[I don't think this is specific to this phone, but I really don't know where else to put this.]
I need to set up a motion activate d device to "watch" my front door and capture 15 or 30 seconds of video, in case somebody should come in while we're out. I can't go into specifics, obviously, but I believe that the person doing this has a key. If he does it again it would be perfect to have a decent video clip of him while he's doing it. There are numerous apps that will respond to detected motion by capturing stills or video clips, but they all have the same problem: they produce really crappy output. Miserable, in fact. With the last app I've tried, a 30-second video clocks in at 384kb; by contrast, a clip of the same length produced by the stock videocam feature comes out to 15- or 20mb--more than 20 times as big!
So using the stock app as a baseline for comparison, I've been trying out a few apps, with the phone pointed at my front door and starring myself as the intruder. In the videos produced by the third-party app, which are about the size of a postage stamp on my phone, you really can't recognize more than my general stature and and body shape. By contrast, with clips from the stock camera app it seems you can easily see my exact facial features, as with any decent camcorder. Although this week I'm looking for motion activated recording apps, I've noticed much the same kind of thing with *all* camera apps I've ever tried, mostly free apps but also a few paid ones. Silent cam apps, pano apps, motion-triggered surveillance--anything camera-related, in fact--I haven't seen one yet that could utilize more than a tiny fraction of the hardware's capability.
It doesn't have to be a free app--though that would be nice--but is there ANYthing out there that will do the job? What is it about third-party camera apps that makes them all so nearly worthless?
02-25-2014 12:05 AM
