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Help Camcorder Improvements with Higher Class Micro-SDHC?

A

AlwaysAngry

Well-Known Member
the camcorder sucks :mad: ; it's choppy, blurry and grainy and looks like trash compared to an iphone, especially in low light.

will updating the stock class 2 card to a higher class card (4 or 6) improve the recorded video quality?

if you've done this, would you be so kind as to post/link some samples of "before and after" video (if it did improve video quality)?
 
hi there, no put simply, having a higher class memory card has absolutly no bearing on the quality of the hardware eg the camera, the main improvements with higher class memory cards is faster read&write speeds, thats all.
 
voodooochild said:
hi there, no put simply, having a higher class memory card has absolutly no bearing on the quality of the hardware eg the camera, the main improvements with higher class memory cards is faster read&write speeds, thats all.
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my old phone worked better when i recorded to the phone memory rather than the microSD card. i was told that it was a write speed issue with the card.

if the phone can write video faster than the memory card can handle then there would be a problem with the video caused by the memory card not keeping up, not the phone hardware.

i believe the hardware is more than capable of taking good video, that's why i made this post. i'm trying to see if there is some way to improve the terrible video capture quality, because my phone (and my sister's evo) take crap video, WAY WORSE than my other sister's iphone. what is the weak link in the evo?

see what i'm saying now?
 
yeah sorry my bad, i did a bit of research and got my facts straight, yes to an extent your right, 720p records generally around 3mbps, whereas the write speed of a class 2 memory card is about 2mbps, this may be the issue, you, as you say may find better results with a class 4 or 6.
 
i get the same sloppy video no matter what quality i have it set to. so i wonder; would a faster card even make a difference, or is the evo's camcorder just a bust? :(
 
Tempusfugit said:
Low light, through glass, through water, and quickly moving the camera back and forth will lead to bad video yes. Given those variables, I think that video isn't too bad.
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what would you like me to film??? a perfectly still tree in full sunlight? who wants to video that, that's what a still camera is for! :confused: is this camera only descent in perfect conditions?

the light is normal indoor light. i filmed fish which move around to show you the lag.

i also moved the camera SLOWLY back and forth to give you an idea of how poorly it handles movement.

these are normal, every day factors when shooting video and this camera fails big.
 
AlwaysAngry said:
what would you like me to film??? a perfectly still tree in full sunlight? who wants to video that, that's what a still camera is for! :confused: is this camera only descent in perfect conditions?

the light is normal indoor light. i filmed fish which move around to show you the lag.

i also moved the camera SLOWLY back and forth to give you an idea of how poorly it handles movement.

these are normal, every day factors when shooting video and this camera fails big.
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The problem is it can't focus right. Glass glare, water glare, low light are all affecting its ability to focus. Its constantly trying to focus, which it can't do, and that is making everything laggy and poor quality. I don't think an Iphone will do too much better in this situation

There are plenty of videos of moving cars, animals, people, in different light conditions.
 
Tempusfugit said:
The problem is it can't focus right. Glass glare, water glare, low light are all affecting its ability to focus. Its constantly trying to focus, which it can't do, and that is making everything laggy and poor quality. I don't think an Iphone will do too much better in this situation

There are plenty of videos of moving cars, animals, people, in different light conditions.
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this fish scenario is exactly what set me on my quest. my sister sent me a vid of her new fish and when i went over to see it we compared cameras on her tank. the iphone blew me away, it was staggeringly better. i'll stop over her house tomorrow to take the exact same clip with both phones so you can see it too.

also, focus is not the issue. i get the same crap results when "auto focus" is off. so explain away that!

here's the same choppy, blurry and grainy video without "auto focus". and by the way, there is no glare on the glass so i don't know what you're talking about.
http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t113/scatmelee/?action=view&current=VIDEO0018.mp4
 
AlwaysAngry said:
i get the same sloppy video no matter what quality i have it set to. so i wonder; would a faster card even make a difference, or is the evo's camcorder just a bust? :(
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I know exactly what you mean. The camcorder is crap. I shot some vids on christmas and they were horrible. Very hard to watch. Hopefully theres a fix soon.
 
AlwaysAngry said:
here you go, phones are held one on top of the other, taken at exactly the same time. i don't even need to tell you which is which, i'm totally disgusted with the evo's video camera. :mad:

VIDEO0019.mp4 video by scatmelee - Photobucket

IMG_1150.mp4 video by scatmelee - Photobucket

photobucket is killing the video, any way to upload the raw file without the pb conversion?

the iphone is silk smooth on my pc but the evo looks like blurry claymation.
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I'm watching on my Evo and the iPhone is admittedly better, but I don't see a huge enough difference to be angry about. I've taken video of rain that I though came out pretty good. I'm not trying to prove you wrong or make you mad I just think the camcorder isn't that bad,and better than some point and shoots I've owned.

