MMS/PXT Picture quality suck

[AC Question]

I bought a new LG G3 phone and ever since my picture messages are sent after being horribly compressed resulting in really poor quality. I've previously owned a htc one (m7) and currently also own a sony z ultra, none of my other phones have this problem.

I've run some tests on my sony and all the pictures I send get compressed to just under 300kb usually, however on the LG the pictures sent get compressed to around only 100kb.
I've also had a friend send me some picture mms's and they were all around ~270kb. I then saved these pictures and resent it back, the resent pictures were all around 100kb, with very noticeable worse quality.

Thinking this is hangouts causing the issue, I downloaded a third party messaging app which allows for file size adjusting of MMS messages, I set it to 300kb Max but the image still gets compressed to around 100kb.

PS: The G3's stock messaging app would not work after I restored my backup of messages, it would just always crash and hang the phone. So it forced me to use Google's hangouts as my default messaging app.

This is a killing blow for my new G3 to me and I'm on the verge of returning it.
I am missing an obvious solution? Or there is more to this problem? Any help is appreciated.

 

[jmagid51]

Are you using the same carrier for the phones you tested. Who is / are the carrier(s)?

 

[Aquila]

There are three limits to MMS when sent and received. The limit of the app, the carrier and the device. A better solution may be to store the photo in the cloud (Drive, Box, DropBox, etc) and texting them a link to that location. If you're using an automatic backup solution anyways, that'll save your data and keep photos at full resolution.

 

[b0unce]

Are you using the same carrier for the phones you tested. Who is / are the carrier(s)?

yes, I tested using the same sim card and APN settings, im on the Vodafone Australia network. My friend who sent me the test pictures is also on the same network.

There are three limits to MMS when sent and received. The limit of the app, the carrier and the device. A better solution may be to store the photo in the cloud (Drive, Box, DropBox, etc) and texting them a link to that location. If you're using an automatic backup solution anyways, that'll save your data and keep photos at full resolution.

I guess that's the only work-around for me right now but I don't know why I can't get the same results on my LG G3 like on my previous phones and pretty much anyone else that sends me a MMS.

 

[jmagid51]

One additional note here is you should take your photos with a max resolution of 6 MP as the compression really does a number on the high resolution photos. The cameras now a days actually are not the limitation any more.

 

[jmagid51]

I'm curious, can you tell me the resolution you used on the G3 to take the pictures?

 

[b0unce]

I'm curious, can you tell me the resolution you used on the G3 to take the pictures?

The G3 camera app defaults to 10MP pictures. But it doesn't matter what picture I send, whether from the camera or downloaded online or anywhere else, the pictures sent from G3 are blurry and pixilated as for some reason it has to compress them to around 100kb (or way less).

 

[jmagid51]

Something is wrong but it's not with the camera. Can you post a photo here and let's see what an original looks like. Try something less than 10 MP.

 

[b0unce]

Something is wrong but it's not with the camera. Can you post a photo here and let's see what an original looks like. Try something less than 10 MP.

3MP original:


Saved imaged after MMS:

 

[jmagid51]

Given the way the carriers do compression I'd say there is no appreciable difference. Maybe others can comment here. 3 MP looks like an ideal setting if your going to use any MMS messaging system.

 

[b0unce]

Given the way the carriers do compression I'd say there is no appreciable difference. Maybe others can comment here. 3 MP looks like an ideal setting if your going to use any MMS messaging system.

Thank you for taking your time to help.
Forget about the camera for now, here are some screenshots I took in the phone.

Before MMS

After MMS

 

[jmagid51]

Did you disable the stock message app? If you did try disabling your current message app and go back to the stock app after clearing the cache and data on the current system. To be honest I've never seen this problem before ....

 

[jmagid51]

Another solution may be to use Handcents as a messaging app. I've used it and overall it's the best one if you send lots of MMS messages. That my be a solution as well.

 

[b0unce]

Another solution may be to use Handcents as a messaging app. I've used it and overall it's the best one if you send lots of MMS messages. That my be a solution as well.

That's funny cause the screenshots above were from handcents

Did you disable the stock message app? If you did try disabling your current message app and go back to the stock app after clearing the cache and data on the current system. To be honest I've never seen this problem before ....

yes my stock messaging app is not the default app, as I mentioned before it kept crashing so I switched the default app to Hangouts. After having 6 Android phones over the last 6 years, this is a first for me too.

 

[jmagid51]

It actually may be a display issue then. How is the display when you use other applications like email or a Word like documentation app?

 

[b0unce]

It actually may be a display issue then. How is the display when you use other applications like email or a Word like documentation app?

The display looks great; text, videos and all. Probably the best thing about this phone is its screen.