Database Users

720p vs 1080p video recording

Do you typically record 720p or 1080p video? I use 720p because the files are smaller and I own a 720p tv. I wondered if 720p might offer better quality in low light conditions because it can average over more pixels in the sensor?
Also if the phone cpu is working too hard at 1080p does it reduce quality by upping compression and increasing lossyness?
Or is 1080p substantially better choice with the only downside being bigger files?
Generally I've found video IQ to be some what independent of resolution (on other devices) because compression generally goes up with resolution negating a lot of the benefits.
Thoughts?

Im using 720p cos it seems to me more clear and more smooth playing...plus less zoom.....
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

So 720p plays back smoother? Just on the phone screen or over hdmi?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

jdurston said:
Do you typically record 720p or 1080p video? I use 720p because the files are smaller and I own a 720p tv. I wondered if 720p might offer better quality in low light conditions because it can average over more pixels in the sensor?
Also if the phone cpu is working too hard at 1080p does it reduce quality by upping compression and increasing lossyness?
Or is 1080p substantially better choice with the only downside being bigger files?
Generally I've found video IQ to be some what independent of resolution (on other devices) because compression generally goes up with resolution negating a lot of the benefits.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, due to the binning would select the less noisier pixels and thus, the 720p video quality [except for resolution ofc ] would be much better.

I prefer 720p mode, only because of the field of view, it's just too narrow angle in 1080 mode.
Suppose it could come in handy if wanting to shoot something more distant but for indoor work it's not wide enough.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

For me only 720p, because in 1080p I get a thin, purple line over the image that's also recorded into the vid, making my 1080 mode effectively broken.

I always thought 1080 as higher quality than 720p. Maybe for mobile this is different? Any source or test for this?

I'll try and shoot some comparison footage tomorrow.
Not sure if YouTube's compression will make the difference impossible to tell though.

Si14 said:
I always thought 1080 as higher quality than 720p. Maybe for mobile this is different? Any source or test for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a totally different matter. Yes, 1080 pixels are "higher" than 720, obviously . But there are other factors also on our device.
I just record in 720p. Never really compared the two, but I don't need 1080p usually, so I' don't need those huge files either.

Good discussion on here, guess I'll have to switch to 720p now on.

I tried recording an apple in the 2 modes and to my surprise the 720p mode is indeed much clearer and wider then 1080p.
Go for 720p

I prefer 720 p... for my the quality is enought and the size of the videos is so better.
Regards

[Q] Nexus 7 video resolution and video streaming

So the NExus 7 has a resolution of 1200x800, which is very close to the native 720p resolution size.
My question is, when streaming a 1080p video file on the nexus 7, will it look any better than a video size with a resolution of 1200x800 or 720p?
Wouldn't it be better to convert the resolution of 1080p videos to 1200x800 so reduce file size yet reduce absolutely no quality?
During this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOqn62m49S0#t=11m55s the guy plays a 720p file and 1080p file, they are streamed from a usb drive but how does the performance differ on the two even though they are playing on the nexus 7 screen, so are being outputted at 1200x800?
Another question I have is can I stream a 1080p video file using micro HDMI cable from the Nexus7 to a 1080p capable TV? Will the Nexus 7 GPU output 1080p on the TV full screen?
Help is very much appreciated!

