pixcels this needs to be subtracted from the overall size.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=492857&highlight=touchflo+vista
stickfigure said:
Have you tried interlacing your .pngs? I realized that interlacing my images for manilla 2D themes helped. I was also under the impression that HTC has some special compression going on with their images, but while saving my images in photoshop, I save them in .png and select interlace option in the end. Try it.
Here's what's up:
1. When you save images for your pocket PC, they DO have to be in a loss less format, such as .png... This goes for Homescreen backgrounds as well, so when you save a picture off your phone camera, it'll be pixelation by default because they're usually in .jpeg format.
2. When you save images in Photoshop, in a format like .png. Save them as Interlaced images, or they'll come out crappy on the device.
3. If you are using the color overlay feature in Photoshop to, say, change the color of the image, There will be pixelation if there are any gradients in the picture. Most of the images in the Manilla 2D theme files have gradients, so almost all of them result in pixelation. What you have to do for those is: Zoom in and use the Blur tool (Smart Blur filter on larger images.) to smooth out the pixelation!
Hope this works for other people, and if someone can contribute anything else, it would also be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I tried. I tried interlacing both PNG and GIF's, I also tried different color depths, and all supported picture formats. It had no impact.
The thing is images don't look crappy on the device - when you view them in Album application, they look excellent. Actually, they look better then on my 30" Apple cinema screen, because HD has such huge pixel density.
However, when you apply these images to act as wallpapers on Home screen, they drop in quality and sharpness so much that it degrades the whole device appearance. And this is very annoying
grzegorz10 said:
I'm sorry but the Wallpaper you have as an original is of such poor quality that no phones resolution could correct it. I have a Touch HD myself and have made many Themes for all different phone resolutions and now for my new phone as well and have never had trouble getting what I expected and I use all of the graphic formats ie: .png .jpg etc.
For WVGA the Backgrounds actually need to be 480 x 696 for portrait and 800 x 366 for Landscape, what has not been taken into account is the size of the top and bottom bars which are both 52 pixcels adding up to 104 pixcels this needs to be subtracted from the overall size.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=492857&highlight=touchflo+vista
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The image I attached is 600% blown up version, that's not full size wallpaper.
And it doesn't matter what kind of quality of image I use - the images always appear much less sharp and with reduced quality when applied to home screen wallpaper.
Also, I don't think you're right about 480x696. That is the "visible" area of the screen, but homescreen wallpaper will always be used in 100% if the width is 480 or height 800. It might get cropped tough, can't say that for sure.
But, for example lets say you want to use image that is 800x800 in original resolution. When you set it as wallpaper, it will not be resized to fit 696 height, but rather it will be cropped on the sides, and the top and bottom bars will cover the top areas of the image. But there will be no scaling involved. This can be easily tested simply by overlaying the original image over the captured image of the device.
showaco said:
Here, try this file out. Make a backup copy of yours unless its cooked in rom, that way you can delete this if necessary. It makes a difference for me. In this section of script, I changed the values to 200, 200 and it was reeeeeally crappy. I did that when I was checking effect. Originally it was 512, 512. In this one, I made it 800, 800.
I think it also makes bg's better if you make them square(in my case 640x640), especially if your using the new landscape manila. I know on touch pro, the rotation works better with bg's that don't have to be stretched.
Does anyone know what the true, false is at the end of that line?
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Click to collapse
Hey, thanks! I have tested this, using 640x640 images, as well as 800x480, and 800x800. I can't say if it's a placebo effect, but the image does look slightly better.
Could I ask you to make a few versions of this file with parameters that can be substracted by 512? Because if I remember correctly, Manila likes those 512 numbers. So, if you would be so kind to make 1024x1024, 1536x1536, and 2048x2048.
I would be glad to test them to see if there are any further improvements over this issue.
Ok, I tested everything again with a different wallpaper, so there's no more question whether the source file is good quality.
I think this image is suitable, because it has a lot of small details, but also large areas with soft transitions, so we can see the effect of compression on both the detail and the textures.
I also tested 696 file, and as I said earlier - it has absolutely no positive effect to image quality.
I have also noticed that in fact even the HTC Album applies some sort of image compression, but it's much much less visible! You can notice the effect of this on the dark area transitions. However, it's barely noticable when viewed on the device.
Perhaps if someone who knows where the HTC Album Manila files are, maybe it would be possible to compare them with the files that control compression in Home screen? Perhaps it would be enough just to copy the settings for HTC Album? Just an idea...
