Poor Video Quality

[dfeicke]

My Samsung Galaxy S has very good photo quality, but the video quality leaves something to be desired.

In normal resolution, the clarity is acceptable, but when zooming in, it gets blurry. With only a 4X zoom, I'd think this wouldn't happen.

Also, the sound quality is rather poor. Now, this is outside; we had gone down to the gulf coast, to a street festival, and I took a bunch of stills and video clips. Part of the video, was of a band playing Caribbean/Jimmy Buffett, and it was less than spectacular.

I was quite disappointed with aspects of both the audio and video quality of this unit. I know this isn't a "dedicated" video camera, per se, but I've heard mostly good comments about it in the past.

Are there any "fixes" for this....apps or upgrades of any kind........or is this just the nature of the beast ?

 

[Moscow Desire]

At normal you'll be ok. But the zoom feature uses software rendering, and typically you lose a lot of clarity when using software zoom.

With the audio during filming, it's more than likely software /hardware. Audio recording of concerts is usually crap no matter what device. Granted I see a difference between my 2 devices in a normal recording, but with concerts at a distance? Not too good.

Now, there are options. And it's just a suggestion mind you. But, you can root your device and install a custom Rom. Typically custom roms come with very good software for recording. Although it can't replace hardware, at least it can use it to it's maximum potential and fix the zoom issue, maybe even the audio.

 

[dfeicke]

Thanks for the advice!

Now, I'm quite new at this smartphone stuff. Can you explain this "rooting with a custom ROM" stuff?

And thanks again!

 

[Moscow Desire]

There are a couple of Rooting and Rom areas here at AC that contain general info. Suggest taking a looke there and reading a little background info.

Basically, rooting give you access to the Android OS. If you noticed, there are certain apps you can't uninstall on your device, like the carrier apps that come preinstalled (usually not worth much). This frees up space on your device. Also, it allows you to use apps that require root access. These could be anything from a file manager to a screen capture app for example. The best thing, is it will allow you to install most downloaded apps to your SD.Just a couple of the benifits of a rooted device.

A custom Rom is completely different. It's a whole new OS developed by people to maximize the performance of Android. In most cases, battery life is improved as with cpu performance. Plus you usually get a lot better stock apps like camera functions and such. If your phone is popular, there are usually several Roms to choose from.

 

[dfeicke]

Many thanks! I am looking for better performance,but am an old geezer, looking to learn. I was quite disturbed this past weekend, with the overall video quality of this phone. It is supposed to be a good one, but the camera leaves much to be desired. My old Sony flip-phone had 10X zoom, and much better overall video quality, in a much lesser phone.

I will check out the reading materials you told me about, here, and go from that. I would definitely be interested in those roms you were talking about, down the road. Anything I may be able to do to enhance the audio/video performance of this phone (and, in fact,just overall performance), would be great.

 

[Moscow Desire]

Many thanks! I am looking for better performance,but am an old geezer, looking to learn..

Bet you're not as old as me And you can always learn!

And a note to the young pups, any of ya call me grandpa...

 

[dfeicke]

Well that's great! I hate being upstaged by a fourth grader! These little buggers just amaze me at how they blaze thru this stuff. Of course, most of them don't have jobs, or family, or other responsibilites to keep them from spending the whole day on one of these things.

By the way, I was recently informed that I'm soon to be a GREAT grandfather. I still haven't figured out if that's an oxymoron or not.

Thanks again, for your help.

 

[dfeicke]

In the area under the rooting info and techniques, the review of the Galaxy S lists some other phones that evolved from it. One of them is the Fascinate, which Verizon carries. My phone looks and has the same specs as this one.

A rooting technique is shown for the Fascinate. Can I use this technique for mine, if I decide to go ahead and do it?