Lanky09 said:
So the NExus 7 has a resolution of 1200x800, which is very close to the native 720p resolution size.
My question is, when streaming a 1080p video file on the nexus 7, will it look any better than a video size with a resolution of 1200x800 or 720p?
Wouldn't it be better to convert the resolution of 1080p videos to 1200x800 so reduce file size yet reduce absolutely no quality?
During this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOqn62m49S0#t=11m55s the guy plays a 720p file and 1080p file, they are streamed from a usb drive but how does the performance differ on the two even though they are playing on the nexus 7 screen, so are being outputted at 1200x800?
Another question I have is can I stream a 1080p video file using micro HDMI cable from the Nexus7 to a 1080p capable TV? Will the Nexus 7 GPU output 1080p on the TV full screen?
Help is very much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nexus 7 doesn't have a micro hdmi. So that's not gonna work. Only a mini USB but you can use an otg (on the go) cable to attach a flashdrive with movies you would like to watch. 1080P and 720P are compressed differently. 1080P is a much heavier format so if you really want the full 1080P experience your gonna have to stream the full size video which can be around 10gb. By reducing a 1080P video you can stream it easier and it will still be HD but quality will be less. 1080P is always going to look better than 720P because it is compressed so many times so the picture is literally made tighter increasing clarity. Lets say you took a 5mp picture and a 8mp picture and looked at them on the nexus 7 when you look closely at the pictures you can see the clarity difference between the 5 and 8 MP. Compression is what makes the biggest difference. You are cramming more and more information into a tiny place. So 1080P will look nicer on the nexus 7 but so will 720 but the details will be clearer on 1080P even though the nexus 7 outputs in a lesser resolution. But the difference will be harder to see on a smaller screen but much more noticeable in a bigger screen. But streaming a 1080P can be choppy because eventhough they are being displayed at the same resolution they are being input differently. Sorry for the long explanation
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app

zippox180 said:
The nexus 7 doesn't have a micro hdmi. So that's not gonna work. Only a mini USB but you can use an otg (on the go) cable to attach a flashdrive with movies you would like to watch. 1080P and 720P are compressed differently. 1080P is a much heavier format so if you really want the full 1080P experience your gonna have to stream the full size video which can be around 10gb. By reducing a 1080P video you can stream it easier and it will still be HD but quality will be less. 1080P is always going to look better than 720P because it is compressed so many times so the picture is literally made tighter increasing clarity. Lets say you took a 5mp picture and a 8mp picture and looked at them on the nexus 7 when you look closely at the pictures you can see the clarity difference between the 5 and 8 MP. Compression is what makes the biggest difference. You are cramming more and more information into a tiny place. So 1080P will look nicer on the nexus 7 but so will 720 but the details will be clearer on 1080P even though the nexus 7 outputs in a lesser resolution. But the difference will be harder to see on a smaller screen but much more noticeable in a bigger screen. But streaming a 1080P can be choppy because eventhough they are being displayed at the same resolution they are being input differently. Sorry for the long explanation
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so is it possible to make a 1080p file reduced in resolution but not as compressed? So it still includes the detail you are talking about?
I thought that the pixel resolution was the main quality aspect of a video being outputted.
For the micro usb, i meant a micro usb to hdmi cable you can buy? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitvision-Micro-HDMI-Adapter-Cable/dp/B005TF2F2W

Lanky09 said:
Ok so is it possible to make a 1080p file reduced in resolution but not as compressed? So it still includes the detail you are talking about?
I thought that the pixel resolution was the main quality aspect of a video being outputted.
For the micro usb, i meant a micro usb to hdmi cable you can buy? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitvision-Micro-HDMI-Adapter-Cable/dp/B005TF2F2W
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mhl is not currently supported on the nexus 7. So no micro USB to hdmi. 1080 P is the resolution so if your going to reduce that then it wouldn't be 1080P. It might be 1080 I which is less but 720 P and 1080 I equal out to the same resolution. Honestly 720P is going to give you plenty of clarity and I wouldn't stress about 1080 P. Unless you have 1080 P movies downloaded I wouldn't worry about it.
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app

