Apple FaceTime is leaps and bounds more advanced than Hangouts - Nexus 7 (2013) General

Hello folks,
I have noticed that the video call experience on Android yields pixelated grainy images regardless of device and network I use.
I have tried Hangouts, Skype and various other video call apps on: two different Samsung Note 3's, a Samsung Galaxy S4, a Nexus 7 2013 and a Nexus 4.
I have attempted using WiFi, HSPA+ and also using LTE. Regardless of the device, the app, AND the connection, the quality of the video was horrendous at best.
And then I tried using FaceTime, which produced high quality HD video. I was mind blown.
I fully know that the front facing cameras on each and every single device I have is high definition capable.
So tell me... why are we forced to suffer terrible quality video call while a simple iPod touch can stomp on us like toy soldiers?

Facetime is awesome BUT only works with iOS. I found hangouts to be good but people seem less likely to vid chat
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Related

Front camera quality?

Hi there.
I've been thinking about buying the Tab 2 10.1 or the Note 10.1 but I'm in a bit of a struggle witch one I should go for
because I'll be using it a quite with Skype on the go with my family and I was wondering the quality through the front camera.
I know the Tab 2 has only a VGA and the Note has 1.9 MP but there is a bit of a price difference on those two tabs.
So my questions are witch one should I go for and how is the video quality on the front camera on the Tab 2?
I'll also use the tab to surfing the web, email, little note taking, watch movie and listening to music
Thanks
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
get the note, if you are going to be a power user, i.e. work, making documents, etc.
get the tab 2, if you are going to just goof around.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G with Beats Audio using Tapatalk 2
Note of course quad core processor and better specifications overall
Sent from Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Tab2
Mohamedselim said:
Note of course quad core processor and better specifications overall
Sent from Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Tab2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And a bigger price tag to go with it.
A higher resolution video stream is going to require a lot more bandwidth to use on both ends. Also, isn't the important thing just being able to see the other person clearly? What is the need for a high resolution camera for video chat? In the limited use I've given my FFC, it looks good enough. I'd never replace a normal camera with it, but I feel it would be fine for video chatting.
It depends on your use , if you want to use it as primary device or just for light surfing and chatting
I think the life span or period note will stay with you will be more as better specifications may mean you will not need to change it soon, but it depends on the software updates , when will it stop officially and unofficially
Sent from Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Tab2
Hi there again and sorry for late response but I've been busy in work.
Thanks for the replies. I think I'm leaning towards the Note 10.1 but still not sure. It's a difficult one for me. I think I'm mostly affraid that if choose
the Tab 2 I'll maybe regred not spending more and get the higher spec. tablet or if choose the not I'll regred spending too much on something I
didn't really need. The tablet will be a primary device and replacing my laptop in a way, of course not fully as the tablet doesn't support
everything a laptop or a PC does, but mostly.
If I decide on the Note I know I will not be using the S-Pen very much but I like the fact it can split the screen and use 2 apps at once because I
like surfing the web while I'm watching a episode or movie.
I will be video chatting mainly on my home wifi but also some on cellular connection and of course, like someone pointed it out, the most
important goal is for the other person to see me clearly.
I went to the local store to play with both tablets and checked out the difference between both front cameras and there is a big quality
difference but the quality in the camera app is not the same as when you are chatting through a video call through the internet and that was the
reason why I asked about the quality on Tab 2 front camera.

"Virtual Surround" feature on nexus 7?

Does anybody notice difference on sound on other tablet? or this is just another ad gimmick?
just feel louder than previous nexus 7
AFAIK the option is only available in Play Movies.
Even normal stuff, the sound is pretty cool. I really like it. Nice and loud and sounds good.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
The speakers themselves are quite good, and by far better than last year's Nexus 7.
I can't say much about the virtual surround since I immediately flashed a rooted ROM after I got it and it (probably) removed that feature. I've been between a few ROMs since and the best I've seen is the DSP Manager.
I've noticed improve loudness and clarity at louder volumes on the new Nexus 7 as well. Compared to other tablets I've heard I would say the quality is very good.
As for the surround feature, I can say the only video/audio where I have noticed a separation between speakers was the nexus 7 video they uploaded to demonstrate the surround feature.
It is hard to tell the "surround" part and sometimes I hear it when using the speakers, but I definitely can hear the stereo stuff (left channel vs right channel). I did notice some sort of surround sound with headphones on while watching breaking bad the other day
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
The feature is only in the Play Movies app, if you open it up it should ask if you want to hear a demo
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Is the audio when recording and shooting video fixed?