Give the faster SD card a try and try playing with settings. I think you can get decent video out of this phone.
 
i'm glad you're happy with it but i think it's garbage in it's current state, the video i posted is unwatchable, way too big for the quality and worthless. i know it can be improved and tweaked with because i seen some rooted phones taking quality video. :(

i have to stress again that after photobucket converted the iphone video, it really made it look bad. the unconverted iphone file runs like water, it doesn't have any choppiness to it at all. on the other hand, i can't see a difference between the evo video after conversion.

i'm not trying to have an iphone/evo war, i already picked the evo for multiple reasons, ONE OF WHICH WAS A SUPPOSEDLY BETTER CAMERA! :mad: the camera is a main selling point for this phone, what good are the specs if it takes way worse footage than the "lesser" iphone?

i'm insulted by sprint/htc's deceptive marketing and i want a fix for the damn camcorder! unless they make good on their products AND FIX IT, this will be the last htc product i ever buy as i've lost all trust in this company.
 
AlwaysAngry said:
i'm glad you're happy with it but i think it's garbage in it's current state, the video i posted is unwatchable, way too big for the quality and worthless. i know it can be improved and tweaked with because i seen some rooted phones taking quality video. :(

i have to stress again that after photobucket converted the iphone video, it really made it look bad. the unconverted iphone file runs like water, it doesn't have any choppiness to it at all. on the other hand, i can't see a difference between the evo video after conversion.

i'm not trying to have an iphone/evo war, i already picked the evo for multiple reasons, ONE OF WHICH WAS A SUPPOSEDLY BETTER CAMERA! :mad: the camera is a main selling point for this phone, what good are the specs if it takes way worse footage than the "lesser" iphone?

i'm insulted by sprint/htc's deceptive marketing and i want a fix for the damn camcorder! unless they make good on their products AND FIX IT, this will be the last htc product i ever buy as i've lost all trust in this company.
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Regardless of how insulted and angry you feel you have made your point and the question you asked has been answered. Yes upgrading the SD Card can have a positive effect on the camera. It seems to me that this thread has run its course and is going down hill quickly.
 
For HD recording a card with better write performance might help, and playback will always be enhanced with a faster read speed. Bear in mind however that with a tiny sensor and minuscule lens aperture giving both limited depth-of-field and poor low-light performance, any camera in a device as small as a mobile phone will always be a compromise.

Perhaps if users happy with their results shared their settings it would help others?
 
nobody answered the question; they told me that "it might" have a positive effect on video quality. that's an opinion and i've already got one of those (no offense to the kind people offering their help, it's much appreciated! thank you! :)).

what i'm looking for is someone who has actually upgraded their card and can show us the difference to see if it is worth the time, money and effort. (see my 1st post)

MODified by EM

@slug - thank you too, i understand that the equipment has limitations. i have a basic understanding of photography principles and played with all possible combinations of the settings to no avail. i've seen satisfactory results on rooted phones so i know the machine is capable of better video but i'm unwilling to root.
 
The issue you seem to be having is related to the sensor itself - when it goes into lower light conditions, it starts bit-limiting the color range and in that, starts to lag trying to process each frame.

A faster SD card will not fix that, per se.

You are correct to stick to the 480p with H.264 recording - the situation is much worse when using the older, crappy MPEG4 codec.

In higher light conditions, the sensor operates within its ideal regime and the results improve dramatically - for color, for motion smoothness, for actual frame rate - for all of it.

If - that's if - you were to root (and I recognize that you don't want to do this) and add a higher performance kernel (faster) and then tinker with the bitrate settings for video (especially MPEG4) then and only then will you see marked improvement with a higher-speed memory card. But that's a LOT of effort for little gain - the sensor's light sensitivity is the dominant factor.

In high light, at 480p h.264, the bit rate capable from camera to standard sd card is actually about the same as that for my (legal) digital copy of Star Trek.

~~~~~

Slug said it all regarding the necessary outcome and behavior here.
 
You're welcome, and best luck with your vids!

Anything related to my other actions, we don't discuss in public but you can freely PM me if you want. As other users have told me, unlike other forums, the mods here aren't stuck up, we don't bite and we're completely willing to discuss things.

We encourage rather than punish, we guide rather than whack - it has to be fair for all or it's fair for none.
 
I was wondering the exact same thing as the OP. Glad you all cleared that up. Here is my opinion. The Evo's camcorder capabilities are lacking. Thats all there is to it. A man should not have to choose a lesser quality setting to achieve a better quality video. I walked into the sprint store yesterday to pay my bill. While i was in there, i gave the evo shift a test run. The video on that phone is what i should be seeing on my original phone. Its nice. To me, its on the same level (if not better) than the iphone 4 and galaxy s series phones. Last May 2010 I pre-ordered my evo for the June release. I based this on what i was hearing from Sprint, Htc, etc. They got me, lol. I will NEVER do that again. The Shift does 720p right and in h.264 I've given up on the evo. Ill give that to somebody and buy the shift.
 
Welcome to the forums!

So far as I know, the Evo was the first phone to offer H.264 last year on the 480p recordings - if it's also there for the updated Shift at 720p, I'll cross my fingers that it's coming soon to an OTA near me! :)

Meanwhile, we do have an active Evo Shift forum, it's here for you to visit:

HTC EVO Shift 4G - Android Forums
 
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