zippox180 said:
The nexus 7 doesn't have a micro hdmi. So that's not gonna work. Only a mini USB but you can use an otg (on the go) cable to attach a flashdrive with movies you would like to watch. 1080P and 720P are compressed differently. 1080P is a much heavier format so if you really want the full 1080P experience your gonna have to stream the full size video which can be around 10gb. By reducing a 1080P video you can stream it easier and it will still be HD but quality will be less. 1080P is always going to look better than 720P because it is compressed so many times so the picture is literally made tighter increasing clarity. Lets say you took a 5mp picture and a 8mp picture and looked at them on the nexus 7 when you look closely at the pictures you can see the clarity difference between the 5 and 8 MP. Compression is what makes the biggest difference. You are cramming more and more information into a tiny place. So 1080P will look nicer on the nexus 7 but so will 720 but the details will be clearer on 1080P even though the nexus 7 outputs in a lesser resolution. But the difference will be harder to see on a smaller screen but much more noticeable in a bigger screen. But streaming a 1080P can be choppy because eventhough they are being displayed at the same resolution they are being input differently. Sorry for the long explanation
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Zippox your making a mistake. You are confusing scaling and compression. Compression determines files size, clarity (less pixels). Scaling which is done by your set top box, DVD/blu-ray player, computer, smart phone, tablet just makes it fit to screen or what ever size it needs to be. Will 1080p look better on nexus then a 720p that's a yes/no answer. It will depend on how much each file was compressed. Generally a 1080p file is compressed much less then a 720p. Why? Cause its resolution is too huge. Which means compression (blocks aka pixels, seeing weird shadow/dark areas move, blurry images) can be easily seen if its not done right. If you set a 1080p file and 720p file and compress them the same bit rate as the 1080 and view it on a 7" native 720p screen you will not notice a difference. Why one will be scaled down and the other will not be scaled at all. Clarity will be equal at that point. Now once that 720p file has to scale up then its defects will be shown regardless of actual screen size. And trust me you will never stream a 10gb file. You can download a 10gb file but you will never stream that. Those stream sites actually offer two completely different files. The streaming file is much more compressed. Why server load, then actual internet speeds. That would have too much strain on the server. This is why streaming is not an alternative to actually owning the file. And the digital download is not as good as its blu-ray medium.
But scaling and compression are not the same. And you were getting them confused. There is no point in a 1080p file for the nexus 7. Unless you have it 1" from your face and straining your eyes you will not see the difference if its encoded (compressed) properly. 1080p scaled down to 1280x720 will look just how its supposed to at 1920x1080 you just need to be closer to the screen. But then make that fit on 7" and 720p scaled down. That's just waisting space on the nexus7. a 30 minute anime file at 720p is generally 250-350mb. Its 1080p counterpart is usually 700mb. And it will look the same on your tablet. The only difference will be based on source material. TV capture vs blu-ray rip.
Then there is compressors. H264 8bit, h264 10 bit, divx, xvid, wmv, mpeg2. This will also define how the video looks. H264 10bit is the current best compressor. You can have a h264 10bit compressed lower (in megabytes) then h264 8bit and it will look just as good as its higher filer size h264 8bit. But naturally they will compress it less to completely blow h264 8bit out the water.
None of this has anything to do with scaling. Scaling down you see less but still looks very clean, and clear. Scaling up makes for a sloppy mess. And lesser you compress the less of a mess it will look but it will not ever look as good as native or less. And scaling of actual screen you should never see a difference as long as resolution of screen isn't touch.
There are two meanings for scaling and 1 for compression. Scaling resolution, scaling actual TV. Compression is only for file size which determines the actual quality. Overly compress it will look horrible. There is no under compress. Scale up from files resolution will degrade any image.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

N7's resolution is 1280*800 and you should use 720p video as 1080p would just be a waste of space.