The S4 and Note 3 have this issue, random and quite annoying popping when recording audio. I was really disappointed when I heard it on the Note 3! Hopefully it has been fixed on the S5!
Can anyone confirm whether or not it's there?
popping? my s4 never had any pops. it recorded amazing audio.
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
cpufrost said:
The S4 and Note 3 have this issue, random and quite annoying popping when recording audio. I was really disappointed when I heard it on the Note 3! Hopefully it has been fixed on the S5!
Can anyone confirm whether or not it's there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We'll see when I get mine. I'll let you know. But I think, it'll not be there for some S4 and Note 3, there's no popping when they record.
I've had numerous S4 and Note III samples through my hands and they have this issue. It's not an isolated issue. My Note II, HTC One, G2, iPhone 3/4/5s etc. have no such issues whatsoever. Normally I record video and audio separately but the argument (the best camera is the one you have with you) applies to a cell phone to capture things as they happen, unplanned. It's annoying to have these sounds in the audio.
cpufrost said:
The S4 and Note 3 have this issue, random and quite annoying popping when recording audio. I was really disappointed when I heard it on the Note 3! Hopefully it has been fixed on the S5!
Can anyone confirm whether or not it's there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have an example of the issue?
weird i never experienced such thing on s3, n2, s4..
like I said, I've recorded plenty of guitar videos with my s4, through a Marshall dsl100 stack, which is loud and bassy, and it never ever ever had a problem with audio. it was always so clear and detailed, albeit only 128kbps. my g2 has that horrible underwater wishy-washy sound that makes the video camera unusable. I've never once seen audio artifacting on the s4. I had the snapdragon version, maybe you had the exynos?
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
my audio was terrible on my S3 when recording video at festivals/concerts...hope this is fixed on the S5...everyone i know that has iPhones has no issue recording loud audio.
jayochs said:
like I said, I've recorded plenty of guitar videos with my s4, through a Marshall dsl100 stack, which is loud and bassy, and it never ever ever had a problem with audio. it was always so clear and detailed, albeit only 128kbps. my g2 has that horrible underwater wishy-washy sound that makes the video camera unusable. I've never once seen audio artifacting on the s4. I had the snapdragon version, maybe you had the exynos?
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the problem is not with loud music like other devices which hard clip especially on kick drum hits...
This popping noise is most common when it's very quiet like recording at night with just the crickets outside...
And yes the audio was completely unusable on the G2 for me as well, if you recorded video in a loud cafe, no problem. But as soon as you went into a quiet area the gain levelers started getting really confused and there was all kinds of problems with sound. Ashame too since its camera (G2) was so nice...
Back to the S5, I have one in hand and while I have not put it through the gears my preliminary findings reveal a completely changed recording from the S4/Note3 hardware. The AGC does tend to bring up the levels higher when ambient sound changes but at least there's no nasty pops. The pops on the S4/Note3 can be removed with a click/decrackle plugin on most DAW software but they shouldn't be in there in the first place. This looks promising.
The video low light performance looks very good, I was shining a focused down aspheric torch (flashlight) around the pasture at long range and the screen was 100% black except where the beam was hitting objects at hundreds of yards away (barn, trees, etc.) and the detail looked shockingly good! I viewed the video on my Macbook Pro w/ retina display so it's a valid test.
Have not tried to see if it's IR filtered. Tonight we'll have the burn barrels going, that's the best IR test I know of without taking it to the lab.
These processors are so powerful it would be nice if they gave us the option of lossless audio recording and even a RAW photo option, although these tiny sensors would need a LOT of post processing to make the images useable. Still, however I always find that RAW+ Photoshop CS6 post processing looks better than the camera's aggressive post processing tuned for speed and convenience. With a 128GB microSD card, RAW+JPG would be fine.
BoneXDA said:
Do you have an example of the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not me/my video, but this is exactly how it sounds. Both the S4 and Note3 do the same exact thing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngwTBJ5ew08
pizzlewizzle said:
my audio was terrible on my S3 when recording video at festivals/concerts...hope this is fixed on the S5...everyone i know that has iPhones has no issue recording loud audio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I have several concerts recorded in 2012 and the audio clips worse than these kids with their pyramid amp powered systems playing hip hop with the bass turned to 11!
That's why I always record audio and video on separate devices. They won't allow a real camera (no cams with removable lenses that is!) in most venues...
I was at a gig on Friday night and sadly all my videos have distorted sound quality. Issue stll exists..
Sent from my SM-G900I using xda app-developers app
I'm just back from a gig, i took a vid it seems fine on the phone a little blown out, but then again i was pretty near the speakers.
prot- said:
I was at a gig on Friday night and sadly all my videos have distorted sound quality. Issue stll exists..
Sent from my SM-G900I using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, common issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka0Oa4HYr6Y
I can confirm the popping is present in my unit too. Had it on S4 as well. It tends to occur less when the sound is turned to minimum while recording.
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Nexus 5X Video & Sound quality