I'm attaching the files, they speak for themselves.
ok i've search in the registry with:
compress
quality
jpg
wallpaper
desktop
but nothing
BadCluster said:
ok i've search in the registry with:
compress
quality
jpg
wallpaper
desktop
but nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So did I Same results.
I don't think it's that simple anymore. We probably need to combine 2 things: the edited Manila file to support graphics up to 800 pixels, a way to easily compress a photo with ATC compression and then make Manila use it.
OK, I think I finally figured out some stuff. First of all, we knew from before that wallpaper image for landscape was made out of 2 bitmaps.
However, it seems that this is the same case with the portrait wallpaper as well.
Digging through Manila graphic files I've found that indeed the maximum image size is 512x512pixels. So, in order to get the 480x696 pixel needed to cover the whole visible screen area, guys from HTC simply used 2 images, each with 512x512 resolution, but first actually covering 480x512 area, and the second 480x184.
Together, as you can see, they make 480x696.
But, what happens when you load 800x400 pixel image?
Most likely that the image first gets cropped to 480x696 dimensions, and after that top part (480x512) is put into one file, and the bottom part (480x184) is put into a separate file. They both get compressed with that ugly algorithm and that's why we end up with crappy looking wallpaper photos.
Files involved are:
LANDSCAPE:
29cff4fe_bglevel0_landscape_left.png
058acf31_bglevel0_landscape_right.png
PORTRAIT:
70083a29_bg_level0.png
77feee1d_bg_level0_bottom.png
Now, it's clear that Manila indeed does support full resolution, but because the wallpaper is being split into 2 parts and compressed, we have poor image quality. What brings us back to my first idea - is there a way to disable this compression, or increase the quality of the compressed photo by somehow forcing the compression algorithm to produce higher quality images?
Another way would be to use a Manila editor, cut the images into 2 manually, update old Manila default wallpaper files and always use the default background.
This is of course major pain in the a$$ to do each time you want to simply change a wallpaper.
Oh and by the way, for the record, I just manually updated these Manila graphic files, overwrote the old ones and I'm looking at my full-resolution wallpaper right now.
So, this obviously can be done. The question is can it be automatized?
this is a tricky subject.. well i've always edited the 4 manila files to create my wallpapers on my Raphael.. well i also tried background for all tab but that's kinda buggy in the prosess of when i change from portrait to landscape.. well it's like the background for all tab app kinda takes the image i want as background and overlap the 4 manila files that has to be edited manually to make a great background,... well anyway i'm stuck with the same thoughts as this thread states... it's not so fun to always have to edit those manila files to create a good background and so forth...
Is there any registry tweak that will allow you to zoom in closer with the album viewer software. It works great for the files I view but I need to be able to zoom in much more than it allows
Thanks
Mike
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can zoom in as far as the resolution of each image allows. I have some pretty high-res photo's (taken on a digital SLR) and I can zoom in on them until I start to see pixels. If you have low-res pics, you'll start seeing pixels much sooner.
Zooming in any further would be useless since it can't add any detail, you'll just see pixels the size of Lego blocks.
Edit: I realize you may want to examine an image pixel-per-pixel for some reason. In that case, sorry, I can't help.
Thanks for your response, If I could zoom in that close it would be great. I have some hi resolution files anywhere from 6-10 MB which open fine but I can only zoom in about 3 levels. If I could go to the level you describe, it would more than meet my needs.
Hm... Maybe there is a limit after all. I must admit I haven't tried any files in the 10mb region.
I've taken a quick look in the registry but I haven't come across anything that looks like it might solve this. Sorry.
I looked in the registry too but couldn't find any reference to HTCalbum at all. Guess I'll just have to start trying all the demos of the photo apps again...
There's a bunch of stuff under 'HKLM/Software/HTC/HTCAlbum'. Maybe you can find something I overlooked there.
Thanks, don't know why Resco didn't find that ref, I thought it scanned all directories. I couldn't find anything there either. I did change a dword from 2 to 3 in wheelzoomin frames but that didn't do anything obvious so I changed it back. Wonder if HTC support might be able to help, I've read that they're quick to respond to customer software issues but since this is more of a preference issue vs buggy software they may not offer up much.
Yeah, today I copied a 78 mega pixel image (actually a map) to my Leo and to my surprise, I can't zoom more than a certain amount in HTC Album. Anyone know a fix for this?
use resco photo manager, that one allows you to zoom in much more than the htc album. The newest version also supports multi-touch!
thanx! Tried resco; I'm flattered how they implemented multi touch this soon! only a month and a half after Leo's release.
It's really nice and fast (even faster refresh time than htc album) but I wish u could disable multi touch rotation. It's constantly confusing pinch with rotation.