densetsu86 said:
Zippox your making a mistake. You are confusing scaling and compression. Compression determines files size, clarity (less pixels). Scaling which is done by your set top box, DVD/blu-ray player, computer, smart phone, tablet just makes it fit to screen or what ever size it needs to be. Will 1080p look better on nexus then a 720p that's a yes/no answer. It will depend on how much each file was compressed. Generally a 1080p file is compressed much less then a 720p. Why? Cause its resolution is too huge. Which means compression (blocks aka pixels, seeing weird shadow/dark areas move, blurry images) can be easily seen if its not done right. If you set a 1080p file and 720p file and compress them the same bit rate as the 1080 and view it on a 7" native 720p screen you will not notice a difference. Why one will be scaled down and the other will not be scaled at all. Clarity will be equal at that point. Now once that 720p file has to scale up then its defects will be shown regardless of actual screen size. And trust me you will never stream a 10gb file. You can download a 10gb file but you will never stream that. Those stream sites actually offer two completely different files. The streaming file is much more compressed. Why server load, then actual internet speeds. That would have too much strain on the server. This is why streaming is not an alternative to actually owning the file. And the digital download is not as good as its blu-ray medium.
But scaling and compression are not the same. And you were getting them confused. There is no point in a 1080p file for the nexus 7. Unless you have it 1" from your face and straining your eyes you will not see the difference if its encoded (compressed) properly. 1080p scaled down to 1280x720 will look just how its supposed to at 1920x1080 you just need to be closer to the screen. But then make that fit on 7" and 720p scaled down. That's just waisting space on the nexus7. a 30 minute anime file at 720p is generally 250-350mb. Its 1080p counterpart is usually 700mb. And it will look the same on your tablet. The only difference will be based on source material. TV capture vs blu-ray rip.
Then there is compressors. H264 8bit, h264 10 bit, divx, xvid, wmv, mpeg2. This will also define how the video looks. H264 10bit is the current best compressor. You can have a h264 10bit compressed lower (in megabytes) then h264 8bit and it will look just as good as its higher filer size h264 8bit. But naturally they will compress it less to completely blow h264 8bit out the water.
None of this has anything to do with scaling. Scaling down you see less but still looks very clean, and clear. Scaling up makes for a sloppy mess. And lesser you compress the less of a mess it will look but it will not ever look as good as native or less. And scaling of actual screen you should never see a difference as long as resolution of screen isn't touch.
There are two meanings for scaling and 1 for compression. Scaling resolution, scaling actual TV. Compression is only for file size which determines the actual quality. Overly compress it will look horrible. There is no under compress. Scale up from files resolution will degrade any image.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I should have made it clearer. Compression and scaling are different yes. Compression is taking a file size that is large and compressing it into a smaller size to fit. So taking a 1080P picture and watching it on the nexus 7 will look great. SCALING that 1080P picture to fit a 720P picture will change its resolution so that a 1920x1080 will fit on a 1280x720 size screen. Clarity will always go down regardless. Unless you are upstaging in which case it depends on your source. ENCODING is taking that same picture and converting into a different codec say xvid to avi. How you encode that picture (bitrate, codec,resolution) will determine the output quality. So bottom line 1080P will look better than 720P. But that's why I said don't sweat it on the nexus 7 because the difference will be minor. On a last note I stream Blu-ray rips at 10gb-15gb from my PC to my xbox all the time but unless your internet has an extremely high upload you will get choppy playback. Again sorry if I wasn't clear.
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 10:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 AM ----------
galax_ said:
N7's resolution is 1280*800 and you should use 720p video as 1080p would just be a waste of space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's pretty much what I was trying to say lol but i load my movies on a flash and use an otg so I never actually lose my space on my nexus 7
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app

Question on 720p vs 1080p playback

So for the longest time, my Note 3 always lagged a bit with 1080p videos, but a few days ago when I just updated to the newest MX Player, 1080p videos now play perfectly.
A majority of my videos are encoded in 720p mainly because 1080p couldn't play right, but now I'm thinking of re-encoding all my movies in 1080p. My question is will it make a difference in quality? I can always tell the difference in quality when I watch on my 42 inch TV since there's some distance between me and my TV, but when I watch my videos on my phone, I usually have it in front of my face pretty close. Would a video in 1080p make a difference to a 720p video even on a small 5 inch phone? I can tell a huge difference between another one of my phone which is 4 inch (480p) vs my Note 3 (720p) when playing videos. I just want to know if there is no real difference, I was going to keep 720p because 1080p videos are damn huge.
Sorry for the long question. Kudos to anyone who has any knowledge on this subject.

The fact is 1080p will technically appear better than 720p. Whether or not you notice the difference will depend on how well your eyes are attuned to high pixel images. While I've never done a comparison on my note 3 I have clearly noticed the difference on an 8in tablet. I can notice pixelation on 4k images and higher but I've been exposing my eyes to them for years now. I honestly don't think it would bother you (or me) if watching videos, but if you are ocd like me and have the original files at higher resolution with the storage space I would probably make all my videos the highest res available based on the original (understanding that without high end video editing software there is no benefit to increasing resolution beyond the original).