How does everyone rate the video quality of this phone...for me its a bit of a deal breaker...
Here is a bit of footage I took at Fleetwood Mac last night....I am far from that person who watches a concert thru their phone, how ever some times I like to get a snippet of footage or record some sound of something I like, and this might actually be a deal breaker for me with this phone....which is sad...unless there is of course another 3rd party app that might be able to handle this better?
In this video below, I record a snippet with my new 5X and a snippet with the my girls iphone 6S....the sound on the nexus is atrocious, and when you playback the same footage on the 6S, the sound it records actually captures below 80hz..and sounds phenomenal given the circumstances..
I can't post this properly cause I haven't made over 10 posts....doh!
youtu.be/CSHaYO2bsu4
I know there is a price difference between these 2 phones...but the price for the nexus isnt exactly cheap in Aus....so I expect it to perform....maybe I'm asking to much...
Thanks for that, it's really sad again. There must be a way to get information about it from Google/LG if this is somehow addressed in the future. Given the Nexus 4 and 5, i doubt it. My order seems to be on it's way to me, but i really think about taking the Moto X Pure instead, although i'd prefer the Nexus 5X/6Ps camera.
Yeah, it almost sounds like poor compression and gain settings to me
Can also see the differences in image stabilization. I agree the sound is much better on the iPhone. However, the 5X sounds better than I expected, given my experience with previous Android phones. I'm really impressed with the iPhone. I bet the 5X can be improved with software but I wonder if Google has to do it or if an app can...
Sent from my Nexus 5X using XDA Free mobile app

Terrible Facetime alternatives on Android

I tried Hangouts, Skype and Viber and was thoroughly disappointed with the quality. Opposed to Facetime, the sound was delayed preventing a normal conversation, and the picture was extremely pixelated. This in spite of having a good 4g signal and later a strong wi-fi signal.
Is the fault somehow on my side or is the Android videocalls seriously lacking behind Facetime? If the latter, why?!? What holy grail did Apple discover to make video calling so smooth and what prevents android from adopting this technology?
Facetime uses H265 on newer devices, this allows double the quality on the same connection. Wait till Duo by Google comes out in the Summer. The Verge had a chance to use it and they've said it is the quickest video chat app they've ever seen, better than Facetime
As far as I understand H265 is only supported on iphone 6 and up. Whenever I use facetime on my iphone 5, it is smooth as butter and never any audio delay.
So even before H265, apple must have used a technology which never was embraced by any android developers. I just wonder why.
Well - seems there is hope with Duo. Fingers crossed or I will have to keep my iphone just for facetime.
You can also try Tango, which has good (not best) quality when you have a good connection.
I get excellent video quality with Skype but it works a bit different than Facetime. The skype video call will start pixelated and will get better over time. After about 1 minute you should see it improves significantly. Remember that both sides of the convo needs to have good connectivity speed.
Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk
I find Viber to be pretty good, they all have good and bad moments, when Viber does't work well, I try Skype, when that doesn't work, Facebook Messenger, one of the 3 always seems to come through. Not ideal, but, for the price of free, can't really complain.
Try Tango. worked for me in the past. Or use snapchat's video calling feature. reception sux sometimes.

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