Choppy (low frame rate) 1080p video recording with stock i9505G

[racerex]

I ordered the i9505G directly from the Google Play store. Since day one I noticed that the frame rate during 1080p video recording is pretty choppy. It doesn't seem to be 30fps. I checked the files and sure enough the frame rate is a horribly low 16fps!

So I returned it and got another one. The second i9505G also seems to have the same issue.

I am quite surprised and disappointed because on my GS3 I was able to record in 1080p quite smoothly... and yet on the GS4 it seems choppy. Anyone else have this experience?

 

[Medion]

I ordered the i9505G directly from the Google Play store. Since day one I noticed that the frame rate during 1080p video recording is pretty choppy. It doesn't seem to be 30fps. I checked the files and sure enough the frame rate is a horribly low 16fps!

So I returned it and got another one. The second i9505G also seems to have the same issue.

I am quite surprised and disappointed because on my GS3 I was able to record in 1080p quite smoothly... and yet on the GS4 it seems choppy. Anyone else have this experience?

I just took two short videos, one from each camera. The FRONT facing reports 1080p @ 29.5fps, while the REAR facing reports 1080p @ 16.67fps. Going down to 720p still results in a reported 16.67fps. But, none of my videos were choppy. Even in a side-by-side on Windows, they played back at what seemed to be a similar framerate. I honestly have no idea what's going on.

And I've looked at older videos and they all report the same 16.67fps. So this "issue" existed before KitKat.

 

[racerex]

The front camera is fine. As you mentioned it's able to achieve 30fps.

The issue is with the rear camera which can never get above 17fps. 17fps is a horribly low frame rate. At 17fps most motion appears blurry and/or choppy. I notice this especially when filming my toddler son running and playing.

If this issue isn't resolved soon I'm going to sell this phone. While I love the Google Play Edition rapid OS updates, I hate to say it but the imaging department leaves much to be desired.

 

[Medion]

I did another test. This time I took a 45-second clip at 1080p from each camera. I got 29.445 fps on the rear, and 30.083 from the front. However, this framerate was reported via MPC-HC. The details under file properties lists different numbers. The files were 92.1 and 92.9MB, respectively, which is well within margin of error.

There are a lot of things that you can do that will affect your framerate. I went through my entire collection of stored videos and only found one reporting 16.67 fps, but it seemd to playback just fine.

 

[racerex]

There are a lot of things that you can do that will affect your framerate. I went through my entire collection of stored videos and only found one reporting 16.67 fps, but it seemd to playback just fine.

Any ideas what the main factors are for determining video recording frame rate? I'm really bummed because ~90% of my recorded videos are below 18fps.

 

[Medion]

Any ideas what the main factors are for determining video recording frame rate? I'm really bummed because ~90% of my recorded videos are below 18fps.

I can only speculate at this time, but I suspect lighting is a big deal. There are likely other environmental factors, but low-light situations tend to make the camera "over work" and thus will limit the framerate.