Oops I forgot to mention. I actually never had problems with 1080p videos. It was always the ones that were encoded in 10bit + 1080p that lagged. With the latest version of MX Player, SW decoder can actually play the damn thing without much lag. And this is with the subtitle enabled which is pretty amazing.
My eyesight is pretty horrible so maybe I won't notice the sharpness of 1080p much...
Edit - So I tested a few videos. Looks like I overestimated the SW decoding. It's definitely come a long way because there isn't as much as lag as before, but there IS still lag. I actually tested some 10bit 1080p with insanely high bitrates and it lags like a mother still. The lag isn't as bad as before, but it is still there. Guess I will just stick with 10bit 720p for now. No matter how much better 1080p may look, it doesn't beat 720p with perfect playback and no annoying lags.

You brought up the one thing I forgot to mention about differences between the two, bitrate. When it comes to encoded videos (not on a disc), bitrate is almost everything when it comes to quality. My previous post holds true as long as the bitrate remains comparable. If a 720p video has a significantly higher bitrate than a 1080p video, the 720p will view better in almost every scenario.
I don't know at what point the Note 3 will be unable to support smooth playback, but depending on what format you have encoded your videos will determine the quality. What I do know is that bluray level bitrate if far too high for the Note 3. I would take a guess that somewhere between 3000 - 4000 kbps would be the limited to what the hardware could handle but I could be mistaken. What I do know is that using MP4 (or MKV with MP4 encoding) at around 2k kbps is close to the same visual quality (on smaller screens) as any container using H.264 encoding at 3k-4k kbps.

kinstre11 said:
You brought up the one thing I forgot to mention about differences between the two, bitrate. When it comes to encoded videos (not on a disc), bitrate is almost everything when it comes to quality. My previous post holds true as long as the bitrate remains comparable. If a 720p video has a significantly higher bitrate than a 1080p video, the 720p will view better in almost every scenario.
I don't know at what point the Note 3 will be unable to support smooth playback, but depending on what format you have encoded your videos will determine the quality. What I do know is that bluray level bitrate if far too high for the Note 3. I would take a guess that somewhere between 3000 - 4000 kbps would be the limited to what the hardware could handle but I could be mistaken. What I do know is that using MP4 (or MKV with MP4 encoding) at around 2k kbps is close to the same visual quality (on smaller screens) as any container using H.264 encoding at 3k-4k kbps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I encode most of my videos in MKV format which is why the bitrate is already high enough. Most of my 720p videos have a bitrate of around 2k-2.5k and that's good enough for me. Most of the 1080p videos are almost triple that amount so I guess it's not surprising that the Note 3 will have some hiccup here and there. Not to mention the size of the files are almost 3-4 times big which isn't really ideal for my small storage.
Anyway, thanks for the helpful reply. Wish I can do HW+ decoding with MX player, but alas that's not possible so I guess I will stick with 720p.

TRUE 4k virtual cinema VR with Z5P incoming

i was SO frustrated looking at similar threads here and around the web so i got in touch with CMOAR virtual cinema and asked them if its rendering 4k or just upscaling from 1080p.
It seems like it's just upscaled BUT since in the past they talked about the chance to have it run at TRUE 4k...they answered me and said:
we have prepared special build with 4k support (Rendering in 4k), fps are of course low but I think we will prepare build for public, because we know that many people just like us want to test it
Please send us a reminder at the end of the month
So get ready. We will FINALLY be able to see TRUE 4k. Maybe at 15fps..but that will be the best chance we had so far..in VR. I think there could be the chance to play a movie in the void theater at good fps.
but the main question i have left is...why didn't you do the same months ago?! I would have done it instantly if i had the phone!

d3stroyah said:
i was SO frustrated looking at similar threads here and around the web so i got in touch with CMOAR virtual cinema and asked them if its rendering 4k or just upscaling from 1080p.
It seems like it's just upscaled BUT since in the past they talked about the chance to have it run at TRUE 4k...they answered me and said:
we have prepared special build with 4k support (Rendering in 4k), fps are of course low but I think we will prepare build for public, because we know that many people just like us want to test it
Please send us a reminder at the end of the month
So get ready. We will FINALLY be able to see TRUE 4k. Maybe at 15fps..but that will be the best chance we had so far..in VR. I think there could be the chance to play a movie in the void theater at good fps.
but the main question i have left is...why didn't you do the same months ago?! I would have done it instantly if i had the phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that not what I'm already doing.....?

if im not mistaken you posted this and showed that 1080p or 4k things got smaller but readability was exactly the same (reading the smallest line). Am i wrong? In that case, that's not true 4k
other than that i couldn't find in this whole forum a true list of true 4k applications. It's like looking for gold!!

d3stroyah said:
if im not mistaken you posted this and showed that 1080p or 4k things got smaller but readability was exactly the same (reading the smallest line). Am i wrong? In that case, that's not true 4k
other than that i couldn't find in this whole forum a true list of true 4k applications. It's like looking for gold!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know what you're referring to. If you look at the resolution, it is 4k. When you watch a movie in VR, your virtual void screen is not going to be 4k, it's going to be far less. When my phone is in 4k, the virtual screen resolution is a couple hundred pixels bigger than when at 2k or 1080p.
If it renders in 4k, it's not really going to matter because you're not getting anywhere close to that in void cinema anyways? You're getting about VGA worth of a virtual screen. I think the most important factor with 4k for VR is less screen door effect, not the resolution? Then again, I just started messing with this so I'm not too knowledgeable.

i don't think it works like that..
in virtual cinema now you just have a 1080p resolution upscaled to 4k. SDE has nothing to do with the output resolution and it's going to be the same even outputting at 480p the whole screen.
Even so, putting true 4k in virtual cinema will mean having twice the detail there is now since every pixel will have a "true" color instead of a fake one (with upscaling). That will result in a greater resolution overall.
The only way to really test this out, is with their true 4k output cinema version. Now we're 95% just fooled with upscaling (and as they said 4k will have very low fps)

d3stroyah said:
i don't think it works like that..
in virtual cinema now you just have a 1080p resolution upscaled to 4k. SDE has nothing to do with the output resolution and it's going to be the same even outputting at 480p the whole screen.
Even so, putting true 4k in virtual cinema will mean having twice the detail there is now since every pixel will have a "true" color instead of a fake one (with upscaling). That will result in a greater resolution overall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm not running AAA VR Cinema in 4K, then can you explain why my virtual cinema has a greater resolution then when running the phone at 2k or 1080p? Are you really going to notice that much more detail if you cram a 4k video into a VGA space or a 1080p one into that same space?

i guess the only way to find out would be 3 screenshots, one at each resolution from a 1080p source clip. 4k is twice as sharp as 1080p, for the same portion of screen. That means that something barely readable 1080p will be twice as sharp in 4k. The void size must be the same and 4k would actually display 2x times a 1080p image, not just 200px more

look, you posted these:
https://postimg.cc/image/nrqysn3y3/
https://postimg.cc/image/z5di3uegr/
the second is slightly higher resolution but the output is the same, resizing back the 4k to 1440p you have the same exact image...that's 100% upscaled, no true 4k happening at all, you would see a big difference going up (1440p is nowhere close 4k, it's jus 125% more than 1080p where 4k is 200% 1080p)

d3stroyah said:
look, you posted these:
https://postimg.cc/image/nrqysn3y3/
https://postimg.cc/image/z5di3uegr/
the second is slightly higher resolution but the output is the same, resizing back the 4k to 1440p you have the same exact image...that's 100% upscaled, no true 4k happening at all, you would see a big difference going up (1440p is nowhere close 4k, it's jus 125% more than 1080p where 4k is 200% 1080p)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, the function of that app is only to tell you the resolution of the virtual screen. What's within it is for reference purposes. It's not going to change.

reminder

Anyone know a way to stop the camera from upscaling the video recording resolution?

This has been bugging the hell out of me since I got this phone. All the reviews made such a huge deal out of the phones camera quality and capabilities. But upon using it myself.. I am not all that impressed. When I record a video in say 1280x720, the resulting video always looks like it was recorded in say 800x450 or something along those lines. No matter what bitrate I choose, it looks like a lower resolution. You can't zoom the video hardly without it degrading. Go ahead, try zooming on some text in 720P. Now compare it to 720P on some other phone. Now, when I record in say 1920x1080, the resulting video looks like it was recorded in 720p, not 1080.
I have 720p videos I recorded from my Galaxy S4 that look FAR FAR better than so called 720p on the V20. It seems like the camera on the V20 is UPSCALING the video recording output to the next highest resolution than what is ACTUALLY being recorded. 720p appears as 480p, 1080p appears as 720p etc. As someone who is picky about quality, this has been a major blow since I got this phone. I am surprised no one has ever posted about this.

THE-COPS said:
This has been bugging the hell out of me since I got this phone. All the reviews made such a huge deal out of the phones camera quality and capabilities. But upon using it myself.. I am not all that impressed. When I record a video in say 1280x720, the resulting video always looks like it was recorded in say 800x450 or something along those lines. No matter what bitrate I choose, it looks like a lower resolution. You can't zoom the video hardly without it degrading. Go ahead, try zooming on some text in 720P. Now compare it to 720P on some other phone. Now, when I record in say 1920x1080, the resulting video looks like it was recorded in 720p, not 1080.
I have 720p videos I recorded from my Galaxy S4 that look FAR FAR better than so called 720p on the V20. It seems like the camera on the V20 is UPSCALING the video recording output to the next highest resolution than what is ACTUALLY being recorded. 720p appears as 480p, 1080p appears as 720p etc. As someone who is picky about quality, this has been a major blow since I got this phone. I am surprised no one has ever posted about this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Iv noticed it, but I brushed it off as I felt nothing could be done to fix by me or other devs that I am/was aware of. Now that I think if it more from your words, maybe could be fixed by overclocking the 4k to 6k, or 8k, to get a 4k resolution. Need root to try this though.

Well, at least I'm not the only one who noticed. Is it the same way on Oreo? I mean, did the update "fix" anything related to video recording resolution or is it still upscaled? (I'm still on 7.0 Nougat for battery reasons, but if 8.0 has a video improvement.. well, game changer). This seems like false advertising meant to try and push 4k capability when it really couldn't. If the camera really isn't capturing 4K, then does that mean it would be too much a burden on the hardware to actually be pulling 30 4k FPS ...VS 30 1080P FPS upscaled to 4K?

Are you talking about the quality on Google photos, or the out of camera quality?
have you tried exporting it to your computer via USB? Cos, for some reason the quality and resolution are lower on G Photos.

THE-COPS said:
Well, at least I'm not the only one who noticed. Is it the same way on Oreo? I mean, did the update "fix" anything related to video recording resolution or is it still upscaled? (I'm still on 7.0 Nougat for battery reasons, but if 8.0 has a video improvement.. well, game changer). This seems like false advertising meant to try and push 4k capability when it really couldn't. If the camera really isn't capturing 4K, then does that mean it would be too much a burden on the hardware to actually be pulling 30 4k FPS ...VS 30 1080P FPS upscaled to 4K?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think a burden but more of how's it's coded. 4K on tripod is hard to tell vs 1080p. Note 3 was same way. Oreo cam may be better but I can't really tell. Idk why 16mp is not fully utilized for 4K 16:9 either. Coding that I personally don't know how to do. Slow mo don't even have sound via stock cam.

Lebatman said:
Are you talking about the quality on Google photos, or the out of camera quality?
have you tried exporting it to your computer via USB? Cos, for some reason the quality and resolution are lower on G Photos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera output. That is, the resulting video file from the camera after pressing record button.
I know there is a loss of quality from compression. But it's not compression artifacts causing this. Bitrate doesn't make any difference. You can clearly see the video detail is not even close to what it says it is. I especially noticed this with text. I was recording a video while in a car. There was a car maybe 1-2 car lengths ahead. One can easily read the license plate. In the recorded 1280x720 video, I could NOT make out the plate at all. You'd thought I recorded in 960x540 or close. It's rather blurry. I think that's why LG added all that oversharpening.
I even set it to take photos at 1280x720. And even with high jpg compression zoomed/cropped, it doesn't look like the 1280x720 zoomed/cropped video of the same exact item being photo'd.
Been using Mark Harmons OpenCamera and trying all sorts of video bitrates. Then changing photo save resolution. I found that a photo resolution of between 960x540 and 800x480 (cropped) looks very similar to what a cropped 720P video appears. It seems as if there is some kind of preprocessing going on with the image that makes it appear extremely muddy (smudged blurry detail cropped). Nothing at all changed with the quality whether the bitrate was set at 5Mbps or 50Mbps. Quality remained unchanged.
Mysticblaze347. I don't think a burden but more of how's it's coded. 4K on tripod is hard to tell vs 1080p. Note 3 was same way. Oreo cam may be better but I can't really tell. Idk why 16mp is not fully utilized for 4K 16:9 either. Coding that I personally don't know how to do. Slow mo don't even have sound via stock cam.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like Oreo update isn't worth the trouble. As far as how it's coded... I think it's the awful preprocessing muddying up the image detail as I mentioned above. Using massively high bitrates does no good at all.
4K on tripod VS 1080 on tripod is quite noticeable on the V20 due to the appearance of upscaling (or horrible preprocessing.. whichever it is).
I didn't know Slo-Mo was supposed to have sound. I mean, the option to enable sound would be interesting (say a time-stretched audio instead of slowed down pitch).

THE-COPS said:
Camera output. That is, the resulting video file from the camera after pressing record button.
I know there is a loss of quality from compression. But it's not compression artifacts causing this. Bitrate doesn't make any difference. You can clearly see the video detail is not even close to what it says it is. I especially noticed this with text. I was recording a video while in a car. There was a car maybe 1-2 car lengths ahead. One can easily read the license plate. In the recorded 1280x720 video, I could NOT make out the plate at all. You'd thought I recorded in 960x540 or close. It's rather blurry. I think that's why LG added all that oversharpening.
I even set it to take photos at 1280x720. And even with high jpg compression zoomed/cropped, it doesn't look like the 1280x720 zoomed/cropped video of the same exact item being photo'd.
Been using Mark Harmons OpenCamera and trying all sorts of video bitrates. Then changing photo save resolution. I found that a photo resolution of between 960x540 and 800x480 (cropped) looks very similar to what a cropped 720P video appears. It seems as if there is some kind of preprocessing going on with the image that makes it appear extremely muddy (smudged blurry detail cropped). Nothing at all changed with the quality whether the bitrate was set at 5Mbps or 50Mbps. Quality remained unchanged.
Sounds like Oreo update isn't worth the trouble. As far as how it's coded... I think it's the awful preprocessing muddying up the image detail as I mentioned above. Using massively high bitrates does no good at all.
4K on tripod VS 1080 on tripod is quite noticeable on the V20 due to the appearance of upscaling (or horrible preprocessing.. whichever it is).
I didn't know Slo-Mo was supposed to have sound. I mean, the option to enable sound would be interesting (say a time-stretched audio instead of slowed down pitch).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who wouldn't want sound with slow mo? That's like no sound with regular video lol.
LG also made it to where 4k can barely be done via third party. Gcam can't...Open Cam can. Nothing can be done without root tho. Even then... limitations upon availability and know how. Manual setting is your best bet. Auto is well...auto, so definitely postprocessing will be involved and yes it's not the best, unless fixed with some mod, even if that works. LG hardcoded lockdowns. Camera firmware can be possible tweaked...but I do not know how.